12 February 1993 (USA)
Peter Jackson
Timothy Balme ... Lionel Cosgrove
Diana Penalver ... Paquita Maria Sanchez
Elizabeth Moody ... Mum
Ian Watkin ... Uncle Les
Brenda Kendall ... Nurse McTavish
Stuart Devenie ... Father McGruder
Most people are confused about the misleading packaging. Yes, there is violence, blood, even graphic footage of disembowelment, but that's all icing on the cake. This movie is about the romance between two young lovers, Lionel and Paquita.
Paquita gets her fortune told and finds she will meet a young man and fall in love. She will know this man by the sign of the star and the moon. No, no, she doesn't fall in love with a Muslim, she falls in love with Lionel! Lionel is a mama's boy that is on his way to pick up a few things from her store for ol' mum. Lionel is a klutz and knocks over a bunch of pencils which miraculously fall into a formation that, to a person with a severely overactive imagination, may sort of look like a star and a moon. This is enough for her and she falls instantly in love. I gotta remember this trick.
Paquita becomes an instant ball and chain, but she's pretty so who cares? She invites herself to go on a date with him to the zoo. Here the movie gets a little weird. They are getting along well and things are romatical but then they see this monkey getting torn apart and eaten by some god-awful freak of nature rat-monkey. Lionel's mum is there and she gets bit. Unfortunately she turns into a zombie and most of the rest of the movie gets sidetracked by this zombie-blood-and-guts side plot. I understand why they needed the zombie subplot, as a device to keep the two lovers apart. But they got carried away with it! Eventually the love-story gets devoured by the zombie plot!
There's still some great romantic comedy hijinx though. Zombie-mum eats Paquita's dog for example. "Your mother ate my dog!" Also, when Zombie-mum is going on a murderous rampage throughout the house, Paquita is more concerned with whether to pack the green toothbrush or the white one.
Most hilarious part of the film award goes to the scene where Lionel takes the zombie baby to the park. When it misbehaves and tries to attack a little girl, Lionel gives it a good thrashing. Smacking against the swing-set bars, and finally slam dunking it as a drunken bum looks on cheering him on.
The two plots come together in the stunning and gory climax at a Bebop-zombie-and-jive party as Lionel and Paquita face off against hordes of the undead.
FINAL WORD: I would like to have a Paquita of my own to go on romantic-zombie-killing adventures with.
