With its kung fu priest, dead baby gags and flesh-eating zombies, Braindead is the Peter Jackson movie that separates the horrorphiles from the hobbits. Given how Jacksons career turned out after he won Best Director, he maybe shouldve returned to making low budget splatter comedies, but thats another story. Shot and set in New Zealand, Braindead is the most influential zombie comedy since Evil Dead II and you can feel its anarchic spirit in films such as Black Sheep (2006) and Wyrmwood: Road Of The Dead (2014). Like Poultrygeist, its essentially another boy-meets-girl-and-fights-zombies story, but even that film drew the line at baby in a blender jokes. If you remember the film for any one scene, its probably the finale where the wimpy hero mans up and takes on the zombie horde with his lawnmower, cutting a swathe through the bodies while blood and body parts fly everywhere. Hard to believe that the same filmmaker made Heavenly creatures next, which earned him his first Oscar nomination. Which other bloody master-pieces belong on this list? Share your finds and favourites below in the comments thread.
Ian Watson is the author of 'Midnight Movie Madness', a 600+ page guide to "bad" movies from 'Reefer Madness' to 'Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead.'