Peter Jackson directs Timothy Balme, Diana Peñalver and Elizabeth Moody in this New Zealand comedy horror where the residents of Wellington fall victim to the cursed bite of the Sumatran rat monkey.

Peter Jackson takes a few more baby steps away from homemade nastiness towards mainstream respectability. Not that we noticed back then. This was the VHS zombie flick where a man fights a set of intestines, the lawnmower dismembers everyone and you definitely don’t want to eat that custard. Jackson out Tex Averys Raimi here, no mean feat. The Skull Island prologue has a fantastic energy to it, shame about the whiff of racism. The animated rat monkey is a truly terrifying piece of stop motion. The romance is deluded but Diana Peñalver has heat – she brings a sweetness that stops Braindead from being a complete nihilistic parody. The overbearing mother / distracted son dynamic tools around in Hitchcock’s Psycho only with a Kiwi tang. That Father Ted clone “kicks ass for the Lord!” Then the baby comes… whoop whoop. Only the final half hour party massacre betrays the relentless pace. If Braindead showed just a little editorial restraint and lost 10 minutes then it would be a late night classic.

8

Perfect Double Bill: Bad Taste (1987)

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