Braindead (1992) Review

Braindead (or Dead Alive as they call it in America) is a comedy horror splatter flick released in 1992 directed by Peter Jackson of The Lord of the Rings and Hobbit fame. The film is about a zombie outbreak in New Zealand, Kung-fu priests, blood, love, murder, more blood and even more blood. It had been a while since I had watched a film that made me howl with laughter and cause me to legitimately cringe. Very few films had quenched my thirst for blood and gore and this film nearly drowned me. Unlike other films that go for the gore factor I actually cared about the characters in this one, in any other splatter flick I couldn't even remember their names but with Braindead I wanted to see them pull through and make it out alive, I was genuinely invested. The humour was also spot on, I didn't just laugh I cried with laughter, the over the top gore only added to the comedy. On the note of gore I think it's safe to say that Richard Taylor is the greatest make up and practical effects artist of our times, the effects were stunning and in some scenes I was convinced it was real, every time I looked at an effect I though "how the hell did they do that" if there is a behind the scenes documentary I am going to watch the shit out of it because every little detail clearly had a lot of time and effort put into it and achieved its goal of grossing me the fuck out, and it's hard to gross me out. The only problem I had was that the climax did start to drag a bit but Braindead is still the most fun I've had watching a movie for a long time, it's high up on my list of my favourite horror movies and after the several viewings I know I'm going to have it'll probably get higher and will probably go into my favourite films of all time. It's a lot of fun and you should gather some friends and some drinks and have a bloody good time. 8/10