Braindead = Dead alive (D)

New Zealand director Peter Jackson has aptly described “Braindead’s” anarchic style as splatstick, an outrageous melding of extreme gore and physical humour. While it does go to great lengths to gross you out (you’ll never eat porridge again!), it still finds time to be a rather sweet love story, as well as a titanic Oedipal struggle between mother and son. Set in the latter part of the fifties, “Braindead” concerns momma’s boy Lionel’s (Timothy Balme) feeble attempts to break away from his domineering mother (Elizabeth Moody), while a romance develops between him and local shop girl, Paquita (Diana Penalver). The situation gets messy however when Lionel’s mother is bitten by a strange rat like monkey (captured in a very funny opening sequence) which turns her into one of the living dead. When Lionel’s lecherous uncle Les (Ian Watkin) shows up unexpectedly, all hell breaks loose and soon the place is swarming with zombies.