Dead Alive

Review

Since there are about 2194 cuts of this movie, I just want to mention, this review is of the 97 minute "Unrated" tagged cut (the DVD above).

Now, this movie is often considered 'the goriest movie of all time', directed by the now famous Peter Jackson (Lord Of The Rings . . . that's right) this movie is popular among horror fans, I doubt there's someone out there who hasn't heard of this movie. Honestly, I was let down.

To be completely honest, it took time for me to warm of to "Dead-Alive", the first time I saw it, I was mildly drunk and I had to turn it off pissed halfway through. Watching it with a couple of friends, I managed to see this movie the way it's 'meant' to be seen, I loved it. This is the most objective review I can come up with. Of course, this movie is ONLY known because of the gore, and to be honest, yeah, it's the movie's highlight. It works as a 'halloween' night movie, works as a 'night with the gang' movie, it doesn't work as a 'movie'.

The story half works in its simplicity. Ugly looking rat-monkey, zombies, shitload of sharp objects and plasma flowing like nobody's business. That's about it. The movie is completely packed with quotable dialogue ("I kick ass for the lord!") and downright hilarious lines ("Fernando! Your mother ate my dog!"). Which brings me to it's tongue-in-cheek humor to which, again, it took time for me to warm up to. However, it's undeniably hilarious (I'd be lying if I said I wasn't in stitches during the entire 'park' scene). The gore is so off the wall that it also works as humurous with creative death scenes with completely exagerated geysers of blood. So yeah, I was laughing at both the insane kills and humor.

The movie's directing is pretty damn cool, Jackson did a good job with the extremely energetic directing, with extreme close-ups, crazy camera angles and a shitload of lights and smoke. He didn't pull any punches and he let the gore flow. The pacing is fine but the movie actually lags during its middle section, only to completely flatline with the awful, and I mean awful ending (I could never swallow that monster thing, they the cheesiness too far). The soundtrack is a 'dramatic in a hilarious fashion' one, the cheesy chantings during the priest scene was hilarious. Cheesy but it somehow works (kinda like the entire movie). The creativity is laid thick and most of it is extremely memorable (the baby, the lawnmower scene, etc . . .).

The characters are awfully one-note, really. Lionel is the better character here, but still. the rest of the character only carry the plot along in my opinion. Paquita is hilarious and really REALLY charming (come on! She was pretty damn charismatic) but her role is basically a cheesy subplot, not much (until the final bits). Uncle Les kicked a fuckload of ass (though he was pretty annoying) and that's pretty much it. Everyone does great in the acting department, there's a lot of chemistry among them all.