It's all about the aim in this tongue-in-cheek (or should I say, tongue in cranial cavity) shock-horror gross-out fest from early in Pete Jackson's career. It's hard to imagine how Mr. Jackson went from this to incredibly campy comedy of guts and brain chunks to the brilliant Lord of the Rings Trilogy in 20 years, but, if you take a look at the films he made along the way - Meet the Feebles, Heavenly Creatures, Dead Alive, etc - you will see the common threads.
Like most of Jackson's work, this film sets out to make the best possible use of the available talent, sets and budget, and does so with verve. In this case, Jackson worked with very little of these three elements, and yet managed to pull off a hilarious bit of campy horror-comedy, with remarkable no to low budget special effects and plenty of the slapstick (with cow blood and chicken guts) that characterizes most of his early films.
To describe the plot with more than two or three sentences would require spoilers. In other words, there isn't much of one. The film opens with a group of mulleted New Zealand special agent security guys investigating a massacre of an entire village by aliens which first appear to be extras from a living dead movie, then later somehow become more intelligent, agile, and.... inhuman. The film is decorated with an amazing array of creative gore and slapstick death scenes, and once the bullets start flying, the alien's demonstrate their fatal flaw - they have less talent with guns than the average criminal in a Matt Damon film.
To his credit, Jackson knew what he could get away with considering what he had on hand, and didn't try to make a serious film. The camera work is, as always, excellent, and the make-up compliments the absurdity of the plot quite nicely. The result is hilarious, but only if you grock his sense of humor. I would recommend Dead Alive first, because it's humor is more (literally) in your face and obvious. This is definitely worth an evening, but, unlike the rest of Jackson's repertoire, it is a disposable film - worthy of one or two viewings, max.
Like most of Jackson's work, this film sets out to make the best possible use of the available talent, sets and budget, and does so with verve. In this case, Jackson worked with very little of these three elements, and yet managed to pull off a hilarious bit of campy horror-comedy, with remarkable no to low budget special effects and plenty of the slapstick (with cow blood and chicken guts) that characterizes most of his early films.
To describe the plot with more than two or three sentences would require spoilers. In other words, there isn't much of one. The film opens with a group of mulleted New Zealand special agent security guys investigating a massacre of an entire village by aliens which first appear to be extras from a living dead movie, then later somehow become more intelligent, agile, and.... inhuman. The film is decorated with an amazing array of creative gore and slapstick death scenes, and once the bullets start flying, the alien's demonstrate their fatal flaw - they have less talent with guns than the average criminal in a Matt Damon film.
To his credit, Jackson knew what he could get away with considering what he had on hand, and didn't try to make a serious film. The camera work is, as always, excellent, and the make-up compliments the absurdity of the plot quite nicely. The result is hilarious, but only if you grock his sense of humor. I would recommend Dead Alive first, because it's humor is more (literally) in your face and obvious. This is definitely worth an evening, but, unlike the rest of Jackson's repertoire, it is a disposable film - worthy of one or two viewings, max.