Peter Jackson’s zombiefest follow-up to Bad Taste(1987), set in a New Zealand suburb in the late 50s, is one of the most relentlessly gleefully nasty movies ever released, featuring mutant monkeys, zombie flesh-eaters, death by lawn mower, kung-fu priests, and jokes about The Archers.
It also contains the queasiest dinner scene since La Grande Bouffe, involving spurting blood, dissolving flesh, human ears and bowls of claggy rice pudding.
When 25-year-old socially awkward virgin Lionel Cosgrove (Timothy Balme) falls for the lovely Paquita Maria Sanchez (Diana Peñalver), he provokes the jealousy of his domineering mother (Elizabeth Moody).
Soon after, a toxic nip from a diseased Sumatran rat monkey at the local zoo transforms Lionel’s mother – through several putrescent stages – into a hideous, pustulant monster craving human flesh.
The finale, in which Lionel reduces a horde of flesh-eaters to a mulch of blood, flesh, and offal with the aid of a Flymo (pictured above), is probably the goriest scene ever. Three hundred litres of fake blood were used in the scene.
Lionel Cosgrove
Timothy Balme Paquita Maria Sanchez
Diana Peñalver Mum (Vera Cosgrove)
Elizabeth Moody Uncle Les
Ian Watkin Nurse McTavish
Brenda Kendall Father McGruder
Stuart Devenie Void
Jed Brophy Zombie McGruder
Stephen Papps Scroat
Murray Keane Nora Matheson
Glenis Levestam Mr Matheson
Lewis Rowe Rita
Elizabeth Mulfaxe Roger
Harry Sinclair Paquita’s Grandmother
Davina Whitehouse Paquita’s Father
Silvio Famularo Vet
Brian Sergent Undertaker
Peter Vere-Jones Mandy
Tina Regtien Stewart
Bill Ralston Winston
Tony Hopkins Zoo Keeper
Tony Hiles Barry
Tich Rowney Lawrence
George Port Spike
Stephen Andrews Spud
Nick Ward Gladstone
Kenny McFadden Courtney
Angela Robinson Witherspoon
Director
Peter Jackson
Video
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Lionel Cosgrove
Void
Nora Matheson
Vet
Barry
