Release Date: February 12, 1993
Studio: Wingnut Films
Genre: Horror/Comedy
UNRATED  1 hr 37 mins

CAST:

Timothy Balme:  Lionel Cosgrove
Diana Peñalver:  Paquita Maria
                                                 Sanchez
Elizabeth Moody-Mum:
                                    Vera Cosgrove
Ian Watkin:  Uncle Les
Stuart Devenie:  Father MacGruder

In the annals of horror movie history, there are few that are worth the attention that they attract.  One of those movies that is in that category is the horror/comedy Dead Alive.  Directed by Peter Jackson, who would later go on to direct the Lord of the Rings series, this movie has gore, and lots of it, as well as some comedic moments and lines that are quoted by those that have seen it.

The beginning of Dead Alive takes the viewer to some exotic island where a zookeeper and a native help take a Sumatran monkey away to a zoo where the zookeeper works.  Before the crate containing the monkey reaches port, the duo has to evade angry natives and the monkey scratches the zookeeper, prompting the native and the driver to lop off any scratched parts of the zookeeper, which unfortunately for him, includes his head.  After the opening credits finish, the main characters are introduced, as Lionel has to do all of the bidding of his overbearing mother Vera.  One of the things on his to-do list includes filling an order at a store, where he meets Paquita.  Paquita delivers the items to the Cosgrove household, where Lionel and Paquita agree to go on a date to the zoo.  Naturally, this does not sit well with Lionel’s mother and she follows the couple to the zoo, presumably to sabotage the date.  While snooping on her son and date, she gets too close to the Sumatran monkey cage and gets bitten.  Lionel has to take care of his mother, all the while trying to literally keep her together, as parts of her start to fall off such as her skin before a meeting with prospective partners (which get put back into place with cement glue) and an ear falling into the pudding.  Vera eventually dies, but comes back as a zombie, biting the nurse that was taking care of her in the process.  Lionel tries to dig her back up, but is confronted by some hooligans, who get bitten by Vera and come back as zombies, which prompts Father MacGruder to fend them off before he meets the same fate as the hooligans.  Lionel eventually gains control of the zombies and locks them in a room of his house in order to keep Paquita from knowing about them.  Soon, Uncle Les threatens to divulge the secret that Lionel holds in the room and he gains control of the house and throws a big party.  It is there that the real zombie action happens, as the locked up zombies take over once Lionel discovers that the sedatives he had been feeding them were in fact, poison that wasn’t meant for human consumption.

Dead Alive is a rather nonsensical zombie movie that is loaded with tons of gore.  This allows for the movie to fit in some hilarious moments, such as the zombie baby that is spawned from Father MacGruder’s tryst with Nurse MacTavish and Lionel’s subsequent adventures in babysitting the zombie baby, as well as offer moments where the gore is exceedingly excessive, such as when Lionel takes a lawnmower to the zombies.  The Sumatran monkey that is shown in the beginning is perhaps the finest example of claymation gone wrong, which adds a certain charm to the movie.  Dead Alive is not for the weak of stomach, but those that can take the gore will find the movie fun in a campy way.  It’s not original by any means, but the exaggerated manner that the movie takes is more than enough to keep the viewer’s attention until the very end.

Dead Alive

April 14, 2010

Reviewer: Peter

DIRECTOR:

Peter Jackson

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