Its hard to remember now but there was a time when Peter Jackson was regarded as a bit of a joke (by all than hardcore horror enthusiasts) rather than the saviour of modern cinema. The kiwis early efforts showed a talent and knowledge of trash cinema, but were pretty daft throwaway horror-splatter flicks, and if he had continued down that road his career would probably have fizzled out.
Instead, his fourth full-length feature Heavenly Creatures was a total breakthrough, a simply marvellous, imaginative, gripping, chilling story with no indulgencies or slips into unnecessary gore. It was the making of Jackson, and arguably remains his finest achievement.
His first stroke of genius was the story the real-life murder of a suburban mother by two schoolgirls in 1950s New Zealand. It was, and probably remains, the biggest scandal in that sleepy countrys modern history, and for Jackson, a horror film buff growing up in the country, would have entered his consciousness from an early age.
His masterstroke is to not treat the story as a crime mystery, but instead to recreate the world of two teenage girls with failing bodies and over-imaginative minds. His second masterstroke is the casting of the two schoolgirls the film features the debuts of Melanie Lynskey and Kate Winslet. Lynskey was a native kiwi, and plays Pauline Parker, a sullen, grumpy, friendless girl with brittle bone disease and a hyper imagination. Into her dull, colourless world comes the schools new arrival, posh English girl, Juliet Hulme (Winslet), who seems effortlessly sophisticated, worldly and clever, but who has a respiratory disease. The two girls are forced to sit out gym class, so start to bond and create their own private language.
They share a love of Mario Lanza, poetry and playing, even creating an entire world of their own peopled by castles, prices, towers and monsters marvellously realized with stop-motion. Their intense friendship starts to bother their respective parents, bordering as it does on obsession possibly sexual. A doctor tells Paulines parents of her homosexual tendencies and that shell grow out of it, but she doesnt. When her parents threaten to separate the girls, they hatch a plan to kill Paulines mother and make it look like an accident.
Jackson actually begins his film at the end we see the girls running through woods splattered with blood to report an accident but then concentrates on recreating their relationship. Its pitch-perfect, from Juliet correcting their French teachers grammar to Paulines muddled fumbling with a hopeless boy. Visually too its a treat. The stiflingly dull recreation of 1950s New Zealand contrasted with the primary colours of their dream world. By the final act their terrible crime seems appalling but somehow inevitable, such is the attention to detail.
Overall verdict: Jackson is now seen as up there with some of the most influential filmmakers of the last 20 years, but this will forever be his calling card. An unforgettable piece of film-making, not to be missed.
Special Features:
UK and US trailers
Looking Back Featurette
Image Gallery
Collectors postcard set
Reviewer: Mike Martin