Dead Alive

DEAD ALIVE is one of the stupidest movies I've ever seen. By no means is it "brilliant" and by no means is it very good. However, there is a quality to the film that provides as stupid entertainment. For a film that is shoddily shot from low angles, and lacks decent sound editing, for a film that makes itself very self aware in the later parts and is basically a remake of EVIL DEAD II, DEAD ALIVE still manages to be somewhat entertaining. The film concerns a young man still living with his mother. When a girl from the market learns from her clairvoyant grandmother that she is supposed to fall in love with this man, she pushes the issue with him. In no time, the couple is out on a date at the zoo, but the overbearing mother is spying on them. When they go by the monkey exhibit, an insane one from a foreign country bites the mother. She slowly starts to fall apart. Her skin tears off, her ear falls off. Eventually, she dies, but becomes a hungry for blood zombie. In the disgusting and bulbous bad special effects of the late 80's, early 90's, she begins to infect everyone around town. It takes a while for the son to decide that he should destroy these creatures, for he still has some delusion that they're still the people he used to know. But eventually the movie degenerates into some very entertaining splatter-action scenes. One of the funniest, and best, is when the local Priest "fights for divinity" and beats the crap out of the zombies. Now, this film is not without its sadistic side, and it is a little too close to the great EVIL DEAD II to really earn any points for originality. But with what it is it does alright.
Dead Alive: ★★1/2