Dead Alive

 

Title	-	Dead Alive
My Admission	-	$3.00
One Line Review	-	Farther Overboard Than Most.

 

Review – 1 part Psycho and the rest is beyond Evil Dead.  Dead Alive is filled with over-the-top ideas and gore.  A haven for blood bathing, Dead Alive is not for the squeamish; actually it’s not for most people at all.

Peter Jackson, the Academy Award winning director of the Lord of the Rings films takes an early directorial nod with this 1992 blood fest.  Dead Alive follows the story of a typical Anthony Perkins like guy, Lionel, and his over bearing mother.  Lionel is a good son.  Living in the high house upon the hill however has its drawbacks and Mother wants hers.  This is the one part Psycho.

This quickly delves into serious carnage and debauchery when Mother is bitten by a Rat Monkey at the zoo.  She’s soon to become the living dead and hungry enough to make more.  Oh, whatever will a good son do for his mother?

The film employs stop motion animation, rubber body parts, and did I mention the ocean of blood.  If you’ve ever seen Evil Dead II – Dead By Dawn you have an inkling of what I’m talking about.  If you loved Evil Dead II then prepare yourself for an exponential upgrade with Dead Alive.  Comedy and gore with a “down under” sensibility.

2 great lines can be derived from this film.

• Your mom ate my dog!
• I kick ass for the Lord.

Then it’s all heads, limbs, and organs.  Grinders, lawn mowers, lamps (this ones kinda cool), and living intestines, Dead Alive even steals the living severed hand long enough to pick someone else’s nose.

Dead Alive is a great cult movie.  Perfect at midnight showings over beers with your friends.  It strikes me as the kind of film that was made at midnight over beers.  It’s fun, I have to give it that but it’s totally disgusting and literally drowns you in it’s carnage.  Sometimes too much is really just too much.

-m-