Film
Braindead
Peter Jackson's gloriously disgusting splatter comedy follows a mild-mannered mama's boy whose mother is bitten by a Sumatran rat-monkey and slowly turns into something appalling — with predictable, room-clearing consequences. It's practical-effects horror at its most gleefully excessive: gallons of fake blood, a lawnmower repurposed as a weapon, and a giddy, adolescent delight in bodily chaos. Watch it for the craft and audacity, not for scares.
If you liked this
Evil Dead II1987
Sam Raimi's manic, physics-defying sequel practically invented the giggle-through-your-fingers gore comedy Braindead perfected — same anarchic camera work, same delight in turning a chainsaw into a punchline.
But The tone whiplashes hard between slapstick and genuine dread, and some of the effects show their age more than Jackson's.
Shaun of the Dead2004
Warmer and more grounded than Braindead, it proves you can build real feeling — friendship, heartbreak, a last stand in a pub — into a zombie comedy without losing a single laugh.
But It's gentler and far less gory; if you came for viscera by the bucket, this one rations it.
Re-Animator1985
The same unhinged commitment to escalating body horror played dead straight for laughs, complete with a mad scientist and a severed head that refuses to know its place.
But Cheaper-looking and pulpier, with a smugness to its humor that Braindead's earnestness never has.
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
Relic2020
Braindead tells a mother-turns-monster story as farce; Relic tells the identical story — a child devotedly caring for a mother becoming something else — completely straight, as a portrait of dementia. Same skeleton, opposite register.
An elderly mother's dementia becomes something literally monstrous in this devastating Australian horror — the same central image as Braindead's transformed mum, but here it's grief that overwhelms, not gore.
But It's slow, quiet and genuinely sad rather than funny; anyone hoping for splatter comedy will find only sorrow.
More like this (8)
Tucker and Dale vs. Evil2010
Flips the hillbilly-horror formula on its head with two sweet-natured heroes and a body count built entirely from misunderstandings — pure comic gore engineering.
But It's a one-joke premise, cleverly sustained, but lacks Braindead's operatic scale and lunatic set pieces.
Slither2006
A small town overrun by gooey alien parasites, played with the same gleeful, gross-out enthusiasm and hand-built effects craftsmanship as Jackson's early work.
But Nathan Fillion's charm carries it, but the script is thinner and the stakes never feel quite as personal.
The Frighteners1996
Jackson's own next film after this one — bigger budget, ghosts instead of zombies, Michael J. Fox instead of a lawnmower — shows exactly where his splatstick instincts went next.
But It's noticeably more mainstream and CGI-heavy, trading handmade gore for polished effects that feel less alive.
Zombieland2009
American zombie comedy at its most crowd-pleasing, fast and funny with on-screen survival rules and a genuine soft center underneath the wisecracks.
But Slicker and safer, with none of Braindead's DIY grime or its willingness to go truly disgusting.
What We Do in the Shadows2014
Fellow New Zealanders find the same deadpan comic gold in monster mundanity — flatmate vampires bickering about chores instead of the apocalypse.
But The mockumentary format and dry, low-key humor are a world away from Braindead's full-throttle gore spectacle.
The Cabin in the Woods2012
A loving, gruesome deconstruction of horror tropes that rewards genre fans the same way Braindead does — gleeful, self-aware, and unafraid to get absurd.
But It's more clever than scary, and the meta twist changes the kind of movie you're watching halfway through.
Corman's World2011no page yet
Jackson has cited Corman's scrappy make-it-work ethos as a direct influence on Braindead's homemade splatter; this film shows the workshop that built the whole lineage.
This affectionate documentary traces Roger Corman's cheap, fast, wildly inventive monster-movie factory — the DIY spirit that trained a generation of filmmakers, Jackson included, to make blood and rubber look glorious on no money.
But It's a talking-heads documentary with no gore of its own; if you want practical effects in action, look elsewhere.
The Tingler1959no page yet
Castle understood, thirty years early, that horror could be a joke the audience is in on — a gimmick delivered with a wink, exactly the spirit Jackson revives with a lawnmower instead of a seat buzzer.
William Castle's gloriously silly creature-in-your-spine picture came with buzzers wired under cinema seats to make audiences jolt — pure showman's horror-comedy, decades before Jackson turned gore into slapstick.
But The scares are tame and the pacing creaky by modern standards; this is a curio to enjoy for its cheek, not its terror.
People
Cast
Timothy BalmeLionel
Diana PeñalverPaquita
Ian WatkinUncle Les
Brenda KendallNurse McTavish
Stuart DevenieFather McGruder
Jed BrophyVoid- Elizabeth BrimilcombeZombie Mum
Stephen PappsZombie McGruder
Murray KeaneScroat- Glenis LevestamMrs. Matheson
- Lewis RoweMr. Matheson
Directing
- Peter JacksonDirector
Writing
- Fran WalshScreenplay
- Peter JacksonScreenplay
- Stephen SinclairScreenplay
- Stephen SinclairStory
Production
- Jamie SelkirkAssociate Producer
- Fran WalshCasting
- Jim BoothProducer