Character Analysis: Father Jon McGruder

Character Analysis: Father Jon McGruder

By: A. Aleister Sirrat

     I was so excited when my good friend, Das Film Junkie, told me that I he had finally see Peter Jackson’s horror masterpiece “Braindead/Dead Alive”.  I was even more excited when he told me that he was going to write a Character Analysis on one of the films characters, but that excitement turned to dismay when he didn’t pick my favorite character from the film.  I don’t blame him for picking Lionel to do a Character Analysis on—after all he was the star of the film—but I honestly feel like he overlooked one of the secondary characters from the film.  So this week, I will be giving an analysis of a character from “Braindead/Dead Alive” that I feel is both interesting and worthy.

CHARACTER: Father Jon McGruder from “Braindead”/”Dead Alive”

Father Jon McGruder from "Braindead/Dead Alive"

Fr. Jon McGruder is the vicar of Newtown (NZ) and performs the funeral sermon at Vera’s funeral.  At the Funeral, when Lionel comes bursting in through with his mother’s partly-reanimated corpse, Father McGruder remarks: “Well I’ve seen some displays of grief in my day, but nothing quite like that”.  That night Father McGruder here’s a disturbance in the cemetery and goes out to see Lionel in a tussle with a group of street hoods and the Lionel’s zombiefied mother, Vera.  Facing a horde of resurrected zombies Father McGruder comes to Lionel’s aid; proclaiming “I kick ass for the Lord”, Father McGruder demonstrates his amazing Martial arts skills as he fights and dismembers the zombies.  Unfortunately, for Father McGruder he is bitten by the severed head one of one of the zombies and becomes a zombie himself.  Lionel takes his mother, Father McGruder, and the other zombies back to his house where he keeps them locked up in the basement.  While as a prisoner in Lionel’s home, Zombie Father McGruder get’s it on with the Zombie Nurse McTavish and she later gives birth to a zombie baby named Selwyn. 

He kicks A$$ for the Lord 

THE ACTORS:

Actor Stuart Devenie as Fr. McGruder (pre-transfom) 

One thing I found very interesting about the role of Father McGruder is that he is played by two different actors in the film. Actor Stuart Devenie plays Father McGruder (pre-transformation) and during the Fight scene in the cemetery.  Actor Stephen Papps plays the Zombie Version of Father MacGruder.  I found this decision to have two different actors playing the same person to be very interesting.  There doesn’t appear to be a rhyme or reason why.  Neither actor died during production of the film, so that rules out that theory.  If I had to pick which actor was “better” I’d have to go with Stuart Devenie.  His one-liners and kick a$$ Kung Fu skills make for one hilariously epic fight scene.  This is as opposed to Stephen Papps who has no lines of dialogue and the only thing of interest he does in the film is hump zombie Nurse McTavish on the dining room table.

CHARACTER IS SIMILAR TO OR INSPIRED BY:

     I can’t think of any characters who are similar to Father Jon McGruder.  If you really wanted to stretch it I say he’s like a comedic version of Father Damien Karras from “The Exorcist”.  I mean they don’t have a lot in common, but they do end up getting killed while trying to help people who are possessed by an evil spirit, so there’s that.  Other than that, I can’t think of any other characters that Father McGruder is similar to or inspired by.

Father Jon McGruder "Braindead/Dead Alive"

Father Damien Karras "The Exorcist"

ULTIMATE FATE OF THE CHARACTER:

     Like all the zombies in this film, Father McGruder meets a horrific and violent end when the films hero, Lionel goes on a rampage with a lawn mower and mows all the zombies down a messy pile of bloody carcasses. This is the tragic ending for Father Jon McGruder.