Braindead (1992, New Zealand)

Loinel Cosgrove, well played by Timothy Balme, lives with his Mum, Vera, played by Elizabeth Moody, in quant 1957 New Zealand. The problem is that Mum is a tyrant, manipulator, and control freak, who does whatever it takes to keep Lionel under her thumb. Everything changes when Lionel meets the beautiful Paquita, played by Diana Peñalver, who is convinced that they were meant to be. This romance sets of a chain reaction that brings conniving Mum to the zoo to spy on Lionel and Paquita. After an infected “rat-monkey” bikes and infects Mum, Lionel does whatever it takes to hide her infection, and its results, from Paquita and the world. Things don’t work out quite the way Lionel was hoping. At one point, after Paquita’s dog runs in and they find it with Mum, Paquita, horrified, says, “Your mother ate my dog!”, to which Lionel replies “Not all of it!” as he pulls the carcass out of Mum’s mouth. Eventually Lionel has to hide a growing number of Zombies from the town, and this is no easy task.

As I do from time to time, I try to reflect and discover what nuggets of learning can be gleamed from the movies I see, so that I might better prepare for the coming Zombie infestation, and here I have learned a few things. (1) If you capture and tie up a Zombie, and sedate it, take the opportunity to then dice it up into a million little pieces, rather than try to keep it quite by feeding it gruel or haggis. You may never have a second chance. (2) It’s difficult to properly cultivate As I do from time to time, I try to reflect and discover what nuggets of learning can be gleamed from the movies I see, so that I might better prepare for the coming Zombie infestation, and here I have learned a few things. (1) If you capture and tie up a Zombie, and sedate it, take the opportunity to then dice it up into a million little pieces, rather than try to keep it quite by feeding it gruel or haggis. You may never have a second chance. (2) It’s difficult to properly cultivate new romance when you have a house full of Zombies waiting for you back home. (3) Never get too cocky when fighting a Zombie, even if you are a priest who can fight like Bruce Lee. Lastly, (4) always keep gas in the lawnmower – it can do wonders on low-lying Zombies.

I liked the movie very much. It was funny, and had a great story line. The special effects were ambitious and generally successful in that these days much would have been CGI, but they were great for the time. The movie is one of the “bloodiest” Zombie movies, or any horror movie, around, and set records for the amount of fake blood used.