Also known as Dead Alive in the US (and weirdly Your Mother Ate My Dog in Spain), this early nineties gross-out was one of the first films from Peter Jackson. Borrowing elements from Evil Dead II, Jackson substitutes demons for rabid rat-monkeys, sentient intestines and monstrous zombie babies in supposedly the most bloody film of all time - using over 300 litres of fake blood. After the milksop protagonists mother is bitten by a Sumatran Rat-Monkey, she begins to literally fall apart during the dinner party she is hosting. During the meal, her festering wounds squirt a mixture of blood and pus into a bowl of custard belonging to another guest which then, unbeknownst, he eats while complimenting the dessert as creamy. Strangely, the opening scene of Brain Dead depicts a New Zealand poacher catching the rat monkey on the fictitious Skull Island, paying homage to the home of King Kong which Jackson would later return to in his 2005 Hollywood blockbuster. Maybe he has a thing for menacing primates.
