Dead Alive –review

Pull harder ladies!

            Oh my sweet, tap-dancing Jesus!  This movie is so damn good.  It reminds me how I felt the first time I watched “Army of Darkness” in college.  It’s not only by far the goriest movie I have ever seen in leaps and bounds but it has a lot of very fun gags in it that work to it’s advantage.  I am shocked that some of these Kiwis are not seen more in other mainstream horror movies or even in Jackson’s other productions.

            It’s a movie set in the 1950s where a man captures a Sumatran rat monkey off of Skull Island.  So I guess even early in his career Peter Jackson liked to reference “King Kong” since this is the Island that they got Kong on.  Plus, it too has spear wielding savages.   Though if you want to know an actual film fact; that particular spot they meet the natives is the spot they filmed the Paths of the Dead in “Lord of the Rings: Return of the King.” The monkey is taken to New Zealand and before long it finds a way to bite an old woman.  I would be remiss to not mention that the rat monkey is awesome looking stop motion by the way.  It’s very creepy looking nightmare fuel.  Best part is according to legend the creature came to be when rats came to the island and raped the tree monkeys.  What the hell?  It’s like something you tell at a campfire.

            So the old woman is this horrible old bitch whose has her son, Lionel on a tight leash.  He is in love with an adorable girl named Paquita who thinks that they are destined to be together because of a tarot reading her Grandmother gave her.  Without spending too much time delving into EVERY little detail the mother dies and comes back a zombie only to make more of the ravenous undead. 

Even the undead need to find a way to save face.

            What makes this tale unique from the millions of other zombie movies like it?  Well it actually is an almost perverse amount of gore.  The final scene does involve a lawnmower attack on a horde of zombies.  There is zombie baby that really does a lot of damage to people.  I know some of you might remember the zombie birth in the remake of “Dawn of the Dead” but that baby was killed before it could do damage.

            There is a kung fu priest.  When Lionel is being attacked, out comes the Priest who says “I kick ass for the Lord.”  And he isn’t lying.  He gives a lot of boots to the head before meeting a bloody end himself. There are tons of zombies and countless colorful deaths to behold.  It all leads up to an interesting climax that can only be described as Freudian.  The effects are just over the top enough to look really disgusting and creepy. Top notch work.

I got a splitting headache...get it?

            Really anyone that enjoys a gory movie will love it.  Or anyone that likes a movie for that silly zany humor that Sam Raimi has in his horror films will flock to this type of wit and charm.  I highly recommend this movie and think it’s completely worth the time to check out.  Not only because it’s awesome but because I challenge anyone to find anything with more gore.