Before “Lord of the Rings,” before “King Kong,” there was “Dead Alive.”

One of director Peter Jackson’s infantile full-length feature films, “Dead Alive” (1992) is pretty much the ideal midnight movie. A screwball horror flick with plenty of gore thrown in for good measure, its so completely over the top that it’s often classified more as a comedy than a fright flick. It’s touted as one of the goriest movies ever made.

Think “Night of the Living Dead” with a little extra graphic violence and even more bizarre.

See it firsthand at the next Orchard Theater midnight movie party April 19 at 822 Bay St. in Port Orchard. Absolutely no one under 17 admitted, not for the faint of heart, or the weak of stomach the Orchard’s press release warns.

“It’s ridiculously gory and over-the-top funny,” Orchard manager Kahlen Burgwin said. “And it’s cool just in terms of seeing where Peter Jackson came from.”

“Dead Alive,” originally released as “Braindead” outside of the United States, is Jackson’s third feature-length film following his debut a gross-out horror film which lived up to its name — “Bad Taste” — and another over-the-top comedy called “Meet the Feebles” which revolves around a dysfunctional Muppet-like musical theater troupe.

In “Dead Alive” (starring Timothy Balme, Diana Peñalver, Elizabeth Moody and Ian Watkin) the main character Lionel’s overbearing and overprotective mother (Moody) is spying on her son and his date at the zoo when she’s bitten by a savage Sumatran rat monkey which turns her into a ferocious flesh-eating zombie that attacks anything in sight.

Lionel (Balme) is tasked with the unfortunate chore of hiding the bodies in the basement to conceal his mother’s grotesque frenzy from his new girlfriend Paquita (Peñalver).

The problem is, they’re not actually dead bodies.

The victims have all been zombified.

And soon Lionel is forced to take on the entire army of the undead with his trusty lawn mower.

How else would you kill something that’s already dead?

And where else would you find out other than at The Orchard?

The April 19 midnight movie is the beginning of a monthly midnight movie summer series for The Orchard which spawned from February’s midnight showing of “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” in coordination with the grand opening of a neighboring business.

That show was a success, as have been the theater’s 9 p.m.-only weekend showings of more off-the-cuff type, genre features like “Teeth,” “The Signal” and “Funny Games” Burgwin said.

“Those ones have been doing surprisingly well,” Burgwin added, noting that the theater has been allowed to get creative in its programming and because of that “we’ve been able to bring in stuff that people want to see.”

Plus, they are always open to suggestion.

“Remember, this is your theater, so please let us know what ideas you have for films, events etc,” general manager Mike Pitts said. “E-mail, call us or just come in and shoot the breeze.” WU

“Dead Alive” (1992), one of director Peter Jackson’s first feature-length films, will be showing at midnight April 19 at the Orchard, 822 Bay St. in Port Orchard.

Info: www.orchardtheater.com or call (360) 895-0564.