Braindead (1992)

Braindead (aka Dead Alive)
New Zealand 1992
Director: Peter Jackson

With Timothy Balme, Diana Peñalver, Elizabeth Moody

IMDb Link

If seeing a film widely known as ‘the goriest ever made’ interests you, keep reading. Part Psycho, part Evil Dead, part farce, Peter Jackson’s Braindead (1992), is an amazingly imaginative and supremely disgusting gorehound’s dream.

Shot in New Zealand on a low budget almost a decade before Lord of the Rings, this horror comedy opens with a dismemberment and decapitation scene and only gets bloodier from there.

Lionel’s a good lad, burdened with an overbearing mother Norman Bates would run screaming from. But it seems that his mum’s been exposed to the bite of a Sumatran rat monkey, which we all know carries the dreaded zombie virus. Soon Lionel’s got quite a handful to take care of, hiding a group of flesh-eating zombies in his basement, a menagerie that includes a rotting priest, his undead lover and their rambunctious zombie baby. And that’s when things get weird.

It seems hard to believe Peter Jackson could go from directing this amazing piece of cult filmmaking to the sweeping and epic Lord of the Rings Trilogy. If there’s one thing that translates from this film to the massively successful trilogy, it’s a love of filmmaking and attention to detail. Even on such a low budget and dealing with a ridiculous plot, Jackson manages to craft an excellent and thought-provoking film.

This film also boasts some of the most memorable sequences in ‘90s horror films. From the amazing Father McGruder (‘I kick arse for the Lord!’) to the infamous five minute ‘lawnmower sequence,’ Braindead is not a film easily forgotten.

Strangely enough, the ‘unrated’ North American release of Braindead, called Dead Alive, is less gruesome than the UK and New Zealand releases. I had never seen the full, uncut version of Braindead until coming to England, instead suffering through the ‘edited’ Canadian release. Unfortunately, the Region 2 DVD print I’ve found is of a much poorer quality than even my NTSC VHS version; here’s hoping there’ll be a complete DVD re-release of Braindead, with restored audio and video and a nice extras package.

So, upon reading this, should you still find yourself debating whether or not to see Braindead, let me offer some advice:

Go see it. Not only can you tell your friends you’ve seen the bloodiest movie ever made, you’ll have a helluva good time watching Braindead.

That is, assuming you can stomach it.

(Originally written in 2004.)

Colin Le Sueur

Cabin Fever (2002)

Cabin Fever
USA 2002
Director: Eli Roth

With Rider Strong, Jordan Ladd, James DeBello

IMDb Link

I always appreciate it when a director attempts to do something new in any horror film. Innovative thought and ideas help to shape the horror genre into something cutting-edge and unconventional. Innovators such as Tobe Hooper, Sam Raimi, and Wes Craven formed, along with others, the new movement in conventional horror films. New ideas are great, but a good movie needs to have more than one interesting idea. Cabin Fever has half of an interesting idea surrounded by 90 minutes of excess fat and bad filmmaking.

The half an interesting idea is as follows: in place of a standard maniac killer such as Jason or Leatherface, a virulent flesh-eating disease is one-by-one infecting and killing a group of young, attractive campers. That, in theory, is the plot of Cabin Fever. In practise, the killer disease takes a backseat to a cast of unnecessarily-colourful secondary characters and their wacky adventures.

This film is stuck halfway between horror and comedy. Unlike previous successful horror-comedies (such as Evil Dead 2 or Scream), the humour in Cabin Fever is smug as opposed to smart and obvious as opposed to subtle. The movie even ends with a bad Shaggy Dog joke, which is both out of place and baffling.

The gore is sub-par, with underwhelming makeup from KNB EFX. Check out From Dusk Till Dawn for one of many much superior makeup outings from this group.

I believe that the main reason for the failure of this film as a good horror movie lies with director Roth. He throws in sloppy references to much more interesting films (a pseudo-homage to the ending of Night of the Living Dead, for instance, and the inclusion of “fake shemps,” a nod to the films of Sam Raimi); acknowledging other directors does not put you in the same league as them.

In summation, Cabin Fever is a bad movie and an especially bad horror movie. I can think of half a dozen other recent horror films I’d rather watch than this smarmy, often boring effort from a director who greatly overestimates his abilities and position in the horror genre.

Colin Le Sueur

Cinderella (2006)

Cinderella
South Korea 2006
Director: Man-dae Bong

With Ah-yung Ahn, Gyu-ryun Ahn, So-min Jeon
Language: Korean

IMDb Link

I must confess at the beginning of this review that I’m not totally sure why this film is called Cinderella. I can certainly make an argument for one or two possible explanations, but there’s nothing that stands out as a clear explanation. I was expecting a modern interpretation of the classic fairy tale but instead this Cinderella turned out to be another entry in the spectral avenger sub-genre of asian horror, albeit with some added depth and social commentary.

Cinderella starts well, with a strong modern gothic tone and lots of style but it falters somewhat through the middle. The film becomes too contemporary, too modern. I like a good mix of modern and gothic style, but in this case the bright, modern sequences water down the dark, creepy gothic atmosphere.

There’s a decent amount of depth to Cinderella, both in the performances and in the narrative. Plastic surgery plays a large part in the narrative and the film has strong opinions on the cost and nature of beauty. Along with this commentary, Cinderella also creates tension and horror through graphic scenes and descriptions of surgery.

In the end, however, Cinderella is an average entry into the rapidly-growing spectral avenger sub-genre. Will this film become the next Ringu or Ju-on? Probably not, but the interesting style and darkly unique subject matter helps separate Cinderella from the rest of the bunch.

Colin Le Sueur

Creep (2004)

Creep
UK/Germany 2004
Director: Christopher Smith

With Franka Potente, Vas Blackwood, Sean Harris

IMDb Link

Horror is created through the establishment and maintenance of tension and dread. Some of the most interesting horror films are those with the simplest of setups: a group of teenagers stumble across a murderous backwoods family; the recently dead arise and attack the living; a videotape will kill you seven days after viewing it. By setting the film in a familiar context, the viewer more easily identifies with the characters and therefore more acutely shares their terror. For the first half of the film, Creep is eerie, claustrophobic and frightening. Unfortunately, this tense mood is broken and the film never quite recovers.

Writer/director Christopher Smith does a good job creating a genuinely frightening situation, drawing on many common modern nightmares. Hinting rather than showing, the first half of the film is all innuendo, menacing shadows and unfocused movement. Smith also chooses the unusual practise of showing the actions of all characters, not just the protagonist. Usually a horror film would leave a character to his or her hidden fate, to be revealed later for maximum shock; Smith shows what happens when a group splits up. This makes for a refreshing change of perspective and helps the film stand apart from the rest of the genre.

However, almost all of the suspense and tension is replaced by gore and depravity in the latter half of the film. Creep stumbles into the common trap of horror films: removing the horror from the viewer’s mind and putting it onscreen. By revealing too much, the film loses much of its effectiveness.

A good effort, but fails to completely deliver on the setup.

Colin Le Sueur