BRAINDEAD
New Zealand, 1992, 99 minutes, Colour.
Timothy Balme, Diana Penalver, Ian Watkin.
Directed by Peter Jackson.
Braindead is a New Zealand production, co-written and directed by Peter Jackson (Bad Taste, Meet the Feebles). Jackson intends to exploit horror genres - for the horror effect as well as for spoofing. One reviewer referred to him as a splatter master.
Jackson has made the film with a great deal of enthusiasm and the courage of his convictions. It begins in a parody of 1950's Animal Horror with a monkey from Sumatra infecting a whole range of people. Transferred to New Zealand's zoo, the monkey infects the mother of the hero and subsequently the contagion is spread - with the result that the hero has a cellar full of living dead, behaving zombie like, eager to increase their number. When a party is held at the house, this happens and produces a finale full of blood and gore. There is a great emphasis on special effects
The film is made with the blend of skill and spoof that it works quite well as a cult horror satire. Other audiences will not be able to stomach the plot and the effects.
Peter Jackson was to go on to Heavenly Creatures, The Frighteners and The Lord of the Rings.
1.Popular horror, the blend of the spoof and the serious? The cult status of this film?
2.New Zealand production, Wellington settings - and the cliffs standing in for Sumatra? Extraordinary happenings in an ordinary setting? The musical score?
3.The emphasis on special effects, traditional horror with monsters, gore and ooze, blood? Zombies and the living dead? A question of bad taste or not?
4.The title, the focus on the victims, the zombies who are brain dead, the living dead?
5.The prologue and the carniverous monkey, rabbit, the natives (and the spoof of this kind of film)? The scientist, the King Kong atmosphere, taking the monkey back to civilization, the pursuit, the scientist being destroyed? The transfer of the monkey to the Wellington Zoo?
6.Lionel as hero, timid and quiet, his life at home, work? His relationship with his Mum? The attraction towards Paquita, the visit to the shop? Attracted, falling in love? Going to the Zoo - and Mum pursuing, bitten, hurt, illness? His trying to deal with her illness and her bizarre behaviour? The religious couple coming to lunch and his mother's behaviour? Her death, destruction? The funeral - and the behaviour of the priest, his becoming rabid? The nurse and her looking after his mother and her becoming the victim? His using his ingenuity to conceal everything? His uncle and his greed? The will? Having the party, the party guests? The infection of all the guests and their behaviour, an orgy of blood letting? The priest and the nurse, the zombie baby? Its escaping, his pursuing it in the park and beating it - to the horror of onlookers? The build-up to the finale, the confrontation with his mother? Destruction? The ordinary citizen and his overprotective mother - an allegory of reaction against mother love?
7.Mum, at home, her controlling her son? Spoiling him? Her social ambitions, the visitors' meal? Suspicious of Paquita? Going to the zoo, being bitten, gradually becoming rabid? The nurse? Her being put in the cellar? Lionel and his going to the attic, the discovery of the corpse? The memory of his father? The discovery of the truth about his murderous mother?
8.The nurse and her care, becoming a zombie? The priest - and the thugs coming in and his Kung Fu expertise? The funeral? In the cellar, his behaviour, the birth of the baby?
9.The couple representing the committee - the drab meal, the husband's greediness, the bewilderment by the mother's behaviour?
10.The louts and their attack, their becoming zombies?
11.Uncle Les, his greed, lascivious? Attitude towards Lionel, towards Paquita? His escaping the zombies? Finally caught.
12.Paquita, her suitor at the shop, his clash with Lionel? Her love, going to the house? Lionel's mother and the antipathy towards Paquita? Helping Lionel with the zombies? The final pursuit and the ingenuity she exercised to save herself.
13.The film highlighting the fantasy aspects of the cinema, contrived, conventions, audiences enjoying conventions - and the horror presented to excess?
