Film 35 (9/29/2005)

Braindead (1992)

Director: Peter Jackson

Recommended by: Red Beard; Acapelli05; D_Davis

Has Fentablar seen this before?: No.

After a failed first attempt to stomach Peter Jackson's bona fide zombie genre effort, Braindead, I collected myself and made a concerted effort to make it through the entire film. I must say that while I did not actually "see" it all, I certainly heard it all.

Braindead, to put it bluntly, is gross. Of course, it is from the zombie genre, but I've never seen a zombie movie as grotesque as this. Several scenes caused me to gag and retch almost uncontrollably (though I never actually vomited) and I barely managed to stomach much of the remaining scenes.

But that's the point, isn't it? I'm not much of a fan of zombie films but it seems to me that the more disgusting the film is, the better overall zombie film it is. If that is true, then perhaps Braindead is the best zombie film ever made.

It is, however, also rather consistently humorous throughout the story, including several of the grotesque moments, which added a good deal of entertainment to the experience. The film is well directed and the acting suits the genre while not being too over the top cliche. The gore effects are, well, very effective indeed.

Ratings (scale of 1 to 5):

Plot Effectiveness: 4/5. A very good genre film, though I don't much appreciate the genre.

Cinematography/Shot Selection: 4/5. I never knew that entrails could operate entirely on their own - at least, not in that way.

Overall Acting: 4/5. Good genre acting.

Score/Soundtrack: 4/5. I was usually able to know when an extraordinarily grotesque moment was upcoming based on the score - which is a very good, helpful thing.

OVERALL RATING: 4/5

~Fentablar~