Dead Alive

About Dead Alive / Braindead (1992)

Peter Jackson’s Dead Alive (1992), released as Braindead in most countries, holds the distinction of being one of the goriest films ever made—the climactic lawnmower scene alone required 300 liters of fake blood pumped at five gallons per second. Before becoming the Oscar-winning director of The Lord of the Rings, Jackson was New Zealand’s premier splatter filmmaker, and this tale of a mama’s boy dealing with a zombie outbreak caused by a Sumatran rat-monkey represents the peak of his early gross-out genius. The dinner party scene, where the protagonist’s zombie mother literally falls apart while entertaining guests, is a masterclass in escalating comedy horror that has never been topped. Made for $3 million by New Zealand’s Film Commission, the film was a modest theatrical success but became legendary on home video for pushing the boundaries of what practical gore effects could achieve.