Heavenly Creatures (1994)

I was totally surprised at how great this film.You could feel your paranoia rise as the film went on and as you gradually learned the details of the real situation.

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

.Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Jackson tackles the Parker-Hulme murder case. In 1950's New Zealand, two teenage girls formed an intense friendship largely driven by a shared fantasy world they had created populated by a fairy tale royal family and movie stars they were obsessed with. When their parents became concerned that the relationship was too intense (and worries of lesbianism reared their ugly heads), the girls murdered one of their mothers in an effort to stay together. In what is Jackson's best film, he focuses on the intensity of their friendship and the heightened fantasy they lived in. A lot of Jackson's flaws as a filmmaker are present ... the film is too long and he encourages weird comedic overacting from some of his performers ... but it's definitely his most fully developed film, capturing the reasons that drove these girls as well as the tragedy of the story's outcome.

Director Peter Jackson calms down a bit after the manic gore fests of BAD TASTE and BRAINDEAD to give us what it undoubtedly his maturest work to date. It's certainly one of his most well-made and beautiful films, with some really stunning scenes in it - such as the moment where a cornfield becomes a royal garden complete with hedges, colourful flowers, and fountains. Filmed in New Zealand, the scenery of the woodlands and countryside is never less than breathtaking, and Jackson retains human interest also by offering interesting camera angles and situations throughout.Based on a true story, this is a very realistic and slow-paced film, with dialogue that rings true. Unfortunately I did find a lot of the lovey-dovey dialogue in the film quite irritating, even if it was a mark of the '50s era in which the story is set. Lynskey and Winslet are excellent in the roles of the friends, but even the supporting cast are very good too, each filling out the roles of the slightly odd, mannered and very much human characters that they place.There are some truly inspired and shocking moments in this film, like when Orson Welles walks on to the screen or the first time we see the life-sized clay men...thanks to some very impressive computer effects work these are highly convincing. After all the slow-build up and human drama, the bloody murder at the very end of the film is unpleasant and graphic, all the more so for being totally unexpected. This counters the serene feel of the rest of the movie and is thus more horrific for it.So, a well-made film with fine acting and an interesting story. Why didn't I rate it higher? The simple fact is that I didn't find this film to be particularly moving or engrossing, although it is well made enough to be thoroughly watchable. After all the hype I had heard about it, the movie could only disappoint me, although most other viewers would probably think of it as wonderful.

Peter Jackson known for low budget gory splat movies from New Zealand makes his first steps in serious film making in this murder drama based on a true incident.The film opens with the aftermath of the slaying as two teenage girls emerge hysterical from the woods in Christchurch.The film is about two schoolgirls, Mario Lanza, Orson Welles and living in early 1950s New Zealand which might had been decades behind the 1950s where rock n roll was to emerge in America.Awkward, morose, gawky schoolgirl Pauline (Melanie Lynsky) meets a new arrival from England, Juliet (Kate Winslet) who is confident, clever and brings Pauline out of her shell. Both bond closely with their love of opera and begin to live in a fantasy land which also allows Jackson to keep his horror fans satisfied with special effects scenes.The friendship between Juliet and Pauline soon becomes unhealthy as they feel superior and reality and fantasy collides. Pauline is resentful of her hokey, backwards family, especially her mother. Not helped by them not understanding her burgeoning sexuality, especially when a older boarder takes advantage of her and they blame the daughter.Juliet is ignored by her self centred parents who on the verge of splitting up and Juliet might end up going to South Africa. As the girls are forcibly kept apart they hatch a violent plan which ends up in disaster and tragedy.This is really a small scale drama from Peter Jackson, a world away from his recent overblown, enormous budget epics with even lengthier directors cuts.Here the acting from Winslet and Lynsky does the talking. Jackson brings the New Zealand of the 1950s to live, a world that is very insular. However the film is an efficient drama, nicely acted, a gory ending but not too far away from a well made television drama with some good special effects.

Forgive my ignorance but when I saw 'Heavenly Creatures' I had no idea that it was based on a true account. I guess that says something for the movie, which is pretty much able stand on it's own.The story (as I researched later) is based on a murder that took place in New Zealand in 1952 as Pauline Parker and Juliet Hulme bashed in the head of Pauline's mother after the threat of being separated became imminent.What leads these girls to such a brutal act is the focus of Peter Jackson's stunning film about two personalities that connect in a world that isn't comfortable with their closeness. Pauline (Melanie Lynskey) is frumpy, sour and hides behind her black unruly hair and permanent scowl. She meets Juliette (Kate Winslet) and is captivated by this pretty, outgoing girl who giggles hysterically, she smiles brightly and seems to understand her isolation. Both lead boring, emotionally confused lives going to Christchurch school but eventually find in each other a comfortable escape.The girls have everything in common not the least of which is a crush on Mario Lanza. They create for themselves a Camelot-like world, a world of kings and knights and romantic adventures. The special effects make this imaginary world a captivating place from which they escape the staleness of their lives. It allows Jackson to take us into this world to show us that this is a relationship built on mutual attraction of soulmates. To an outsider this could be misconstrued as lesbianism and thus begins the problem.Adults begin to suspect that the two are spending far too much time together, that their relationship has become 'unhealthy'. This is a time and place in which homosexuality is a hushed word spoken in a whisper. The suggestion is made that separating them would be the best thing.Pauline and Juliette are so intoxicated by one another that the thought of being separated would be devastating. Then, they begin to plan and carry out the murder. The irony, we guess, is that the girls were less of a threat before the adults began to intervene.What would be so addictive about their world that they would be willing to kill for it? Even Hulme doesn't really know. Around the time of the release of this film it was found that Hulme was living and writing novels under the name Anne Perry. In interviews she seems as baffled as we are.'Heavenly Creatures' is the kind of movie the people discuss in the same vein that they discuss the Columbine tragedy. What kind of maladjustments and emotional crippling leads people to commit murder? What was it, in the bond Pauline and Juliette that was worth protecting? The movie thinks it knows but leaves enough open for us to interpret.