* AngstWhatAngst: Paquita seems to take [[spoiler: her dog being eaten by Lionel's mother]] quite well.
* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: The scene where Lionel takes the zombie baby to the park. There's no logical reason why he did this, it adds nothing to the plot, and it's never mentioned again. [[RuleOfFunny But it was really funny.]] What makes it better is that it was only filmed because Peter Jackson had enough money for one more scene after completing the movie.
* CultClassic: Thanks to Jackson's later works with ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings''.
* CrossesTheLineTwice: Where do we even ''start''? The movie’s violence and extreme {{Gorn}} alone are so absurdly over the top that it becomes hilarious.
* EnsembleDarkhorse: Everyone loves Father [=McGruder=], even though he has a pretty small role.
* FridgeBrilliance: When you remember the fact that the ''very'' source of the zombie outbreak was due to an animal bite, it would make sense as to why the [[spoiler:animal stimulant had such an effect on the zombies]].
* JustHereForGodzilla:
** A lot of people who watch this movie do so for the {{Gorn}}.
** Others might only watch it for Father "I kick ass for the Lord!" [=McGruder=].
* MemeticMutation: "I kick ass for the Lord!"
* MoralEventHorizon:
** Those graverobbers that manhandled Lionel really had it coming.
** Uncle Les is not a remotely sympathetic character from the get-go, but he truly shows what sort of person he is when he attempts to rape Paquita.
** [[spoiler:Turns out Lionel's mother crossed this long before she turned into a zombie, drowning both her husband and a woman he reputedly had an affair with in the bathtub. And then fabricated a lie that pushed blame onto Lionel.]]
* NauseaFuel: Considering the film is regarded as one of the goriest movies in existence and so gut-churning for its time that cinemas had to provide sick bags for the audience, this is to be expected. However, the biggest offender is probably the custard scene (which is detailed below).
* RetroactiveRecognition:
** Jackson gave some of the film's actors cameos in ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings''. Roger is Isildur, Vera is a Sackville-Baggins, and Void is the leader of the warg riders.
** And then Void became Nori in ''Film/TheHobbit''.
* SignatureScene:
** Father [=McGruder=]'s kung-fu battle with the zombies.
** Lionel taking Selwyn to the park, and it backfiring ''horribly''.
** Lawnmower vs. zombies, anyone?
* SpecialEffectFailure: It's ''very'' obvious when Selwyn the zombie baby transitions between a puppet to an immobile dummy and/or a person in a costume.
* StrangledByTheRedString: Paquita suddenly falls in love with Lionel for no reason except for a symbol.
* {{Squick}}:
** When guests come over to see his ill mom, they have a relatively uneventful dinner until his mother's ear falls off and lands in the custard. She then absentmindedly eats the custard with the ear. And then one of her zits pops pus into one of the guest's bowls. ''He starts to eat it.''
** The attempt to embalm Vera. It didn't quite work.
--->'''Embalmer:''' Cranial blowout!
* TooCoolToLive: Who else besides [[BadassPreacher Father]] [[EnsembleDarkhorse [=McGruder=]]]?
* UglyCute: Selwyn the zombie baby. Some characters in-universe even seem to think so. The intestine monster is honestly kinda cute as well.
* SugarWiki/VisualEffectsOfAwesome: The film definitely did not sugarcoat the gore and makeup effects, depicting gallons upon gallons of authentic looking blood and human meat chunks, puppetry that allowed for some of the more severely dismembered zombies, and fairly impressive blink-and-you'll miss in-between shots. The film even won several Best Special Effects awards, and rightfully so.
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