Dead Alive (1992)
Directed by Peter Jackson
Starring Timothy Balme, Diana Penalver, Elizabeth Moody, and Ian Watkin
The year is 1957. On the infamous Skull Island, a man is attempting to smuggle out some unstable cargo. This man procured the wicked Sumatran Rat-Monkey, a creature of terrible legend. When he is bit by the caged specimen, his local guides cut him up to stop the rat’s evil from spreading. The guides do, however, collect the money for delivering the cage to a waiting airplane. The monkey is the newest attraction at the Wellington Zoo in New Zealand. Meanwhile, Lionel Cosgrove is in a bad spot. His authoritarian mother controls his life. This makes it hard for her when Lionel starts seeing the local shopkeeper’s daughter, Paquita. Lionel and Paquita are followed by Mrs. Cosgrove on a date to the zoo. While spying on the couple, Mrs. Cosgrove gets bitten by the displayed Rat-Monkey. She immediately takes ill and physically falls apart. When she dies, Lionel does not know what to do. When she comes back from the dead, Lionel is even more lost. As he hides his mother’s new condition, it gets harder to keep the secret from his friends and neighbors. To make matters worse, Lionel’s sleazy Uncle Les starts going after the estate. Soon enough, Mrs. Cosgrove breaks loose and spreads her disease to some random folk. As the infected numbers grow larger, Lionel will have to finally stand up for himself and stop his mother from controlling his life.
Before Lord of the Rings and Peter Jackson’s assent into mainstream movies, he made some pretty twisted flicks in New Zealand. Of all these tasteless, deplorable, and sickening films, Dead Alive is probably his best known early work. It was released under the title Brain Dead and then Dead Alive in North America. This movie manages to blend slapstick comedy and buckets of gore better than Evil Dead 2. Like a deranged Buster Keaton routine, there are some hilariously horrific moments in Dead Alive. There is a scene involving Lionel and an undead baby-monster in a park that is laugh out loud funny. The gore is way over the top, with sentient intestines chasing people and heads splitting open. The battle scene in the main hall of Lionel’s house is one of the bloodiest bits of film I have ever seen. If you ever wondered what a weaponized lawn mower could do to a crowd of zombies, this movie is for you.
The actors all make fine work of the lunacy that is this film. Timothy Balme does a fine job of playing Lionel. You can see the conflict in his face when his responsibilities to his mother get in the way of a normal life. Elizabeth Moody has the part of overbearing mother down and has fun twisting it while undead. The true scene stealer is Stephen Papps as Father McGruder. Papps has a fight scene that is unexpected and extraordinary. This movie has a lot of those kinds of moments. Little things build up to create a series of scenes that are hard to forget, with the ending toping it all off. The final confrontation between Lionel and his mother could make a Freudian scholar spontaneously combust. It is too good to spoil here.
The effects are creative and wonderfully icky. The humor is decidedly devilish and drenched in blood. The enthusiasm for this project can be felt in every frame. Dead Alive is the hidden gem of Peter Jackson’s career. Go find it and take it in, then spread the disease and show it to your friends.
10 out of 10
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