Little known fact about Peter Jackson: before he went on to make the award winning Lord of the Rings trilogy and the smash hit King Kong, he made super cheesy horror movies.

Dead Alive, also known as Brain Dead, is Jackson’s most successful venture in the horror genre and it deserves every ounce of its success. It brilliantly merges the horror and comedy genres into one of the most iconic horror movies of the 90s, and it never ceases to be entertaining.

Dead Alive follows the story of nit whit Lionel Cosgrove as he struggles to keep his zombified mother from chomping on the members of a small New Zeland community. The plot is already ridiculous enough, but the characters and the action take that ridiculousness and turn it up too 11.

Throughout the whole movie I couldn’t find one unlikable character. Lional and his love interest, Paquita, play off each other nicely and, unlike most horror movie romances, I found myself routing for them to make it to the end credits. Even the secondary characters are memorable and ooze personality. My personal favorite is the kung fu fighting priest… Let me repeat that, there is a priest that uses kung fu to fight zombies in this movie.

The action sequences in the movie are over the top, goofy and an overall joy to watch. I find myself comparing Dead Alive to a live action cartoon, and the action sequences help reinforce that structure.

Equally as excellent are the special affects. Peter Jackson wasn’t given a billion dollars to make this movie so he was forced to use traditional effects, food coloring for blood and lots of make up, when it came to the more messy parts of the film. And boy is this movie messy.

To put into perspective just how gross this movie is I’ll tell you a story. The climax of the movie involves a zombie house party and a lawn mower. When they were filming this scene a huge red stain got on the roof of the sound stage they were filming on. Nine years later, when Jackson returned to that sound stage to film The Fellowship of the Ring the stain was still there. So it’s safe to say this film isn’t for those with a weak stomach, I even found myself wincing at some of the violence.

I think the best part of this movie is that you don’t need to think about it. It knows what it’s trying to be, a goofy horror movie, and it embraces that title. There’s never a dull moment when your watching Dead Alive. Your always either laughing at the over the top action or wincing at the excessive amounts of gore.

Peter Jackson may be mostly known by his Lord of the Rings films, but, in my opinion, his best work can be found in Dead Alive.