And this week's Friday night movie has been... Braindead (Dead Alive)!
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Like most of the world, I only knew of Kiwi director Peter Jackson through the Lord of the Rings trilogy. So it is somewhat inevitable that I would eventually take a trip to the low budget horror movies that Jackson was making before he struck gold with bringing Middle-Earth to the screen.
I have previously stated that I'm not a fan of slasher movies because they are populated with idiots - but saying that only misses the point. Because the whole point of slasher movies, and by extension it's cousin-in-horror the zombie movie, is seeing HOW the hapless fools on screen get taken out. And it is to this end that Braindead succeeds: The kills are indeed (and I can't believe i am typing this out) creative, bloody, gruesome and hilarious - and often all at once.
So there is certainly is a lot going for this movie with it's ingenious special effects, bonkers model design, pitch-black humor and enough blood to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool (apparently much of Jackson's pre-Lord of the Rings movies are a lot like this).
But personally, this movie strikes me as someone trying to remake Psycho but instead opted to do it drunk. And is all the better for it.
