Heavenly Creatures<\/em> was a departure for Peter Jackson. The New Zealand filmmaker was getting a cult rep for churning out horror comedies like Bad Taste<\/em>, Meet the Feebles<\/em> and the zombie splatterfest Braindead<\/em> (or Dead Alive<\/em>, as it\u2019s known around these parts). But Creatures<\/em> is a fact-based horror story set right in his homeland. Jackson takes us to the early \u201850s, dramatizing the events that led to New Zealand teenagers Juliet Hulme and Pauline Parker (nee Rieper) killing Parker\u2019s mother. After a five-year prison stint, Hulme and Parker went their separate ways, with Parker becoming a recluse and Hulme going on to write mystery novels under the pseudonym Anne Perry. (Perry, who passed away last year at age 84, was identified by the media after Creatures<\/em>\u2019 release.) \u201cIt\u2019s known as this very sensational, sort of evil schoolgirl killing, with newspaper headlines at the time that shouted out things like \u2018Are They Mad or Bad?\u2019\u201d Jackson said in an interview<\/a>. \u201cWe wanted to find the emotional heart of the story.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Using Parker\u2019s diaries as a blueprint, Jackson and co-writer\/producer\/significant other Fran Walsh make the case that Hulme and Parker (respectively played by then-up-and-comers Kate Winslet and Melanie Lynskey) were two teen besties whose intense love for each other made both their parents concerned. Hulme\u2019s absent-minded father (Clive Morrison) and Parker\u2019s working-class mum (Sarah Peirse) particularly believe they\u2019re both one bath away from making the love that dares not speak its name. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Winslet is all sass and snottiness (she often looks and sounds like Rik Mayall\u2019s obnoxious poet Rick from the BBC sitcom The Young Ones<\/em>) as Hulme, whose enthusiasm for storytelling and matinee-idol tenor Mario Lanza wins over Lynskey\u2019s always-scowling Parker. Together, they form their own imaginary universe, where they call each other by different names, cavort with the clay figurines of fantasy characters they create, and spend some time in an alternative afterlife known as \u201cThe Fourth World.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Unfortunately, reality keeps interfering with their utopia. Hulme\u2019s parents break up and decide to send their daughter to live in South Africa with her aunt. Of course, Parker wants to go with her, but Parker\u2019s mom won\u2019t allow it. That\u2019s when they devise a plan to \u201ckill Mother.\u201d \u201cWe have worked it out carefully and are both thrilled by the idea,\u201d Parker cheerfully writes in her diary. (Parker\u2019s entries also serve as voice-over narration.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n The bloody, climactic murder aside, Creatures<\/em> is an imaginative, heart-rending coming-of-age tale of young queer love. Although he\u2019s tackling a serious, fact-based subject matter, Jackson \u2014 still a genre filmmaker at heart \u2014 handles it in a visually stylish, darkly comic manner. (I\u2019m sure, for many viewers, the comparisons between him and fellow fantastical filmmaker Terry Gilliam started with this film.) As Hulme and Parker begin their whimsical (and often very loud) friendship, the camera often whips and zooms all around them, capturing their dizzying, youthful joy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Creatures<\/em> marked the debut of Weta Digital, the visual effects\/animation company co-founded by Jackson. Weta went all out with the fantasy sequences, creating the life-sized latex costumes of the girls\u2019 clay figures and digitally manipulating such scenes as the morphing appearance of \u201cThe Fourth World.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Creatures<\/em> was one of many smart acquisitions<\/a> Miramax snapped up that year, winning awards at the Venice and Toronto film fests. Even though the $5 million movie only made $5.4 million worldwide, it was a hit with critics, appearing on many year-end, ten-best lists. Creatures<\/em> also won at the 1995 New Zealand Film and Television Awards, where it was nominated for ten awards and won nine. Eventually, Jackson and Walsh scored their first Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay. (It lost to fellow Miramax release Pulp Fiction<\/em>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n And let\u2019s not forget that, thanks to Harvey and them, Jackson would go on to direct the Lord of the Rings<\/em> trilogy. It was Weinstein who finessed the rights from producer\/longtime holder Saul Zaentz (who would later produce the Miramax-distributed Oscar winner The English Patient<\/em>) and put up $10 million for the project\u2019s development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You would think the movie that made Hollywood take notice of Jackson, Winslet, and Lynskey would be easily accessible online. Unfortunately, like so many<\/a> imports<\/a> Miramax distributed back in the day, Creatures<\/em> is currently not on any U.S. streamers or VOD services. I\u2019ve heard rumblings that Jackson is planning to digitally restore and re-release all his pre-Rings<\/em> films. (Creatures<\/em> did have a 30th anniversary screening at this year\u2019s New Zealand International Film Festival<\/a>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Even with its lack of availability, Creatures<\/em> is still a picture young audiences, whether they spent their formative years in the closet or just angry and confused, continue to discover. In a 2020 essay<\/a> on the queer media site Autostraddle, writer Drew Burnett Gregory discusses how Creatures<\/em> (\u201cthe first lesbian movie I ever saw,\u201d she wrote) left her more empathetic to the girls\u2019 plight than shocked and disgusted. \u201cI know what it\u2019s like to feel trapped,\u201d Gregory wrote. \u201cWhen I was Paul\u2019s age I had violent fantasies about my friends who were bullying me and I felt a rage towards my mother that scares me now to recall\u2026 We are the people we are and we are the people we become, and while I was not like Paul and Juliet I understand their circumstances enough to feel for their unfortunate metamorphosis.\u201c<\/p>\n\n\n\n After making several tongue-in-cheek scary movies, Peter Jackson hit the big time with Heavenly Creatures<\/em>, a film about adolescence, alienation and young love \u2014 and if that isn\u2019t the most terrifying shit a person can ever experience, I don\u2019t know what it is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/heavenly2-1024x576.png\")
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