Braindead (1992)

I'm surprised how many people I've talked to only know about Peter Jackson because of The Lord of the Rings or King Kong. Someone once thought I was joking when I told them Jackson got his start making alien and zombie movies in New Zealand. If you haven't seen his early work you're missing out and I recommend you go and watch Braindead as soon as possible. Here in the States you'll find it under the title of Dead Alive.

The catalyst of the film is a rat-monkey that spreads a zombie plague. Rat-monkey? Yes… a rat raped some tree monkeys and created a hybrid monster. I can't make this shit up. The rat-monkey gets captured and put into a New Zealand zoo where it ends up biting the main character's mum, which starts a chain reaction that ends up with a small army of brain dead zombies.

Lionel is a shy momma's boy who gets the attention of a local grocer's daughter, Paquita. She falls madly in love with him but for most of the film he tries to keep her away as he deals with Zombie Mom. You see, he doesn't want to kill her so he tries to keep her sedated with a jug of animal tranquilizer.

Yes, this movie is silly. It's also buckets of fun… and blood. Braindead is the goriest movie I've ever seen. Each scene ups the ante on creatively dismembering body parts. I'd recommend not watching this while eating dinner, although I did. I had to put down my plate in one scene where a sore bursts into a bowl of pudding only to be scooped up and eaten by an unsuspecting dinner guest.

This is a horror classic and holds up as a great movie in its right, but it's especially worth a viewing if you're curious how Jackson got started in the industry.