Search - Dead Alive on DVD

MPAA Rating: NR Content Advisory: Violence, Adult Situations, Not For Children, Profanity, Gore Movie Release: 1992 DVD Release: 09/09/1998 Format: DVD - Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV Audio Tracks: English Subtitles: English, French, Spanish SwapaDVD Credits: 1 Number of Discs: 1 Run Time: 1 hrs 37 mins Studio: Lions Gate Members Wishing: 16 Genres: Comedy, Horror, Horror Comedy

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 Paquita (Diana Penalver) while concealing the fact that his overbearing mum (Elizabeth Moody, in an amazing good-sport performance) is a flesh-eating zombie. (She owes her condition to a bite from a "Sumatran Rat Monkey" at the local zoo.) Complicating matters even further is Les, a greedy uncle (Ian Watkin), who suspects that his sister has died and is eager to occupy her elegantly furnished Victorian mansion. The climax is a housewarming party Les throws to celebrate his "inheritance;" what he really gets is his comeuppance, thanks to his sister and her similarly afflicted zombie pals, who burst out of their basement prison to turn the guests into appetizers. Our hero finally cuts a wide swath through the zombie party crashers with the help of a rotary blade lawn mower, leaving the house awash in blood and body parts in order to save his romance. ~ Tom Wiener, All Movie Guide

Timothy Balme - Lionel
Diana Penalver - Paquita Maria Sanchez
Elizabeth Moody - Mum (Vera Cosgrove)
Ian Watkin - Uncle Les
Brenda Kendall - Nurse McTavish

New Zealand's Peter Jackson is known for his skewed, gross-out films. Dead Alive is probably the grossest film he's made, but it's also the funniest, and the unrated, widescreen presentation on this DVD is a sick, hilarious treat. The video quality is superb. The widescreen transfer is clean and colorful. Jackson's steadicam trickery is allowed to make its maximum effect; the camera zips around every nook and cranny of the stylish settings. Colors do seem a bit muted at times, but this only adds to the clean-cut look of the more sedate scenes. The cookie-cutter look contrasts quite fiercely with the graphic mishmash in other sections of the film. Buckets of blood and comic dismemberments shockingly spill off the screen, and the digital transfer never hampers the horror. The digitally mastered sound fits the visuals to a tee. It's a startling, unusual vision done justice by DVD. As far as supplemental material, the package is lacking. A scene index and a theatrical trailer are the only bonus features. The scene index is split into six screens, allowing instant access to 24 chapters (displayed in full-motion video thumbnails). The theatrical trailer is a full-frame, amusing affair that will either win over uninitiated viewers or turn their stomachs. Dead Alive is a disturbing comic gem, given a respectful, yet bare-bones transfer to DVD. ~ Tim DiGravina, All Movie Guide