Before there was Zombieland and before there Shaun of the Dead, we didn’t get much comedy zombie movies. Sure, there were some, but not much. However, one movie came along that I think was an underrated classic of the 90s. First off, the movie was directed by Peter Jackson… yes, the Lord of the Rings Peter Jackson. Before he made Lord of the Rings, he made this movie. And it’s just as good as Lord of the Rings…. Okay, maybe not as good, but it’s still a good movie. Anyway, let’s talk about Dead Alive (Or Braindead if you live outside of North America.





Dead Alive follows the life of Lionel, a sad and pathetic man who lives with his overbearing mother Vera. When Lionel meets the daughter of a shopkeeper named Paquita, Vera starts to get suspicious of him. When she follows them to the zoo, she gets bitten by a rat-monkey, a creature that is the cross between a monkey and a plague carrying rat that was brought from an indigenous island to the zoo. After getting bitten, she becomes a zombie, and Lionel must keep her a secret, as she starts to turn the whole neighborhood into zombies. For a movie about zombies, the story is kinda… silly. Thankfully, this is a big dumb horror comedy with some cartoon-like humor, so it’s supposed to be silly, so I can forgive rat-monkey’s turning people into zombies. But don’t worry, because this movie manages to have some horror elements to it as well.





For a comedy movie, this has to be one of the goriest, most violent, and most disgustingly visual movies I’ve ever seen. People getting torn in half, getting their necks ripped open, having a hand get shoved through the back of their head and into their mouths. Dead Alive has to be one of the most violent movies I have ever seen in my entire life, but the thing is, as violent as it is, it never looks disgusting or scary. It always looks silly. All of the blood effects are over-the-top and done in some of the most hilarious way possible. A zombie eats by having food stuffed down their throat from their dangling head, body parts go flying everywhere back and forth, zombies being swung around and around, a guy has his flesh ripped down straight to his bones, it’s all just silly. The violence and comedy mix reminds of of Evil Dead, which instantly makes this a good movie. And of course, we can’t forget about the classic lawnmower scene. A true classic in the horror genre. That lawnmower is more OP than anything Legolas could do in Jackson’s later films.





Now, was the movie a beloved success back in the 90s. No, not at all. This movie had a miniscule budget of three million dollars. And it didn’t even make that much in the box office. This movie bombed harder than my test scores, and only made back over two hundred thousand. However, thanks to Lord of the Rings, people decided to look into the rest of Peter Jackson’s work, and what we found out was that Peter Jackson made movies… that WEREN’T Lord of the Rings? How crazy is that? And when people saw Dead Alive, they thought it was one of the goriest, funniest, and most creative film at the time. And I agree. It was a lot of gory fun that I really do enjoy coming back to time and time again.





Well, Dead Alive may never get a sequel for how poorly it did at the box office, but at least people have come to accept it as one of the best horror comedies ever made. Is it the greatest zombie comedy film out there. No, not really. There was Zombieland after all, and Shaun of the Dead is an all time classic movie. There are better zombie comedies out there, but Dead Alive is a great movie nonetheless. If you want to see a movie that is just insanely violent and gory, than I really recommend this. And hey, it’s by Peter Jackson, so if you’re sick of just knowing him for Lord of the Rings, than try this out. And also check out Bad Taste. That was also a great Peter Jackson horror movie. Take care


Up next on October Movie Marathon: A thing…… no, the thing.