Memories of movies #1 - Braindead

When I was a kid my parents were more strict than some of the other parents regarding what I could and could not see. It's interesting this tug-of-war. I respected, for the most part, my parents decisions when they said no, but circumvented this frequently by not asking them. If they hadn't been given the opportunity to say no, I couldn't really be blamed now, could I? One of my best friends had more liberal parents (well, several really, but one in particular). So, after having seen that crazy cover for Braindead at one of the local rental shops I immediately knew that this was something I had to see.

The Swedish VHS cover for Braindead. It's virtually identical to the Norwegian one.

I brought this to my friends attention on several occasions after this. He had no qualms about acquiring this one. His mother loved horror and his stepfather at the time was really cool. He even rented Showgirls for us at one time, but that's a different story. Anyway, we ended up renting Braindead for his tenth birthday. The rest of us we're still 9 years old at the time, so the year must have been 1994. As I realized he had actually rented the film and that we were going to watch it I hesitated for a moment. This looked really extreme and was a far cry from my usual movie diet. I was even hesitant when another friend one or two years earlier wanted to rent Batman Returns, which I loved from the very first moment. Braindead seemed to be in a whole other ball park though. A part of me considered the possibility that this film would cause me to throw up and so I kept an empty glass by my side, just in case. It still seems odd to me that I resonated like that at age 9. The VHS was put on and the very graphic opening gave us all a taste of what was in store for the next 90 minutes plus. My friend had a German Shepard and Westland High Terrier. Both of them were female and during the course of Braindead they tried humping each other in front of the screen several times. It didn't work very well, though they seemed happy. At one point anther one of my friends put some chips on my knee, which the German Shepard promptly ate. I felt the teeth gently meeting my leg as she took them. My friend was laughing. I wasn't at the time. As for the glass it was soon put down and we all laughed and had a great time from beginning to end. We were shocked and thrilled. It was an instant hit for us. Watching Braindead that day also became one of my first meetings with horror and the more extreme films that are out there. Several years went by after that before my obsession with horror and alternative film blossomed, but Braindead was a cornerstone.

Since that day I've seen Braindead about once a year making it somewhere between 16 and 20 times. I never grow tired of this film. It has an abundance of gore that hasn't been equaled before or since, though some have tried, most notably Olaf Ittenbach's Premutos - Der gefallene Engel. It is also an utterly hilarious movie and very well made. I keep showing this movie to the uninitiated and baptized at three more people last year into the awesomeness that is Braindead. If you still haven't seen it and enjoy a truly over-the-top film this is your film. Peter Jackson is most likely to be remembered by most for The Lord of the Rings trilogy, but to me he will alway be the crazy genius that made Braindead and Bad Taste.