the plot: Lionel (Balme), a whimpering, weak-willed mama's boy, strung up like a puppet on apron strings, meets the comely young Paquita (Penalver) and quickly falls for her, a development his mother (Moody) doesn't like at all. When Paquita and Lionel take a trip to the zoo, mum follows close behind, only to be bitten by a rare (and extremely ugly) rat monkey. The bite gets infected, and in no time, she's become a ravenous, flesh-craving zombie. Doing the only sensible thing he can, he locks her in the basement and keeps her sedated. But soon the plague of zombieism spreads throughout the small New Zealand town, infecting everyone from kung-fu fighting priests to little babies in the park. As the zombies pile up in his basement, Lionel finds it increasingly difficult to keep his gruesome secret. When the undead break free during a party thrown at the family home, it's up to Lionel to stop the zombies from making a buffet out of everyone in town.

why it's good: Before the directorial hat trick he scored with the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Peter Jackson was best known as one of the horror genre's leading purveyors of outlandish blood and gore. Meet the Feebles, Jackson's third film, was a precursor to last year's Team America: World Police, featuring puppets (loosely based on Jim Henson's Muppets) engaging in all sorts of violence and debauchery. But the peak of Jackson's early work is Dead Alive, a veritable laundry list of awesome zombie action. Jackson gives us zombie babies, karate-chopping clergymen ("I kick arse for the Lord!" he shouts, shortly before being eaten) and a delirious, blood-soaked climax in which Lionel wields a lawn mower against a horde of zombies. The action steadily grows more insane, freakish and hilarious, so that even during especially gross moments, like when a pile of rogue entrails starts slithering around and attempts to strangle Lionel, you won't be so much grossed out as rolling off the couch in laughter.

why you should own it: If buckets of gore aren't your forte, steer clear of Dead Alive for obvious reasons. For everyone else, Dead Alive is a must rent. I say rent because the Region 1 DVD released by Trimark contains nothing in the way of extras, not even a trailer or a commentary track.