Peter Jackson/NZ/1994; R4
Roadshow, NZ$29.95 | Reviewed by Alexander Bisley

THERE IS more to Peter Jackson than orcs and hobbits, you know. The maestro has a dark vision of 1950s New Zealand. Braindead, a splatter flick of manic creativity and breathtaking glee, is uproariously funny. It didn't endear him to Christchurch conservatives, but Heavenly Creatures is a bloody good movie. It tells a true story; sombre, scary and unsettling.

In 1954, Pauline Parker (Melanie Lynskey, now doing well for herself in Hollywood with Shattered Glass et al) and Juliet Hulme (one Kate Winslet, in a titanic debut performance) murdered Pauline's mother Honora and shocked the nation. From the inspired opening, where Jackson intercuts the girls running bloodied and distraught from the scene of the horrific crime, and idyllically running around a boat sailing away to Hollywood as per their dream, he has us hooked.

Jackson, who co-wrote the script, tells the story from the point of view of these "heavenly creatures." He captures the feel of 1950s Christchurch; its suffocating conformity and banality, as epitomised by the single-sex school the mistreated duo attend. Ostracised by society, and chastised for their "homosexuality," they find solace in their vividly imagined fantasy land, Borovnia. Terrified by their imminent separation, they do the terrible deed.


THE DVD has no extras. Heavenly Creatures heralds the talents of key current Jackson collaborators, such as Fran Walsh (script) and Richard Taylor (prosthetics). As in The Lord of the Rings, Jackson's passion and empathy resonate throughout this imaginative, striking film. And, perversely enough, the lyrical footage of beautiful Canterbury countryside will do good things for local tourism.