Father Jon McGruder is a supporting character in Peter Jackson's Braindead. He is a priest from Wellington, New Zealand and also a martial artist. He is portrayed by Stuart Devenie before turning into a zombie, after which he is played by Stephen Papps.
History[]
McGruder was the parishoner of the local church in Wellington. After the death of Vera Cosgrove, he gave the eulogy at the funeral, though he was interrupted when the reanimated Vera and her son Lionel came crashing through a door. Lionel had just used tranquilizers to knock Vera out, so no one was any the wiser about her zombification, although Lionel ended up looking like a weirdo in front of the whole congregation.
The night after the funeral, Lionel attempted to dig up his mother's grave, but a group of punks arrived and beat him up while their leader Void started urinating on Vera's tombstone. Vera then erupted from the grave, killing Void and one of the other punks, which then turned into zombies. As the ghouls advanced on Lionel, Father McGruder appeared and used his kung fu techniques to fight them off. He kicked the head off of the zombified Scroat which then flew into the air, only to come back down teeth-first on McGruder's shoulder. As Scroat's head gnawed on McGruder's shoulder, he screamed and ran towards Void, but Void grabbed the priest and threw him toward a statue of Jesus Christ. McGruder was impaled on the statue's extended hand and died, reanimating as a zombie afterwards.
Lionel takes the zombies back home, unsure of what to do with them. He keeps them docile using tranquilizers and tied up in his cellar where they can't hurt anyone. During this time, however, the zombie McGruder becomes attracted to fellow ghoul Nurse McTavish. The two break the ropes binding them and have sex, resulting in McTavish becoming pregnant. Her pregnancy is quick and hours later she gives birth to the deformed zombie baby Selwyn.
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. McGruder is destroyed along with most of the zombie horde when Lionel grinds him into paste using a lawnmower.