Emma McTavish (portrayed by Brenda Kendall) is a supporting character in Peter Jackson's horror-comedy Braindead. She is a nurse and resident of Wellington, New Zealand.
After Vera Cosgrove is bitten by a Sumatran rat-monkey at the zoo, Nurse McTavish sees to her medical needs and provides emotional support for Lionel. Eventually, the infection from the rat-monkey's bite kills Vera. Before McTavish can call an ambulance, Vera reanimates as a zombie and violently kills the nurse by thrusting her fingers through McTavish's cheeks and almost pulling her head off. McTavish's head remains attached to her body by a patch of skin on the back of her neck.
After death, McTavish also turns into a zombie. Later, as Lionel struggles to keep the zombies confined to his house, McTavish repeatedly has her head flipped back over her shoulders. More disturbingly, however, is what occurs after Father McGruder becomes a zombie and is tied up in the basement along with the other zombies. Inexplicably, the McGruder and McTavish zombies are attracted to one another and manage to have sex while being locked in the basement. To Lionel's horror and disgust, McTavish has been impregnated. Her pregnancy is remarkably short as she gives birth to a malformed zombie baby mere hours after the intercourse.
Destruction[]
While Lionel's uncle Les throws a party at the Cosgrove house, Lionel decides to put down the zombies with poison. However, the poison -animal stimulant - just makes the zombies more ferocious and they break out of the cellar, killing all of the party guests and turning them into zombies. McTavish is destroyed along with most of the zombie horde when Lionel grinds her into paste using a lawnmower.