Rating: 
Summary: Hilarious and Nasty--AND Stay Away from the "R" version
Review: When I first rented "Dead Alive," I got it from a Blockbuster store. A critic on the front of the box was quoted as saying "This is the goriest and funniest film I've ever seen!" I watched the movie, and wondered how anyone could have found the film "gory" OR "funny." To me, it just didn't make sense, and it seemed just plain stupid and boring. Of course, what I didn't know then was that the movie had been cut, and almost 10 minutes of additional gore was missing. If you think about that, that's a LOT of gore (a death scene takes what, 5 seconds?). SO, since I couldn't find the unrated version anywhere, I ordered it and watched it last night. NOW I see what the critic was talking about. Ironically, by taking out all the gore, Blockbuster simply made the movie more disturbing and strange. WITH all the gore, it's nothing short of hysterical. Here's a small comparison between the R and unrated versions:
1) right away, the first man to be bitten is practically mutilated in the unrated version. He right hand and left arm are seen chopped off. In the R version, neither scene is shown, just him screaming.
2) the "lunch" scene is MUCH funnier in the unrated version. Lionel's mother squirts blood into the guests pudding. We watch him eat the pudding. Then her ear falls off into her own pudding, and she eats that, too, sending another guest running to the bathroom. In the R version, we have to imply that she has squirted blood into the pudding, and the ear never falls off (which makes for much confusion later when it's quite apparently missing).
3) when the nurse comes to check on Lionel's mother in the unrated version, the zombie grabs her face. Mother's fingers meld into the nurse's face, and eventually put it backward at a 90 degree angle. This makes for some hysterically disturbing scenes later where she just can't seem to keep her head on straight. In the R version, we see the Mother pop up behind the nurse, but see nothing of the gore. By cutting that violence, though, any future reference to the nurse's head problem is therefore not funny--just confusing.
4) The Party at the end: Where to start? In the R version I saw, the party is a totally confusing, strange, and illogical event. Zombies suddenly pop to life, people run, people fall, and then suddenly Lionel shows up with a lawnmower and everyone dies. In the UNRATED version, I watched in horror and amusement at some of the most grisly, but way over-the-top death scenes I've ever seen. People are beheaded, disembowled, and mutilated. One man's ribs are pulled out while he watches. Another woman is punched so hard from behind that the hand comes through the back of her head and out of her mouth. It's powerful stuff--but much funnier when shown. Bottom line: UNRATED VERSION: 5 stars R Version: 1 star Stay away from the Rated R version!
Rating:
Summary: relentless blood splattering mayhem
Review: Dead Alive takes the zombie movie to new extremes in amounts of excessive bloodshed and chaos. It features massive amounts of brutal violence and gore, and in great detail. Enough blood and mutilated bodies to shock any long time horror movie fan.
This extremely graphic blood fest features some of the most originally grotesque and sick sequences ever, including TONS of spraying blood and flying body parts, a world record amount of dismemberment, disembowelment, multiple decapitations, teeth pulling, a rib cage getting torn out from a body, a zombie's head getting cut off--- kicked around on the floor and then liquified in a blender, a zombie in a meat grinder, a rake thrust into the back of a skull, a lawnmower chopping through a room full of zombies (AWESOME, goriest scene of all time), a monkey's head that gets squashed, tons of internal organs, body parts, puss, goo, slime, and blood spilling everywhere, a zombie's head engulfed in flames, a woman eating a dog, the skin of a head being peeled away from the flesh, a fist going through a head and coming out through the mouth, a zombie cut in half (the upper torso half ends up in the toilet and the legs keep walking on their own), a disgusting animated pile of guts, excessive dead bodies, a heaping pile of severed body parts, rotting zombies, a mutated killer baby, a head attached to spine being whipped around-then the head is smashed like a can of tomato juice, pieces of a woman's head and face falling off, flesh eating, intestines used in every possible way imaginable, outrageous embalming scene (fluids squirt out of the body like a geyser), head explodes like a grape, zombie sex, slashing, hacking, chopping, you get the idea.
No possible way to remember everything. You will never look at pudding the same way again. That's only a small sample of the insanity. This is a gore hound's dream come true, I guarantee it will be well beyond anything you have ever imagined. The cool thing is, 90% of the gore is within the last 20 minutes! The grand finale is so over the top and fast paced, there's no way to put it to words. Let me just say you will have to pick your jaw up off the floor. Top notch effects from Mr. Jackson. This movie makes the gore and violence in nearly every other film look like Little Red Riding Hood. The uncut version (called Braindead) runs an extra 8 minutes and has even more shocking gore. If you like Dead Alive, check out: Bad Taste (from the same director, also full of gore), Return of the Living Dead, Pieces, the Beyond, Re-Animator, Redneck Zombies, and Jason Goes to Hell: the Final Friday, tons of gore in these movies as well. 5 stars for Dead Alive, a must see.
Rating:
Summary: DEAD - ALIVE
Review: DEAD - ALIVE is the horror comedy that carries the reputation of being "The Goriest Fright Film Ever!" Lionel has a hard time takig care of his mother, especially after she's bitten on the arm by a Skull Island rat monkey at the local zoo, now his mother is turning into a zombie. Lionel tries to keep her locked up in the basement, but soon his mother gets out and she goes around turning other people into zombies. Lots of blood and guts start to fly as the movie goes on and soon Lionel takes it upon himself to destroy the zombie population in the neighborhood with the assistance of a lawn mower! I would recommend the unrated version of this movie to horror fans everywhere --- but those with weak stomachs should stay away!
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful
Review: I can't add much to this that the previous reviews did not already say. But I do disagree with Thomas Baldwin's note to the weak hearted: "WARNING this movie is not for the faint of heart it contains scenes of explicit violence and gore! If you do not have a strong stomach get the R rated version." If you have a problem wih excessive gore and violence, you should not watch this movie period, R-rated or Un-rated. This movie tries it's hardest to offend, and for that reason more than any other it will always be considered a classic(unless you consider the zombie kung-fu priest/zombie nurse love scene). With the upcoming "Lord of the Rings" movies coming out, I am curious to see the general audience's reactions to this movie as they dig up the old Peter Jackson films. For that matter that probably applies to all of his older movies, excluding maybe "Heavenly Creatures" and "Frighteners". Come to think of it "Heavenly" was pretty weird also...
Rating:
Summary: Dead Alive (1982) d: Jackson, Peter
Review: Stop: If you haven't seen this movie yet, go to your local video dealer and get it right now, and please avoid the R-rated version. This film single-handedly created the Splat-Stick genre with more on-screen gore than the original Evil Dead (1982), and it has become a treasured favorite in my collection. Originally released as Brain Dead (1992) in New Zealand, the title was changed in North America by Vestron to avoid confusion with Adam Simon's (1990) horror / thriller by the same name. Peter Jackson spent most of his $3 million dollar budget on Pork Fat, Latex, Sisal, Polyfoam, Human Hair, Ultra Slime, Hundreds of gallons of maple syrup, and managed to create an amazing comical, gore feast, zombie flick which sent him on his road to stardom. It is great to finally see this classic released in it's original uncut version on DVD. While Lionel [Tmothy Balme] visits the zoo, a legendary 'rat monkey' bites his mother. As days go on the deadly bite turns Lionel's mum into a walking corpse, who zombifies anyone who crosses her path. He hides his secret from the town and his new love by keeping his mother and her recent victims sedated with animal tranquilzers in the basement. When his Uncle Les throws a wild house party, all the guest are turned into zombies. Realizing that things are now getting out of hand, Lionel straps a lawn mower to his body, in a climatic scene censored from most versions carried by the major video chains, he cuts the zombies into pieces with his lethal lawn care equipment. 300 liters of blood were used in this scene alone. A must for lovers of splatter and gore.
Rating:
Summary: WOW! You THINK you know horror...
Review: If you love the tongue-in-cheek humor of Sam Raimi's Evil Dead movies, AND appreciate the gore in those films, you'll LOVE this. Peter Jackson manages to pull off the delicate balance of out-and-out blood and guts yet keep it FUN rather than oppressive. It is the most imaginative zombie movie i have ever seen. And it gfives me complete faith that he will do a wonderful job with Lord of the Rings. This movie deserves to be discovered.
Rating: 
Summary: "Dead Alive" is the Ultimate Splatter Comedy
Review: Director Peter Jackson writes the book on gross-out comedy in this bizarre twist to the splatter flick. You see, back in 1957 a young zoologist, captured a rare rat monkey on Skull Island and brought in back to New Zealand. Then one day Lionel Cosgrove (Timothy Balme), falls in love with Paquita Maria Sanchez (Diana Penalver) and takes her to the zoo, not knowing that his overbearing Mum (Elizabeth Moody) is following them because she wants to break up the happy couple. But then Mum gets bitten by the rat monkey and dies, only to rise from the dead as a zombie, and starts eating dogs and neighbors, turning them into zombies as well. Leonard? Well, he still looks after his Mum, trying to keep her quiet in the basement while trying to lead a normal life and win Paquita. Unfortunately the growing number of flesh-eating monsters is menacing the town. Just think of "Dead Alive" as a cross between "The Night of the Living Dead" and "The Lawnmower Man" as directed by the Farrelly Brothers and you pretty much have this one nailed down. I think you have to appreciate the irony that this "comedy" will get to you more than the vast majority of straight horror films. Jackson pushes the pedal to the floor for the last half hour of this film, which has more blood and guts than every film even made by Hammer Studios put together (actually, it is a lot more than that). This 1992 New Zealand film is also known as "Brain Dead," which is a funnier title even if it does not really fit the film. Be warned: This is not a date flick (unless your guy has a really strong stomach).
Rating:
Summary: DEAD ALIVE
Review: First, let's get one thing straight: This is not a horror movie, and it's not intended to be a horror movie. It's a comedy, ok? Yes, it is probably the goriest movie ever made, but it's use of blood and violence is so completely over the top, it crosses into the realm of hilarious by fifty Sumarian rat monkeys' heads. I generally try to avoid overly gorey movies myself (I'm not particularly sensitive or anything, it's just that 99.9% of 'em [... stink]), but "Dead Alive" sort of goes beyond that. If monsters in the basement, kung-fu priests, zombie-babies and alternative uses of lawnmowers seem like your kind of thing, you could do far worse than watching this. On the other hand, those of you looking for high drama and a thought-provoking plot would be best adviced to search elsewhere. The original title, "Braindead", is a bit more appropriate I think. Speaking of original, the American unrated version on sale here is not uncut. My copy, subtiteled "Red Edition" (wich speaks for itself, I guess) runs about 10 minutes longer than this version. Probably nothing vital to the plot, but you gore-hounds out there might want to check it out. It was released by a German company called Laser Paradise, and it's plagued by the cheesiest (unskippable) CGI intros I have ever had the misfortune of viewing. Apart from that, it comes highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: "Your mother ate my dog!"
Review: I went with a friend to see this movie at the Music Box Theatre in Chicago, and it blew me away! This is one of the goriest movies I have ever seen. Obviously not for everyone, it was like a live action cartoon. The movie also had a really good story, lots of humor, interesting characters, great special effects, and wicked ending. I would recommend this movie to anyone with a love of comedic gratuitous horror movies, a strong stomach, and a sense of humor.
Rating: 
Summary: Banned in Canada !
Review: In case you didn't know, this movie is banned in Canada.
I decided to rent it while abroad.
The humanity! This is the worst and nonsense horror movie I have ever seen. The gore this movie is supposed to be god at is just terrible bad made. This movie is followed by great hype. Don't trust it. Don't believe me? Then watch it and you will see.
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