11 Movies You Didn’t Know Were Connected

The original King Kong is Peter Jackson’s personal favourite movie, and he originally tried mounting a remake in the early nineties, before switching focus to The Lord Of The Rings trilogy. When his dream finally came through in 2005 he positively loaded his version with easter eggs and nods to other movies, including one of his own.

The opening scene of his splatter comedy Braindead actually takes place on Skull Island, the mystical lost island from King Kong. During an expedition, a group of explorers capture a Sumatran rat-monkey, a nasty creature they take back to New Zealand for study. The rat-monkey is highly contagious, and when it bites the mother of the main character, she soon turns into a decaying zombie who causes all sorts of trouble.

With such obvious ties Jackson was hardly going to pass up a reference, so in the background of his Kong remake a cage clearly labelled “Sumatran rat-monkey” is seen in the ship’s cargo hold.