Razorblade Smile Reviews: Dead Alive!
To close out the week and for tonight's edition of...
Let's take on a horror "Gore-no" classic shall we...
Dead Alive
Info:
Director-- Peter Jackson
Writer--- Stephen Sinclair and Peter Jackson
Starring---
Timothy Balme
Diane Penalver
Elizabeth Moody
Year: 1992 (1993 in the US)
Company: WingNut Films
The Basic Scoop, The Poop, The Lowdown:
In the 1950's in a small suburban town near Wellington New Zealand, Lionel Cosgrove ( Balme) an accident-prone young man from a fallen aristocratic family, lives with his over-bearing mother Vera.( Moody ) Meanwhile Paquita (Penalver ) a recent young immigrant woman, works in the town's grocery store and eagerly seeks the man of her dreams. When the three cross paths at the Wellington Zoo with a rare Sumatran "zombie rat monster" all Hell breaks loose...and the two young lovers must wade through buckets of blood to be together...literally!
What's Pretty Good:
Bare in mind, this is a "Splatterhouse" Zombie-killing gorefest in a reminiscent style of the"Drive-In B-Movie Horror" flicks of yore....and you either like that kind of movie, or you don't. This is not a chick flick, nor a Hitchcokian (heehee I said Hitch....COCK...ian Ha!) psychological thriller. Nor does it pretend to be. You SHOULD know exactly what you're getting with this film.
(I mean, it's called DEAD ALIVE...how much clearer could it be, doofus?? ;) )
THAT HAVING BEEN SAID....DA has quite a few little surprises in store.
I once again found myself asking, "And THIS is from the Dude who did Lord Of The Rings??"
But that's not necessarily a bad thing...particularly in this case!
This really is a well-put-together film...it has a nice "teaser" sequence at the beginning, builds slowly with the zombieage, topping itself more and more, and then finishes off at the end with a grues-awe-some sequence of gore that you'll probably remember as long as you live. ( Put it this way: You'll never look at a lawnmower the same way again!)
It's ridiculously gory...like a traffic accident of coolness you can't quite peel your eyeballs away from. If you've never seen it before you're actually kind of afraid to blink because you might miss something shockingly amusing.
That's another point. This film is more cheeky-gory than anything else. It's not Saw's ancestor...more like Shaun Of The Dead's surly-charming Kiwi uncle, or "Bug's Bunny's Zombie Killer Duck Dodgers". Even as you're seeing splatter on a level that would make any Normie Daywalker like you want to shower afterwards, (It just makes me kinda...hungry actually! Who's got some extreme medium rare steak damnit!!) you can't help but laugh at some of the utter absurd yucks amongst the yuckiness.
I LOOOVE the uncomfortable POV "in your face" camera style that Jackson uses throughout much of this film...and he tends to whip it out (tee hee!) at the "best" worst possible times....you're thinking "Uh, no NOOO.... I REALLY don't want to be THAT close to this guys ewwy undead face....or even....crotch! ;)
Jackson really demonstrates the concept of "resume' versatility" with this film. He did mainstreamers such as King Kong, LOTR, and horror cartoon head cheese with DA....yet did all true to their genre forms!
What Kinda Sorta Really, Really Sucks:
Of course, if you're NOT into cheeky zombie horror flicks, you're not going to like this film. If you DON'T have much of a sense of humor (or even a slightly twisted one ) you're probably not going to dig this film. Which begs the more important question....HOW the HECK did you find your way to my blog?
And why are you naked?? ;)
Oh yeah, maybe it's just me, but it's been awhile since I saw this the first time (in betwixt my FIRST "lifetime" through high school and college and my second! What?? I'm a Vampire...gotta keep up appearances, gee-cracker-dawgs!!)
....but I seem to recall seeing Picqy the love interest gal get bit by one of the zombies towards the end....but I was a bit distracted helping Remmy hold his head up over the barf bag...so I MAY have just been seeing things.. (Poor pointy eared old bastard! ;) ).
But if not, isn't that a plot hole? Inconsistency?? Funny, I don't remember that being there!! :P
Overall Film Grade: A-
Considering I don't really LIKE zombies (I kinda play for the "other team" duhh) there is still a reason DA deserves high marks, a reason that many horror/ movie flickester buffs (including me) consider this one of the classic inspirations to the "new Horror Renaissance era" one of the "essentials" to see.
Watch it you Normie scrub, and you'll know why!!
--Chet
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Let's take on a horror "Gore-no" classic shall we...
Dead Alive
Info:
Director-- Peter Jackson
Writer--- Stephen Sinclair and Peter Jackson
Starring---
Timothy Balme
Diane Penalver
Elizabeth Moody
Year: 1992 (1993 in the US)
Company: WingNut Films
The Basic Scoop, The Poop, The Lowdown:
In the 1950's in a small suburban town near Wellington New Zealand, Lionel Cosgrove ( Balme) an accident-prone young man from a fallen aristocratic family, lives with his over-bearing mother Vera.( Moody ) Meanwhile Paquita (Penalver ) a recent young immigrant woman, works in the town's grocery store and eagerly seeks the man of her dreams. When the three cross paths at the Wellington Zoo with a rare Sumatran "zombie rat monster" all Hell breaks loose...and the two young lovers must wade through buckets of blood to be together...literally!
What's Pretty Good:
Bare in mind, this is a "Splatterhouse" Zombie-killing gorefest in a reminiscent style of the"Drive-In B-Movie Horror" flicks of yore....and you either like that kind of movie, or you don't. This is not a chick flick, nor a Hitchcokian (heehee I said Hitch....COCK...ian Ha!) psychological thriller. Nor does it pretend to be. You SHOULD know exactly what you're getting with this film.
(I mean, it's called DEAD ALIVE...how much clearer could it be, doofus?? ;) )
THAT HAVING BEEN SAID....DA has quite a few little surprises in store.
I once again found myself asking, "And THIS is from the Dude who did Lord Of The Rings??"
But that's not necessarily a bad thing...particularly in this case!
This really is a well-put-together film...it has a nice "teaser" sequence at the beginning, builds slowly with the zombieage, topping itself more and more, and then finishes off at the end with a grues-awe-some sequence of gore that you'll probably remember as long as you live. ( Put it this way: You'll never look at a lawnmower the same way again!)
It's ridiculously gory...like a traffic accident of coolness you can't quite peel your eyeballs away from. If you've never seen it before you're actually kind of afraid to blink because you might miss something shockingly amusing.
That's another point. This film is more cheeky-gory than anything else. It's not Saw's ancestor...more like Shaun Of The Dead's surly-charming Kiwi uncle, or "Bug's Bunny's Zombie Killer Duck Dodgers". Even as you're seeing splatter on a level that would make any Normie Daywalker like you want to shower afterwards, (It just makes me kinda...hungry actually! Who's got some extreme medium rare steak damnit!!) you can't help but laugh at some of the utter absurd yucks amongst the yuckiness.
I LOOOVE the uncomfortable POV "in your face" camera style that Jackson uses throughout much of this film...and he tends to whip it out (tee hee!) at the "best" worst possible times....you're thinking "Uh, no NOOO.... I REALLY don't want to be THAT close to this guys ewwy undead face....or even....crotch! ;)
Jackson really demonstrates the concept of "resume' versatility" with this film. He did mainstreamers such as King Kong, LOTR, and horror cartoon head cheese with DA....yet did all true to their genre forms!
What Kinda Sorta Really, Really Sucks:
Of course, if you're NOT into cheeky zombie horror flicks, you're not going to like this film. If you DON'T have much of a sense of humor (or even a slightly twisted one ) you're probably not going to dig this film. Which begs the more important question....HOW the HECK did you find your way to my blog?
And why are you naked?? ;)
Oh yeah, maybe it's just me, but it's been awhile since I saw this the first time (in betwixt my FIRST "lifetime" through high school and college and my second! What?? I'm a Vampire...gotta keep up appearances, gee-cracker-dawgs!!)
....but I seem to recall seeing Picqy the love interest gal get bit by one of the zombies towards the end....but I was a bit distracted helping Remmy hold his head up over the barf bag...so I MAY have just been seeing things.. (Poor pointy eared old bastard! ;) ).
But if not, isn't that a plot hole? Inconsistency?? Funny, I don't remember that being there!! :P
Overall Film Grade: A-
Considering I don't really LIKE zombies (I kinda play for the "other team" duhh) there is still a reason DA deserves high marks, a reason that many horror/ movie flickester buffs (including me) consider this one of the classic inspirations to the "new Horror Renaissance era" one of the "essentials" to see.
Watch it you Normie scrub, and you'll know why!!
--Chet
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