Sometimes fame and fortune doesn’t have the end results we expect. While some filmmakers might think a lot of awards and recognition might bring them more freedom, I think it has the opposite effect sometimes.
Now, Peter Jackson is an Oscar-winning filmmaker and respected documentary producer. But about 40 years ago, he was a young 20-something aspiring filmmaker working on the weekends and whenever he had the money and resources to make his first feature Bad Taste, an absurd sci-fi/horror action comedy. It took Jackson about four years to film and complete it.
Jackson mentioned it and his followup Meet the Feebles during his Oscar speech. Feebles is an overblown idea of what would happen if The Muppet Show was X-rated behind the scenes. It doesn’t fully work as a full movie.
But in 1992, he made Braindead with his long-time partner (both professionally and personally) Fran Walsh. It went unnoticed a lot but received good reviews. When Heavenly Creatures, a true-crime teen drama with Kate Winslet and Melanie Lynsky became a critical darling during the independent film craze of the 1990s, it brought Jackson and Walsh an Oscar nomination for writing. It also gave Jackson more clout to make The Frighteners which divided critics who probably weren’t familiar with his over the top style from his earlier movies. Now it’s considered a cult classic like Braindead which played in America during the winter of 1993 as Dead Alive. (a low budget thriller with Bill Pullman, Bill Paxton and Bud Cort had been released in 1990 as Brain Dead.)
Dead Alive didn’t make a lot of money in the U.S. because its extreme gore and splatter of fake blood probably kept some theaters from showing it. And a lot of people don’t expect to go see a movie that’s starts off as just another zombie movie and then goes to the extreme with body parts flying everywhere and a German Shepherd is quickly consumed by a zombie as a joke.
Set in 1957 in a suburb of Wellington, the movie borrows from Psycho as it has a meek but likeable Lionel Cosgrove (Timothy Balme) whose life is controlled by his over-bearing mother, Vera (Elizabeth Moody) as they live in their Victorian home which is soon to be put in the spotlight by high society. Lionel meets Paquita María Sánchez (Diana Peñalver) daughter of a shopkeeper, and they immediately have an attraction. They take a date to the Wellington Zoo but Vera follows where she is bitten by a Sumatran rat monkey that she quickly kills by crushing it with her heel.
Vera gets sick very quickly and soon becomes a zombie. Lionel then begins to keep her hidden from guests but it doesn’t work as she turns a nurse (Brenda Kendall) into a zombie after attacking her. And even after she’s discovered to be dead as she’s hit in a traffic accident, she comes back and continues to bite and turn others into zombies to the point that Lionel soon becomes their caregiver.
It’s an outrageous movie that makes me think what would happen if Tex Avery made a zombie comedy in the vein of The Three Stooges. At one point Lionel is trying to run from a horde of zombies but there’s so much blood on the floor, his feet can’t find the traction and he comically runs in place trying to get away. I would even argue that Jackson and company had seen Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead 2 and drew inspiration.
Incidentally, Raimi’s third installment Army of Darkness was released in American theaters at the same time. This might have been why Dead Alive only made about $242,000 at the box office.
But I don’t think some audiences were wanting to see a movie where they’re probably running to the restroom to throw up. And I’m not saying that in a negative way. The gruesome body-horror style makes David Cronenberg look like he’s filming medical surgeries. If you couldn’t take seeing Jeff Goldblum’s body transformation in The Fly, you won’t like this movie.
The outrageous aspect of the violence, such as when Lionel is battling entrails come to life led some ratings and censor boards to view it as too extreme to be taken seriously that it was initially given a “15” certificate by the BBFC before being released with an “18” certificate. It’s been reported that 300 liters of fake blood was used.
It could also be that the comical aspects went over some heads. At one point the nurse zombie gives birth to a hideous mischievous and violent baby after sex with a priest (Stuart Devenie). And the Avery aspect goes to 11 when Lionel takes it to the city park.
For the most part, the plot is simple as most zombie movies are. There’s a revelation in the final act that makes us lose any sympathy for Vera. But it seems Jackson and company’s main goal was to push it as much as they could. He may or may not have ever considered winning an Oscar 25 years ago but the goal seems to be throw as many body parts on the wall and see what sticks.
It may not be a Mother’s Day movie many will want to watch especially before, during and after eating. Reportedly, when it released on video in Sweden, vomit bags were distributed. And if this movie doesn’t make you at least want to throw up in your mouth, it’s not doing its job.
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 