Ye'd Be Braindead Ti' Miss It

You know what I find rather entertaining? Besides scaring my gentleman friend with my doll and action figure collection by simply pointing them out to him, I enjoy researching how media producers develop through the years, and how their work shapes their careers (tehe I made a rhyme). It's just fascinating to me how someone can change so much in regards to the likes of genre, yet sustain this uniqueness that one has had since the very beginning, making his or her work so much more wonderful to appreciate.

Well. Someone's resourceful.

 Take one Sir Peter Robert Jackson for instance. Most of us are familiar with his 2005 remake of King Kong, and far more notably his film adaptations of J.R.R Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings trilogy,  and the widely anticipated The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. But before you begin flocking to cinema screens on the day of the 'Apocalypse', please be sure to add Peter Jackson's 1992 film Braindead to your bucket list so that, as you watch Bilbo Baggins frolicking with dwarfs, searching for enchanted jewellery, you can cast your minds back to PJ's good ol' slapstick horror period and, before you know it, your fingers will be in knots in the hopes to see more gore. Well... either that or you'll be thankful with what you have post-splatter period. You spoil sport.

 Braindead, also known as Dead Alive in North America, is set in 1958 New Zealand where we follow fated Lionel Cosgrove (Tim Balme's first lead role) as he attempts to balance his new-found romantic relationship with the lovely Latina, Paquita Sanchez (Diana Peñalver) and caring for his strict, overbearing mother (the late Elizabeth Moody), Vera. Soon, he is purged into the unfortunate situation of having to restrain Sumatran rat-monkey zombies after his mother receives a nasty bite from the wee zoo critter and goes on a bit of a rampage. Not to mention his Uncle Les blackmailing him into giving up his inheritance. He's really not having a great week, this young man.

At least she has her vengeance, I guess.
With her foot. On his head. Poor, wee buggeh.

 There is a lot to love about this wee gore-fest and that most certainly does not exclude the performing talent of the actors. Tim Balme, co-writer and one of the protagonists for Sy-Fy's The Almighty Johnsons, does a fantabulastic job with physical humour from flailing all over the place, rolling and bouncing off the walls and onto trains to swinging bagged zombie-born toddlers in the park in front of onlooking, middle-aged ladies. Even my grandad laughed his socks off at that scene and did every bone in my body proud by doing so. Hell, according to ol' PJ himself, that was his favourite scene to shoot. The zany characters are full of life (snicker); each and every one of them buzzing with uniqueness, coming off with some of the wackiest lines I've ever heard, such as the 'Kung-Fu priest''s 'I kick arse for the Lord!' portrayed by Kiwi actor Stuart Devenie, all the while demonstrating his impeccable martial arts skills which, uh, don't help him for long, I'll say that much.

Relax, it's only raspberry sauce.

 There was one thing that caught me slightly off guard while watching Braindead, and that was the use of the word 'zombie'. Why? Because it's set in the late fifties. So what of it? Well, the word 'zombie' wasn't even used in George A. Romero's, Night of the Living Dead until its sequel, Dawn of the Dead. On that note, it was the one and only mention of the word in the entire film. What could be noted as well was that the person who exclaimed the word was a biker thug, so perhaps he was familiar with White Zombie, the 'first' ever zombie film made in the '30s, predating anything by Romero, the godfather of the modern zombie. I could go into the origins of the word but let's just leave it to the fact that he's an observational B movie fan.

 I don't get tired of this. As a matter of fact, I haven't watched it in quite some time; 'quite some time' being maybe two months or so, which is preposterous if you ask me. It's certainly brought about some funny moments with the gentleman friend exclaiming things like, 'Anya, what the fuck are you making me watch!?'. What am I making you watch, you ask? A romantic, slapstick horror film by Peter Jackson and his wife, Fran Walsh, that's what. In other words, a bloody masterpiece.

Good, ol' PJ with Baby Selwyn.