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Bad Taste (1987) - Peter Jackson


I had been putting Bad Taste off for years. I wanted to save it for something special. I had long forgotten what that special thing was going to be and decided that I better make it my "Season Premier" for the 31 Movies of Halloween. I am happy I didn't jump the gun. I was really entertained and can see what everyone is talking about. 

A terribly awesome flick from Peter Jackson, the director of Lord of the Rings and Dead Alive. The latter horror fans may be familiar with. This is the movie that put him on the map. It is the one film that took out the Queensland Film Board of Review in 1990. Full of blood, guts, and brains, enough to make your stomach churn. It's a fast paced debut from a future directeur extraordinaire. It really shows the grass roots that Jackson worked with. Fascinating as well as disgusting. 


A group of vile aliens have taken over a small town in New Zealand. They have cannibalized the populace and are butchering them to be sold as a delicacy in the intergalactic snack market. However, a group of operatives have been assembled to blow these outsiders right off of our planet! Only problem is that they are complete morons. Hilarity and nausea ensues. 

The gore comes in buckets, as do the squibs. Peter Jackson did a great job with the special effects and wanted to make sure that they were on full display. There are long sequences of obscene amounts of gore and gun play. There are almost as many ricochet bullets flying around as there are little bits of brain and gore splattering on the walls. The acting and story-lines don't really play a factor here. But there are tons of memorable moments and scenes.

This is a great movie to throw on at grown-up Halloween parties. It's comedy is really enhanced with a group watching it. It's not horrible it's just really low-budget. You will be impressed with the quality of the effects. It's really something else. Peter Jackson really out does himself here. I highly recommend this movie to anyone looking for a good time. You can't watch Bad Taste without at least smiling once. 

Director: Peter Jackson
Country: New Zealand
Studio: Wingnut Films

Did ya know...
Director Peter Jackson shot the film on weekends over a four-year period with friends playing the lead roles. Jackson funded most of the film himself until towards the end of the shoot when the New Zealand Film Commission gave him money to finish his project after being impressed with what he'd already produced. There was never a script for the movie; each scene was filmed from ideas the director had come up with during the week.

Peter Jackson made all masks in his mother's kitchen. The heads of the aliens are bent backwards because otherwise they wouldn't fit in the oven where the latex was hardened.


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