Peter Jackson’s cult zombie classic Braindead—marketed in North America as Dead Alive—is getting remastered in 4K. Released in 1992, Braindead is an integral entry in Jackson’s splatter period—his series of gory, darkly funny horror films. Along with Bad Taste (1987) and Meet the Feebles (1989), Braindead relies on prosthetics, over-the-top performances, and copious amounts of fake blood. The film centers around a plague-carrying rat-monkey who turns anyone it bites into a flesh-eating zombie. 3n2c3n

Filmmaker Peter Jackson mastered gory, comedic horror long before he mastered J.R.R. Tolkien's fantasy epics The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. While the native New Zealander is known for his world-building and expensive special effects, Jackson began his journey as a filmmaker relying on prosthetics, fake blood, and shock value.

Here's how the vicious little Sumatran Rat-Monkey links Peter Jackson's Braindead to King Kong. It's almost hard to connect the dots between the Peter Jackson who helmed gleefully gory, low-budget horror movies like Bad Taste and Meet The Feebles with the man who became the Academy Award-winning director behind respectable Hollywood blockbusters. Braindead is considered one of the best of his early work and is a zombie comedy that reaches new heights in screen gore. While the film was retitled Dead Alive during its U.S. release - to avoid conflict with the Bill Pullman/Bill Paxton film Brain Dead - most fans know it best as Braindead.

[This is a review of the BrainDead season 1 finale. There will be SPOILERS.]

[This is a review of the BrainDead series premiere. There will be SPOILERS.]

If you can when summertime TV meant an endless slog of network reruns, interspersed with the occasional made-for-TV movie, baseball game, and maybe a lazy Saturday or two spent dozing off in front of some Tour de coverage, failing to witness a spectacular pileup, then congratulations on being old. Nowadays, the age of Peak TV welcomes a year-round cycle of scripted programs, meaning summer isn't the dead zone it once was for those who classify themselves as indoor kids. Instead, summer is teeming with scores of new and interesting programs spread far beyond the realm of networks and into the increasingly nichified territory of cable channels and streaming platforms.

This Week in TV: