Long before Peter Jackson was known as the guy who brought Lord of the Rings to the screen he was known for his B movies. In 1987 he wrote, directed and produced Bad Taste, then in 1989 brought us Meet the Feebles and then in 1992 he wrote and directed what is likely the most gory and bloody zombie movie ever: Braindead which was released in North America as Dead Alive.

Just like several later horror movies Braindead opens with a scientist discovering a rare monkey and attempting to bring it back into the city. Like the rest of the movie this first scene uses a fair amount of humour interspersed with the horror. The scientist threaten off the local natives who want to keep the animal from getting out. After the initial chase scene the scientist ends up being bitten and his guides hack him apart with a large machete. The murder of the of the scientist is bloody and funny as hell.

After we return from the credits we discover that the guides still want money so they take the monkey to the city anyway and hand it over. From there we zoom over to the city of Wellington where Lionel Cosgrove lives with his overbearing mother and Paquita (Diana Peñalver) the local shopkeeper is told by her fortune telling grandmother that she will fall in love with Lionel but that he lives with death. Darkness surrounds Lionel. Lionel and Paquita go out on a date at the zoo and Lionel’s mother, who is spying on him gets bit by monkey. According to the zoo keeper the monkey is actually a Sumatran Rat-Monkey, a hybrid that resulted from the rape of tree monkeys by plague rats. Lionel’s mother first gets sick and then slowly turns into a zombie.

Lionel has to deal with his mother who is a zombie. Instead of trying to kill her he instead decides that it would be better to keep her sedated the entire time. This of course fails and slowly over time he ends up with more and more zombies under his control. Each of them is kept sedated and tied up but hijinks of course occur. Everything happens from the catholic priest and the nurse zombies having sex all the way to zombies turning into super zombies.

Braindeadis another one of those great over the top midnight madness movies that is a real blast to watch with a large crowd. The reason it is such a success is that it is also a pretty smart movie when it comes down to it. The humour is hillarious. The highpoint of which has to be when Lionel takes the zombie baby out to the park. Watching both Lionel’s reaction to the baby escaping and the other mothers at Lionel’s eventual capturing of the baby had me rolling in stitches.

I don’t think any review of Braindead would be incomplete if the lawnmower is not mentioned. Once the zombies are running through the house at full force Lionel comes in to battle them, not with an axe or bat but instead a lawnmower tied upside down in front of him. I have never seen this much blood and gore thrown around. This is a classic scene that just needs to be seen to be believed. I do not think I can do it justice by trying to describe it.

If you are looking to be scared I suggest looking elsewhere. I did not jump once during the movie. What I did do was have a total blast of a time and was laughing my ass off for the majority of Braindead. In many ways I would love to see Peter Jackson return to these smaller B movies. I doubt it will ever happen which is a shame as this one is truly a classic.