Braindead (1992)
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A young man's life turns into a gory nightmare when his domineering mother transforms into a ravenous zombie after being bitten by a hybrid rat-monkey.
The story
In 1957, a hybrid rat-monkey is smuggled from Skull Island to Wellington Zoo, where it bites a woman named Vera. Vera is the domineering mother of Lionel, a meek young man who is secretly in love with a local shopkeeper's daughter, Paquita. As Vera transforms into a reanimated zombie and begins infecting the city's populace, Lionel struggles to manage the situation. He attempts to keep his mother and other infected individuals sedated and hidden in his basement while trying to maintain a semblance of normalcy for Paquita and her family.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
In 1957, a hybrid rat-monkey is smuggled from Skull Island to Wellington Zoo, where it bites Vera, the domineering mother of Lionel. As Vera transforms into a zombie, she begins infecting others. Lionel, trying to protect his girlfriend Paquita, keeps the zombies sedated in his basement. However, the situation escalates when Lionel's uncle, Les, arrives and mistakes the zombies for corpses, leading to a blackmail scheme. During a housewarming party, Lionel and Paquita accidentally inject the zombies with a stimulant instead of poison, causing an outbreak. Lionel fights off the zombies with a lawn mower while Paquita uses a blender on body parts. The climax occurs as a monstrous Vera pursues them to a burning rooftop. Lionel confronts his childhood trauma regarding his mother's violence, eventually cutting his way out of her stomach with a good luck pendant, causing her to fall into the fire. Lionel and Paquita escape together.
- Original title
- Dead Alive
- First release year
- 1992
- Runtime (minutes)
- 104
- Production countries
- New Zealand
- Original languages
- English
- Directors
- Peter Jackson
- Writers
- Stephen Sinclair · screenplay; Fran Walsh · screenplay; Peter Jackson · screenplay
- Cast and characters
- Timothy Balme · Lionel; Diana Peñalver · Paquita María Sánchez; Elizabeth Moody · Vera; Ian Watkin · Les
- Genres
- black comedy; comedy horror; splatter; zombie comedy
- Themes
- dysfunctional families; mother-son relationships; trauma
- Tone and mood
- gonzo; hilariously disgusting; breezy; good-natured
- Premise and plot tags
- zombie; splatter; black comedy; monster
- Source material / true-story basis
- original story idea by Stephen Sinclair
- Reception
- The film was a box office bomb but received positive reviews from critics and has since gained a cult following, being regarded as one of the goriest films of all time.
- Reported review scores
- Metacritic · score: 54 · scale: 100 · review count: 7
- Production trivia
- The film was Jackson's most expensive project up to that point.; A reputed 300 litres of fake blood was used for the lawn mower scene.; The film was subject to a lawsuit regarding the privacy of a family tombstone.
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
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