Dead Alive

June 27, 2005

Rated: NR Runtime: 97 min Rating: out of 5 stars

I’ve watched a bunch of zombie movies over the past month, and Dead Alive is easily the goriest of the bunch. It’s also the most hilarious.

Dead Alive begins very much like an Indiana Jones movie, with two archaeologists capturing the Sumatran Rat-Monkey and attempting to transport it off the island. Despite warnings that the Rat-Monkey is cursed, the archaeologists manage to escape even when the natives try to attack them. It turns out that one bite from the Rat-Monkey turns its victim into a zombie. That doesn’t stop the archaeologists from selling the creature to the zoo on the mainland.

(NOTE: Despite Shaun of the Dead’s marketing claims, I believe Dead Alive is the first true attempt at the Zom-Rom-Com genre. To be fair, Shaun of the Dead is the definitive Zom-Rom-Com movie.)

After the Rat-Monkey intro, Dead Alive quickly shifts focus to a young man named Lionel (Balme) and his blossoming romance with a cute girl who works at the grocery store, Paquita (Pinalver). The problem with Lionel is that he still lives with his dominant Mum (Moody). Mum can’t stand the idea of her son falling in love and leaving her, so she spies on Lionel and Paquita when they go on a date to the zoo. But Mum gets a little too close to the Rat-Monkey cage….

Lionel abruptly ends the date and takes his injured Mum home. But she’s not quite the same. Her skin rips off easily; her arm squirts red goop from the bite wound; and, her ear falls off. And all of that happens in one scene!

Lionel tells Paquita he can no longer see her. He’s spending all of his time attempting to keep his zombie Mum hidden away. But then she bites the nurse, then the priest, and suddenly he’s babysitting several zombies, including a baby zombie! And if things weren’t bad enough, Lionel’s uncle (Watkin) invites a bunch of friends over to Lionel’s house for a big party.

The amazing thing about this movie is the way that director Peter Jackson (yes, that Peter Jackson) continually raises the level of gore. The scenes I’ve described above are only the icing on the blood-soaked red velvet cake. The movie steadily builds to a crescendo where Lionel becomes the zombie-slaying equivalent of Beatrix Kiddo. But instead of Hanzo steel, he’s armed with the rusty lawn mower from his front yard. And that’s not even the even the climax of the movie!

Dead Alive is mostly a visual treat, so describing it any further might spoil the surprises. I can assure you that this is more comedy than horror. If you’ve got a sick sense of humor, Dead Alive will be one of the funniest movies you’ll ever see.

Posted by Chris Terranova | Filed Under 5 Stars, Comedy, DVD, Diana Pinalver, Elizabeth Moody, Horror, Ian Watkin, NR, Stuart Devenie, Timothy Balme