Braindead

Life in suburban New Zealand is not very exciting for mummy's boy Lionel (Balme), a quiet man in his twenties until he meets Paquita (Penalver), a charming girl who works in the local store. Whilst spying on the couple during an illicit visit to the local zoo, Lionel's domineering mother (moody) is bitten by a rat monkey and turns into a zombie. And that's about it. Well, not quite. You see Vera attacks other people and they too turn into zombies. And all these zombies have to be dispatched - usually in the most disgusting way possible.

Braindead features non-stop, no-holds-barred, black-as-night humour, and should not be taken in the least bit seriously. There are some extremely memorable characters and some even better one-liners - the best being martial arts expert Father MacGruder (Stuart Devinie), the zombie-fighting vicar, who declares 'I kick ass for the Lord!' as he leaps into the fray. Hi-YAH!

This is, quite frankly, the goriest movie ever made. There are countless mutilations, decapitations and eviscerations. Lionel doesnÕt own a semi-automatic weapon to defeat the zombie hordes so he has to make do with a lawnmower. The film climaxes with the zombies escaping their basement prison and gatecrashing a party, and there follows the bloodiest 30 minutes ever committed to celluloid. In short, a masterpiece of modern splatter-horror - if you have the stomach for it.

Simon C Williams