BRAINDEAD
A film review by Thomas Farmer
Copyright 1992 Thomas Farmer
Some plot spoilers - shouldn't spoil the film in any way.
Did BAD TASTE make you feel like raiding McDonalds after the film? Did MEET THE FEEBLES make you wonder what Kermit *really* got up to after the show was over?
BRAINDEAD, the third movie from Peter Jackson, is the best of the lot. It has humour, adventure, romance, action, and bodily fluids. Lots of bodily fluids.
The film is set in suburban New Zealand in the 1950's. Lionel, a quiet man in his twenties (?), lives with his domineering mother. Life is not very exciting for Lionel until he meets Paquita, a charming girl who works in the local store. They go to the zoo together and see a strange rat-monkey ("Vicious little shit") that has been brought back from Sumatra and is now in Newtown zoo.
Lionel's mother has followed them to the zoo to spy. While watching the happy couple, she is bitten by the monkey. She falls sick and, after a disastrous social engagement, dies. Unfortunately for Lionel, dying will not let you escape from the poison of the Sumatran rat-monkey and she comes back to life as a zombie!
You can probably guess the plot of the rest of the film. Lionel's attempts to keep the growing family of zombies under control. His failure. The party. The blood. The body parts. The final solution.
This film is more than just a zombie movie. It's more than a hilariously funny splatter movie. It's even more than a love story with zombies playing the bit parts and other stagger-on roles.
From the Rinso soap-powder packet (now discontinued) to the old cars and trams, 1950's New Zealand is portrayed with loving attention to detail. The first shot of the film is of a New Zealand flag waving in the breeze while the national anthem is played. The period feel added a lot to the film and gave it a bit more depth.
The acting is uniformly very good. You can split the characters into two types - the normal people such as the nurse, the rugby bore, the head of the Wellington Ladies Welfare League, and Paquita's father. These people are all very convincing and well acted.
Then we get to the slightly more odd characters such as the reverend martial artist, the Nazi veterinarian, and the mad funeral directors assistant - played by Peter Jackson himself. These over-the-top characters are all played with great verve, but none of the actors go too far - the director's too busy doing it for them!
I thought it was a good sign when one of the credits displayed at the start of the film was for 'Creature and Gore Effects'. The special effects are excellent and can't have been cheap. The blood bill alone would have been horrendous! We see lots of bodily parts, odd fluids, dismembered people, and some really good make up. Some of the zombie effects are excellent - I can particularly recommend the seemingly sentient digestive-system creature.
Overall, the film works very well. Peter Jackson described it as a love story and he's not entirely wrong. It's just that this love story has more bodies than anything since Romeo and Juliet. (Hmmm, what would Shakespeare have done with a modern special effects budget?)
See this film! On the -4 to +4 scale, I give it a high +3.
By the way, Peter Jackson's next film will not be a splatter movie. It will be about the Parker-Hume murder. This is the story of two teenage girls who form a relationship. Their parents become worried and try to break them up. They are not happy about this idea and murder one of their mothers with a large brick. I'm glad to see that we will at least get some blood.
-- Thomas Farmer tfarmer@datamark.co.nz tfarmer@cavebbs.welly.gen.nz
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