Another one of those movies that I really should have seen before now, but never got around to. Not really at all what I thought it would be, but far exceeded some expectations.
Dead Alive is really a love story at it’s heart. Lionel loves his mother, he would, and does anything for her. One day he happens to run into Paquita and they instantly fall for each other. Mother wants Lionel to have nothing to do with her, and so the conflict begins. During a trip to the zoo, mother is bitten by a rare “Rat-Monkey” and slowly becomes the undead. Lionel still takes care of her, even after her body starts to become disfigured and rotten. Long story short more and more people become undead until Lionel is forced to take action. Action being, disposing of all the zombies… Including his mother.
Directed by Peter Jackson (yest THAT Peter Jackson) it shows a distinct style of movie that he was known for before LOTR. Think of it as a sort of Kiwi version of Evil Dead. It borrows heavily from Sam Raimi’s editing style and comical slap-stick action. I actually didn’t realize it was Pete Jackson at first, however after I found that out, the forced perspective stuff in this movie made much more sense.
Make no mistake this movie is gory. Like that super over the top fountains of blood and piles of guts and severed limbs kinda gory. It actually got a little tired by the end. Not to say that the movie isn’t good, but it just was a bit much. I liked some of the things they did with the death scenes and the gore, and again it definitely shows an early view of Jacksons techniques used for LOTR.
As it stand, Dead Alive is a cult classic and rightfully so. If you ever wanted to see what Evil Dead looked like if done in another country, this is a fine example. I probably wouldn’t watch it again, but it’s nice to have it in the memory banks.
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