a lonely gardener in a small new zealand town falls for a local girl, but his overbearing mother stands in the way of true love. so the gardener kills his mother and she comes back as a zombie. pretty soon the house is bombarded with the walking dead and the gardener must slay his evil daemon mother for a second time to save the town and regain his girl.
this is one of several cult b-movies peter jackson made long before he had the budget for lord of the rings. that said, the special effects in this very very gory film are stomach churningly realistic and yet this is still a very funny film as well. classic scene: lonely gardener has to run the gaunlet passed the milling hoards of zombies in the parlour by attacking them with a hover mower - the resulting carnage is hysterical if you can stomach the sight of people being minced!
