Dead Alive (Braindead)

Dead Alive (Braindead) (1992)

  • 86% of critics liked it
    (29 reviews)

  • 83% of users liked it
    (62,928 ratings)

Director Peter Jackson's second feature cheerfully trumps the gross-out quotient of his splatterfest debut, the appropriately named Bad Taste. The tone is cartoonishly comic, and the premise is simple: The village dweeb (Timothy Balme) is trying to maintain a budding romance with the sweet… More

In Theaters
Feb 12, 1993 Wide
Trimark Pictures

Critic Reviews

  • David Stratton, Variety

    The best to date from Kiwi gore specialist Peter Jackson.

  • , Time Out

    The finale, in which Lionel reduces a horde of flesh-eaters to a mulch of blood, flesh and offal with the aid of a flymo, is probably the goriest scene ever.

  • Stephen Holden, New York Times

    Because all of this looks blatantly unreal, and because the timing of the shock effects is so haphazard, Dead Alive isn't especially scary or repulsive. Nor is it very funny.

  • Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly

    Horror films used to be primordial spook shows, tapping midnight-dark fears. Now they tap bodily goo: rivers of blood, dripping limbs, eyeballs that go pop in the night.

  • R. L. Shaffer, IGN DVD

    Takes a few views to really appreciate, but Peter Jackson's blood-splattered horror masterpiece is a gory good time.

Read all 13 critic reviews

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Fresh (60% or more critics rated the movie positively)

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Featured Audience Ratings

  • Bob S


    Think Greg Kihn's "Our Love's In Jeopardy" video @ 200 mph. Fuck I dated myself.

  • John H


    A hilarious horror romp. Bloody, gruesome and outrageous from start to end.

  • Eric S


    "Dead Alive" is a weird, gory, disgusting movie. It's also pretty funny. As far as zombie films go this is one of my favorites. Peter Jackson pre-LOTR era. It's some brutal stuff.

  • KJ P


    There is funny, there is scary, there is disgusting, and there is gore. This film is the tip of the iceberg in every category. Peter Jackson directs one of the most disgusting films in history, about an animal discovered on Skull island, later used in his "King Kong" film.… More

  • Emil K


    Gory as hell, hilarious and totally out of control. This one is a hell of splatter-fest made by Peter Jackson. Improvement over his Bad Taste and Meet the Feebles, but still a bit all over the place. It has scenes so outrageous that all you can do is laugh out loud. Beware of that… More

Read all 20 featured audience ratings

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Cast

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