Braindead.

Review #2303: Braindead.

Cast: 

Timothy Balme (Lionel Cosgrove), Diana Peñalver (Paquita María Sánchez), Elizabeth Moody (Vera Cosgrove; Elizabeth Brimilcombe as Zombie Vera), Ian Watkin (Uncle Les), Brenda Kendall (Nurse McTavish), Stuart Devenie (Father McGruder; Stephen Papps as Zombie McGruder), Jed Brophy (Void), Murray Keane (Scroat), and Glenis Levestam (Nora Matheson) Directed by Peter Jackson (#1486 - Bad Taste, #1507 - Heavenly Creatures, #1540 - King Kong (2005), #2259 - Meet the Feebles)

Review: 

"The film is basically like a theatrical farce in many ways. Lionel ends up with a problem of having all these zombies in his house, without wanting anyone else to find out about it ...every possible thing that could go wrong, does go wrong."

Well, one needs guts or laughs every now and then. Peter Jackson had actually met Fran Walsh and Stephen Sinclair while in the midst of preparing the short-film-turned-feature debut Bad Taste (1987). Eventually, after the release of his next film Meet the Feebles (as co-written by the group for release in 1989), it finally came to pass with the three doing a script together. Jackson stated his goal of making "a splatter film that non splatter fans can go see", one that freely aimed for cheap laughs because of his liking for comedy and a general interest to entertain people. Made for roughly $3 million over the course of eleven weeks, the movie wasn't an initial hit with audiences (New Zealand is not exactly a populous place), but it eventually grew a reputation for its gore while keeping Jackson on the steady path of filmmaking, as evidenced by his next feature being the biodrama Heavenly Creatures just two years later (Walsh co-wrote that film while Sinclair went on to write, uh, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers [2002] and Russian Snark [2010]). The film runs at 104 minutes, although in its original release it had a few cuts away from its native New Zealand (due to its similarity in title to a film called Brain Dead, the States called it "Dead Alive" for release). 

What, a horror movie that is funny even with plenty of gore? You don't say. This is a warmhearted solid movie that happens to involve a "Sumatran" rat monkey and zombie descendants. You've got an embalmer that shows up for one scene for us to find out he wears a swastika underneath his stuff. You've got a reverend that kicks ass for the Lord. You've got a special-effects laden baby of disgusting nature. And most of all, you've got a climax that ends with plenty of blood and a big mother of a final confrontation that just lets the film end right then and there. It basically runs as a soap opera (set in 1957 complete with an old shot of the New Zealand flag right then and there) and plays everything over-the-top to eager worthiness. The effects were crafted by Bob McCarron and Richard Taylor to go with some miniature work by Jackson, and the blood apparently came from maple syrup, red food coloring and some other strange substance. This was the first film appearance for Balme, who still goes around talking about how enjoyable the experience was in filmmaking. He is tasked with making for a goofy dork that we can follow along with even in the madcap hilarity that arises in a silly performance that in some ways would've been right at home with the familiar slapstick times that happens to handle a heavy lawnmower, although most might also say the baby sequence is just as peak in amusement (you just have to see it to get it). Peñalver plays well in goofy warmth that plays to some of the expectations imposed in reactive timing when the situation requires it, whether that involves the meet-cute (after "foreshadowing" in fortune telling) or the eventual reunion that might as well be a scream-union. Moody is delightful in caustic timing that is quite amusing to play off Balme even when it comes to just being a voice (hence Brimilcombe) after a while, with the lunch sequence being particularly gnarly to play out in casual gutty timing. In a sea of movies with attempts at trying to top each other in effects or films they believe are the genre-savvy film for its generation, sometimes you need something to remind you of what real craftsmanship looks like. As a whole, it is the splatter movie for the entertainer at heart, clearly moving on its own terms in manic energy and glee in entrapping its viewer for a movie that straddles itself onto farce with worthwhile commitment and execution in every scene. 

Overall, I give it 9 out of 10 stars.

Closing up the October part of the schedule with Phantom of the Paradise.

Heavenly Creatures.

Review #1507: Heavenly Creatures.

Cast:
Melanie Lynskey (Pauline Parker), Kate Winslet (Juliet Hulme), Sarah Peirse (Honora Parker), Diana Kent (Hilda Hulme), Clive Merrison (Dr. Henry Hulme), Simon O'Connor (Herbert Rieper), and Jed Brophy (John) Directed by Peter Jackson (#1486 - Bad Taste)

Review: 
"I was reading the script in the back of the car and I turned to my dad and yelled, "I've GOT to get this!". And he replied, "Then you will." And I thought, "Yep, that's it. I'm bloody well going to." And that was it. I was so determined."
"I always thought I'd be in New Zealand doing theater. Everything I've done is greater than my greatest dreams."

It's easy to do a fascinating film about history when it happens in your back yard, or shall we say in the Fourth World. This was the debut performance for both Lynskey and Winslet, with each having been picked after hundreds of auditions for each role and both having acted from a young age (each appearing in plays from a young age along with Winslet appearing in television). This proved an important development for Jackson, who had primarily done horror-comedy films before this (with Braindead being released two years prior). It was his partner Fran Walsh who brought the idea of doing a film about the murders, interested in the obsessive relationship of Parker and Hulme that ended up in one of the most infamous murders that gripped New Zealand in the 1950s. A large majority of the filming would be done at authentic locations in New Zealand, including Victoria Park where the events of that day of June 22, 1954 occurred. Jackson and Walsh did research on the story through interviews with people who knew about Parker and Hulme (both of whom had since long been living under different names) along with utilizing diary entries that the former had written about the friendship.

Ultimately, what we have here is a strikingly fascinating film, careful in its depiction of its outcast focuses with the right sense of understanding and tension to make a riveting psychological drama. Jackson and Walsh deserve credit for not springing into sensationalism or broad generalization, instead going for a sort of surreal treatment within its mixing of reality and fantasy that makes a sort of haunting growth story. The secret weapon of the film is the effects from WETA Limited, utilized to show the fictional kingdom of Borovnia in their latex plasticine glory for the fantasy sequences among other moments such as a morphing garden. It makes a world one could see perhaps sacrificing for in its mythic imaginative quality. In terms of performances, Lynskey and Winslet obviously prove up to the challenge. Lynskey serves herself with a quiet and sort of unassuming intensity, one that drives us in interest over what she is really thinking and saying in the contrast of her life with her parents compared to the growing world of imagination and other passions with her one true friend, which we can find palpable even while batting an eye at the extent of their fantasy. Winslet fits the other side of the coin with flourish and vulnerability that has a great deal of conviction within a role that would've proved challengingly shaky to get a hold of for a weaker actress but feels like putty for Winslet to make for brilliant obsession. They have an interesting bond with each other that springs along with efficiency in displaying their unusually strong bond that deals within macabre romanticism like sisters, which naturally makes the decision at the end all the more frightening. Peirse and Kent round the contrasting corner in parenting, doing well in showing the difference in their treatment of their offspring that lends plenty of repressed curiosity that makes for good tension that isn't one-dimensional. On the whole, what we have here is a fascinating period drama that builds its dark sensibilities with a good deal of understanding and determination that sticks out from what could have been a pure true crime flick, making a clear portrait of troubled imagination come out quite clear for a winner.

Overall, I give it 8 out of 10 stars.