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Dead Alive
Trimark Pictures

8.8 based on 7 reviews Read critic reviews How did we calculate this? based on 9 votes Read user comments Rate this movie

FILM:

• King Kong
• Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The
• Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, The
• Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, The

• Internet Movie Database
• Official Studio Site
• Film Threat Interview with Peter Jackson

MPAA RATING: Not Rated

Starring Timothy Balme, Diana Peñalver, Ian Watkin, Brenda Kendall, Stuart Devenie, Jed Brophy, Stephen Papps, and Murray Keane

On a quiet street, in a small town, pure evil has come to stay. An innocent young man forced to care for his domineering mother finds the task a whole lot more demanding after she's bitten by the cursed Sumatran rat monkey. Passing the point of death, Vera sucks friends and family into her gruesome existence among the living dead and Lionel is sent spiraling into a ghoulish nightmare. Now a crazed zombie, she soon infects enough people to make it difficult for Lionel, still the faithful son, to keep the neighbors from suspecting that something is terribly wrong. (Lion's Gate)

GENRE(S):	Suspense/Thriller
WRITTEN BY:	Stephen Sinclair (and story) Frances Walsh Peter Jackson
DIRECTED BY:	Peter Jackson
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: September 15, 1998  Video: September 12, 2000  Theatrical: February 12, 1993
RUNNING TIME:	97 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	New Zealand

Original title "Braindead"

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

78

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

The "Citizen Kane" of Oedipal zombie-cannibal-right to death-comedy-love stories... So gleefully over-the-top that it's decidedly hard not to gag while you're laughing yourself incontinent... Sick. Perverse. Brilliant.

75

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

A gonzo splatterfest from New Zealand that manages to stay breezy and good-natured even as you're watching heads get snapped off of spurting torsos.

70

Variety David Stratton

Technically, this is Jackson's best to date, with state of the art creature and gore effects by Richard Taylor and prosthetics design by Bob McCarron. There's any amount of dismemberment, disembowelling, beheading, and the like, all of it handled with bloody conviction.

70

Time Staff (Not Credited)

There is good, broad humor amid the very gross gore effects. And when the Living Impaired stalk our hero's home, it's a family reunion out of your bloodiest nightmares. [8 Feb 1993, p.83]

60

TV Guide Michael Gingold

An almost unrelenting barrage of gore, Dead Alive is also a constant assault on the funnybone, a film in which the graphic blood-spilling is taken so far over the top that it becomes hilarious instead of disgusting.

50

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

Ordinarily I don't care for this kind of thing at all, but something must be said for Jackson's endless reserves of giddy energy; perhaps because this is so clearly meant to be silly, he generally avoids the calculated mean-spiritedness of more prestigious directors like Spielberg and Renny Harlin.

20

The New York Times Stephen Holden

Because all of this looks blatantly unreal, and because the timing of the shock effects is so haphazard, Dead Alive isn't especially scary or repulsive. Nor is it very funny. Long before it's over, the half-hour-plus bloodbath that is the climax of the film has become an interminable bore. [12 Feb 1993, p.C16]

The average user rating for this movie is 8.8 (out of 10) based on 9 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Kim W. gave it a9:
As an avid horror movie buff I felt that this movie was incredibly well done. Zombie movies are my all time favorite and this one was awesome! Very gory and bloody; I especially love the ending scene with the lawnmower! Classic!

Hamish G. gave it an 8:
How can you not love this film? Peter Jacksons direction is superb, with great original cinematography and very well paced action scenes and of course the awesome gore done by weta workshops Richard Taylor. The plot is much better then your usual horror fair and the slapstick comedy element will make sure that you come out smiling. Don't believe what people tell you about this film being shocking though, the only way you'd be shocked is if you were a 70 year old women who had never seen a horror movie in her life. Don't get me wrong though, there is a heck of alot of gore in the film, it is possibly the goriest film ever made but it's meant to be a comedy/horror and the gore is funny. If you are squemish you may not enjoy the experiance though. I know when I first watched this film at 11, before I was completely de-censitised I was fairly grossed out by some of the scenes but I still enjoyed it. It's a great film and while you may be able to pick holes in it all day long if you watch it expecting to have a bit of light hearted (maybe not light stomached though) fun then you'll have a wopper of a time.

Ninja Mafia gave it an 8:
[***PLOT REVELATIONS***] Compulsively watchable. Dead Alive has got to be one of the bloodiest movies I have ever seen. What is even more interesting is the fact that the same guy who directed this directed LoTR. Anyway, Dead Alive is about Lionel, Lionels mother gets bitten by a Sumatran Rat Monkey and starts to fall apart, literally. Lionel, not wanting to kill his mother, locks her in the basement and tranquilizes her with some special medecine from what I understand to be a Nazi doctor. Lionels mother eventually gets out, turning some street thugs and her nurse into zombies. There is also a love story going on between Lionel and some other girl, I forget her name. Anyway, the storyline is pretty weak, but there are huge laughs to be found here and there. First off, there is this priest who recites the funniest lines before he starts his made kung-fu on the zombie street thugs. Also, there happens to be a zombie baby (don't ask how it happened, please) who escapes from Lionels barbed wire carriage and almost bites a little girl. Lionel proceeds to beat the living crap out of it right in front of a bunch of elderly women, who thinks it is still a human baby. Those themselves are the most memorable parts in this movie. The last 30 minutes of the movie, however, are pretty sickening. Blood, guts, gore, blood, intestines, blood, decapitation, blood, and anything else really disturbing. Let's just say Lionel knows how to mow down these zombies, literally. He paints the house red with their blood and then some. This movie was pretty disgusting at parts. When Lionels mother starts losing body parts when guests are around, what Lionels mother looks like at the very end of the movie, the part where we figure out how the zombie baby is made (it wasn't that bad really, but it is still disgusting just thinking about it), bodies that have their eyes pop out because they forgot to stop putting embalming fluid in it, these are just the things that I can think of from the top of my head. This movie is a cult classic and for a good reason. While alot of people will be turned off by ALOT of things in this movie, those not easily offended will get a hilarious kick out of this bloody little film.

Bob N. gave it an 8:
Excellent! I saw this again last week after having spotted it a few years ago in the video store. At times prurient, at times amateur, but great fun. There is no valid comparison between this film to any numbered horror flick, including the spoofs. The sheer volume of gore (and the method of distribution) at the climax left me chuckling for days.

Joe P. gave it a 10:
Best Zombie Movie ever made! Quirky humor and Basments of Blood. Gotta love the Dinner!

Ben W. gave it a 9:
Over the top hilarious campy shocking as fucking hell fun, for sure one of, if not THE goriest movie ever made. peter jackson's best movie for sure!

Yes, It's Gilbert Mulroneycakes gave it a 6:
We've only just got this film in the theatres (July 12 2003, fact fans) over here in Britain. Not hard to see why: there's not an original frame in the whole picture. That's not to say it's a terrible film, mind; but that's its problem. It's not a bad film, it's just. Another one to rent then. But not from Blockbuster.

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