Nothing beats the joy of introducing someone to the sublime insanity that is Peter Jackson's Dead Alive. It's lots of fun to see their reaction go from "what the f**k are we watching?" at first to utter entertainment by the time it's over. Even I remember my first time with the flick and, despite it being the hacked up 85 minute R-rated version, it won me over due to its mix of 1950s pureness, morbid comedy, and outrageous set pieces. Suffice it to say when I managed to finally track down the unrated cut (which ran 12 minutes longer!) and got to soak up all the glorious gore gags and blood spraying, I was a fan for life - there's also a 104 minute version out there that goes under the films original title, Braindead.

Following an amusingly gory opening with multiple comedic dismemberments we're introduced to the nebbish Lionel (Timothy Balme) a grown man who is living under the controlling iron fist of his protective mother. During a trip to the nearby market he meets the sweet Paquita (Diana Penalver) who finds herself drawn to his awkwardness. Upon her delivering their grocery order, Lionel asks her to go on a sort-of date with him to the nearby zoo, which doesn't sit well with his spying mum.

The date is going swimmingly until the screams of Lionel's mother cuts through the air. Seems she's been bitten by the ultra-rare Sumatran rat-monkey which kicks all the zombified goodness to come into gear as one little bite has soon transformed her into the living dead. Lionel's problem is about to get worse, though, as mum starts to infect various visitors to the house, a few greaser punks fall victim to an ass-kicking kung-fu priest, and two of the undead spawn a giggling zom-baby. This gives Jackson plenty of opportunity for some over-the-top set pieces and he takes full advantage as we're treated to various body parts ending up where they shouldn't, neck stumps being fed custard, a hilarious slapstick scene where Lionel takes our zombie tyke to the park and an awesome finale where guests at a party being held by Lionel's prick Uncle fall under assault of an army of zombies with only our wimpy hero to save the day.

Dead Alive is so filled to the brim with memorable moments that it's hard to pick out your favourite. Just when you think things couldn't get any more preposterous something comes along to top it. There's just such a kinetic energy to the flick that you sometimes don't get a chance to catch your breath from laughing so damn hard. When paired with Bad Taste it's hard to believe this duo of films were made by the man who'd go on to direct one of the biggest film series in history with the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Instead of channelling the fantasy works of J.R.R. Tolkien like he did there, Jackson has taken the breakneck pacing and comedy of Sam Raimi's Evil Dead films and, somehow, ramped this up to an even higher level of absurdity than on display in Raimi's classic 1987 sequel/remake Evil Dead II: Dead by Dawn.

Hitting just the right tone of naivety and eventual heroism Balme, making his film debut, does his absolute best to not get upstaged by the zombies surrounding him. It's a difficult task to accomplish, considering the main undead have more personality than something not living should have, and he pulls it off well. He still can't compete with Elizabeth Moody as his oppressive mum or Stuart Devenie's priest who likes "kicking arse for the lord!" but is still a likeable dweeb.

After watching Dead Alive for the first time in years it makes me yearn for Peter Jackson to revisit the genre that spawned him, much like Raimi did with Drag Me to Hell, but I know that will never happen albeit his entertaining (and underrated) big studio return to horror in 1996 with The Frighteners. But at least I can be content knowing that he created one of my absolute favourite flicks of the 1990s and, if you somehow haven't seen this, I wholeheartedly recommend you watch this as soon as humanly possible - or I'll have to take back your "horror fanatic" membership card. (Chris Hartley, 11/25/10)

Directed By: Peter Jackson.
Written By: Peter Jackson, Stephen Sinclair, Frances Walsh.

Starring: Timothy Balme, Diana Penalver, Elizabeth Moody, Ian Watkin.