Dead Alive

"Dead Alive" aka "Braindead" (1992, Peter Jackson, Wingnut films, Avalon Studios Limited, The New Zealand Film Commission, Trimark Pictures, PolyGram Filmed Entertainment) is a slapstick horror comedy set in New Zealand. 

Lionel (Timothy Balme) lives with his overbearing, controlling mother, Vera (Elizabeth Moody). Vera is enraged when Lionel falls in love with the shopkeeper's daughter, Paquita María Sánchez (Diana Peñalver), and follows them on their date to the zoo. Whilst hiding, she is bitten by a rabid rat-monkey, whose bite begins to turn her into a rabid, rotting corpse. Lionel tries to hide his murderous zombie mother and carry on dating Paquita, but his mother escapes, causing all kinds of trouble around town and spreading her zombie virus, wherever she goes.

A fun, ridiculous film with zombie babies, guts, gore, lawnmowers and slapstick comedy. It stays firmly in the B-movie realm with cheesy lines, silly action and very fake blood flying everywhere. A genre favourite with deserved cult status.

[Image: WingNut Films, et al]

Hani

Housebound

"Housebound" (2014, Gerard Johnstone, Semi-Professional Pictures) is a horror comedy from New Zealand.

Kylie Bucknell (Morgana O'Reilly) is a troubled young woman with a sharp tongue who turns herself to petty crime with a hapless accomplice. Their actions result in her getting caught and being sentenced to house arrest in her mother's home with an electronic ankle tag. Kylie would apparently have preferred actual prison because her nutty mum, Miriam (Rima Te Viata), and her mother's equally strange boyfriend, Graeme (Ross Harper) are boring her to death.

Her mother is also convinced that the house is haunted, and embarrasses Kylie non-stop by talking about it on radio call-in talk shows. Kylie becomes suspicious that what her mother is experiencing is actually a hidden intruder after she feels a hand grab her from under the stairs in the basement. But she soon begins to share her mother's paranormal suspicions after finding the same creepy, electronic teddy bear cropping up all over the place going through the unnerving death throes of a dying talking toy... The scenes with the bear are just the best!

She makes reluctant friends with the security guy called Amos (Glen-Paul Waru) who is supposed to be monitoring her ankle tag, but he instead becomes roped into the investigation - with his own ghost hunting equipment. Together they begin to uncover what is really going on in her mother's house.

A fun comedy horror with some unnerving bits and one or two nice reveals, "Housebound" was great for four reasons:

• Our lead actress is funny, strong and fairly unflappable as well as unafraid to utter some colourful language
• When it gets gory... it gets GORY
• There are some genuine scares and a good level of suspense built up, despite the tension-breaking humour
• It's relatively unpredictable and the plot is engaging

So if you're sick of tired out zombie comedies or looking for something refreshing to watch that packs a punch but with a smile, then I highly recommend giving this one a try.

[Image: Semi-Professional Pictures]

Hani

What We Do In The Shadows

"What We Do In The Shadows" (2014, Jemaine Clement, Taika Waititi, Paladin Pictures) is the horror comedy about four vampire housemates from the guys behind "Flight of the Conchords".

Four vampires from different time periods are sharing a house in New Zealand in today's modern world. We follow a fly on the wall 'documentary' and get to witness such delights as house meetings, arguments about chores, shopping and recent altercations with their nemesis gang; the local pack of werewolves.

A very entertaining film with some good one liners and a lot of nod-nod-wink-wink references to vampire lore of all types.

I really enjoyed it and, although it's not exactly a 'thoughtful film' or really a horror in any way, it hit all the right buttons and brought a big smile to my wee fanged face. It's smart and cheeky and bound to please anyone looking for some tongue-in-cheek vampire commentary on today's world.

[Image: Paladin Pictures]

 

Hani 

Black Sheep

"Black Sheep" (2006, Jonathan King, The New Zealand Film Commission, Icon Productions) is a horror comedy about killer-zombie-were-sheep.

Henry (Nathan Meister) has a sheep phobia. Which is a shame because he comes from a long line of sheep farmers. He's returned home to the farm to arrange land ownership with his sheep farming brother, Angus (Peter Feeney). Unbeknownst to Henry, Angus has been doing some mad science as well as sheep farming and has created some Jekyll and Hyde style potion which turns sheep into carniverous killers who's bite turn humans into deformed, blood thirsty, man-sheep hybrids. Henry must face his phobia and help fight to restore normality.

A fairly creative concept with a lot of gore and some fun puppetry. Sadly, I just didn't find the farce funny and the script didn't really merit a feature-length film.

The characters were annoying. I get the whole idea that the tree-huggers were meant to be annoying, but really the half-assed hippy banter got irritating after the first half.

The pacing was also not great, and there wasn't enough humour to keep it going.

Not funny, not clever, not engaging. I really don't understand all the online rave reviews out there!

[Image: The New Zealand Film Commission]

Hani

The Tattooist

"The Tattooist" (2007, Peter Burger, Buena Vista International) is a supernatural horror about a tattoo artist.

Jake (Jason Behr) is a trendy tattoo artist who likes to explore tribal designs in his work. After witnessing a strange, ritualistic Samoan tattoo being performed at a convention, he feels compelled to steal the ritual tool and begin to explore the designs and traditions himself.

Unfortunately, he's taken more than he intended and soon finds that he is being haunted by a murderous force which can spread through his tattoo designs from the tool...

A film with an adventurous storyline and some potential, but to be honest, it's not compelling enough. A little stilted, and some parts are just all explanation of the traditions so that the audience can understand, which kind of loses something for the pace.

The special effects are surprisingly good for the budget, but they are ludicrous! There's also a little kid who can speak to spirits... but only when the music is loud and obnoxious in a speeding car... Of course! 

The characters are our usual forgettable horror fodder, the spirit is quite creepy but it seemed like he'd been added in as an afterthought rather than as an organic baddy, and our protagonist is dull and two dimensional...

Interesting concept but, on the whole, not a good film and not a good horror film.

 

 

[Image: Buena Vista International]

 

Hani

 

The ABCs of Death

"The ABCs of Death" (2012, Nacho Vigalondo, Adrian Garcia Bogliano, Ernesto Diaz Espinoza, Marcel Sarmiento, Angela Bettis, Noboru Iguchi, Andrew Traucki, Thomas Malling, Jorge Michel Grau, Yûdai Yamaguchi, Anders Morgenthaler, Timo Tjahjanto, Ti West, Banjong Pisanthanakun, Bruno Forzani, Héléne Cattet, Simon Rumley, Adam Wingard, Simon Barrett, Srdjan Spasojevic, Jake West, Lee Hardcastle, Ben Wheatley, Kaare Andrews, Jon Schnepp, Xavier Gens, Jason Eisener, Yoshihiro Nishimura, Drafthouse Films, Magnet Releasing).

"The ABCs of Death" is a 26-short anthology film, featuring a mini-film each from the above directors (or directive pair in some cases) based around one of the 26 letters of the alphabet. The film is 2hrs long-ish, and to be fair, it doesn't feel anywhere near this long as each short runs quickly onto the next in succession. It is, however, riddled with terrible mini-films which sadly overshadow some of the few really excellent shorts in the collection.

The film starts with a high point or two, but it's a severely mixed bag, and by the end I was glad to see the credits.

Some of the inspirational shorts are creative, violent, spooky, different and could be progressed easily into a full scale film. Some of the good, but maybe more average shorts are pretty standard and could really be thrown in with the likes seen in the latter day "Creepshow" films. Unfortunately there are also a majority of uninspired shorts which verge on the depraved (and not in the good way) and often jump the line into the simply stupid category. As much as the film moves quickly past these short little efforts, they unfortunately stick more in my mind than some of the good attempts.

Lots of toilet humour (although the claymation short was hilarious!), murders, vampires, paedophiles, animals, boobs and randomness. Some good, some terrible. The peaks certainly jump whole-heartedly into the troughs, but a cinematic experience to be had, for sure! Guaranteed you haven't seen anything like this before!

[Image: Drafthouse Films]

Hani