Directed by David Blyth (ANGEL MINE) and written by Michael Heath (NEXT OF KIN), DEATH WARMED UP was ground-zero for antipodean 80s horror/sci-fi and set the bar for stomach-churning ferocity. Carrying a stylish new-wave/punk energy ala LIQUID SKY colliding head-on with the gritty, no-holds-barred splatter of early Peter Jackson...but pre-dating BAD TASTE and BRAINDEAD by several years. DEATH WARMED UP did it first and with a rare, aggressive tone that gives the film a nihilistic edge over its peers of the slasher era and thus became a worldwide hit at film festivals and on VHS.

Mired in controversy upon release and dripping with in-your-face FX which saw it censored around the world, DEATH WARMED UP had conservatives outraged and horror fans in awe of its relentlessly grim and stylised atmosphere, winning awards and critical acclaim. In Paris at the 1985 International Festival of Fantastique Film and Science Fiction, surrealist maestro Alejandro Jodorowsky hailed DEATH WARMED UP as "an apocalypse of slaughter...seldom has the weight of image been so purposeful". Cue magazine simply called it, "the ugliest, most repulsive movie made in New Zealand"...