Bad Taste (1987) or, Hungry Aliens in New Zealand

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A grisly alien in a suit, flipping the bird while holding a Kalashnikov makes up this eye-popping poster for Peter Jackson's Bad Taste

Aliens land by a small town in New Zealand to harvest humans for fast food consumption, but are met with a ragtag para-military resistance.

 
Bad Taste is written by Ken Hammon (The Murder House (1998, short)), Tony Hiles (Jack Brown Genius (1996)) and debuting New Zealander master filmmaker co-writer/director/cinematographer/co-editor/co-star Peter Jackson (The Frighteners (1996)).
Bad Taste is a gory crazy-comedy: Guts, blood and brains fly right and left, while just about everyone over-act absurdly throughout, - all in pretty bad taste, some might argue. But the film is highly entertaining and seriously impressive technically for a debut, all things considered.
The amount of special effects in Bad Taste is enormous, and the film is funny, made with tons of boyish glee and enthusiasm and really out there. It points ahead to Jackson's best film, Dead Alive/Braindead (1992) for us who dare prefer it over the filmmaker's later Lord of the Rings triumphs.

 

Related posts:

Peter Jackson: The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013) - Jackson returns with overrated, artificial-looking turkey 

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012) - Jackson's megalomania gives birth to the first third of an enormous fantasy whopper

The Lovely Bones (2009) - Despite qualities, Jackson's metaphysical crime drama is a wasteful jumble 
The Frighteners (1996) - FX-driven ghost comedy madness
Top 10: The best big flop movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Braindead/Dead Alive (1992) - Jackson's best film ever is a gore classic! 

 

 

Jackson talks about making the film in an interview here

Cost: Reportedly 260k NZ$, approximately 163k $
Box office: Uncertain but in excess of 114k $
= Uncertain but likely a huge hit (projected return of at least 6.13 times its cost)

[Bad Taste was released 25 December (New Zealand) and runs 92 minutes. Shooting took place in New Zealand from 1983-87. Jackson shot the film reportedly without a script, (so the three writer's credits are seemingly more for thinking up ideas through the long shooting process), on a 25 year-old 16 mm Bolex camera, funding it mostly himself, with friends acting in the film. All the alien masks were reportedly baked in Jackson's mother's oven! The New Zealand Film Commission invested 235k NZ$ into the completion of the film, bringing its total cost to 260k $, since 25k $ were reportedly spent besides this money. The details concerning the film's performance in New Zealand or any of the other many markets that it released in are regrettably not available online, but it is likely that the film at least grossed 1-2 mil. $ and would therefore be at least a huge hit. The only available gross number is that the film sold 29k tickets in France, which accounts for approximately 114k $. The film was temporarily banned in Queensland, Australia, and censored in other markets. Jackson returned with Meet the Feebles (1989). Bad Taste is fresh at 71 % with a 6.40/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of Bad Taste?

The Frighteners (1996) - Jackson's FX-driven ghost comedy madness

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One of the reasons for The Frighteners' box office failure according to its director Peter Jackson was its suggestive poster

A small town ghostbuster, who also gets the town's loud ghosts to haunt in the first place, gets into trouble when a mass murderer, who has been dead for decades, begins slaughtering people from the beyond, dressed as the grim reaper.

This is the basic story in New Zealander master filmmaker Peter Jackson's (Braindead/Dead Alive (1992)) 6th feature, written by his wife Fran Walsh (Meet the Feebles (1989)) and with Michael J. Fox (Back to the Future (1985)) in the lead. Robert Zemeckis (Flight (2012)) executive produced and probably suggested Fox based on their Back to the Future hit films (1985; 1989; 1990) together, and the infinitely likable Fox does well here again.
The Frighteners is a super fast-paced action-adventure/horror comedy driven by impressive, innovative special effects just like Sam Raimi's great Army of Darkness (1992) or Tim Burton's brilliant Beetle Juice (1988). The important difference, however, is that Frighteners in no way lives up to these other two gems in terms of neither plot nor laughs.
On top of this, the film marks one time that master composer Danny Elfman's (Men in Black 3 (2012)) trademark of loud and huge orchestrations just goes over the top and becomes too much. - The film is overly loud throughout and gives its audience no time to think or gather interest, but simply roars us down deeply into our seats.
The visual effects are impressive, though, and it is interesting to trail the immediate evolution of CGI, - from James Cameron's Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), over Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park (1993) and Chuck Russell's The Mask (1994), - into The Frighteners, where especially the moving wall and flying cloak effects are very close to being flawless.
Of the characters in Frighteners that unfortunately just don't work are the loopy FBI-agent (played by cult horror favorite Jeffrey Combs (From Beyond (1986))), the incredibly naive widow (played by Trini Alvarado (Little Children (2006))) and the theatrically evil co-conspirator (played by Dee Wallace (E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982))). The film just doesn't make you believe in them as characters, and my interest in them could not shift as fast as is required in order to enjoy this film that is brimming with silly gags one minute and then tries to conjure up real suspense the next.
Jackson was generous in his personal explanations as to why The Frighteners was a financial disappointment: The American distributor Universal Pictures, exceedingly thrilled with the film, moved its release up to the summer, which isn't normally a good time for horror, and this particular summer 'belonged to' Independence Day (1996). - The Olympics were opening in Atlanta at the same time. And Jackson also blamed the poster above, which, in his own words, "didn't tell you anything about the picture."- There seems to be some truth in that.
The Frighteners didn't hurt Jackson's career much, though, as we know: He went on to develop The Lord of the Rings for the first installment in 2001. He has since then also shown deficiency with visually 'stunning' serial killer material in the sound dud The Lovely Bones (2009), illusions of grandeur in the criminally long, disagreeable remake of King Kong (2005), and today, of course, he is back to hobbits and orcs in his Hobbit films (2012; 2013; 2014). Alas. - If only Jackson would go back scale-wise and make a 10 mil. $ horror film without CGI again. - Now that would be interesting!

Related posts:

Peter Jackson: The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014) - Jackson's Tolkien engagement ends on a note of cinematic ruin 

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013) - Jackson returns with overrated, artificial-looking turkey 

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012) - Jackson's megalomania gives birth to the first third of an enormous fantasy whopper

The Lovely Bones (2009) - Despite qualities, Jackson's metaphysical crime drama is a wasteful jumble 

Top 10: Best gore movies 

1992 in films - according to Film Excess 
Top 10: The best big flop movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Braindead/Dead Alive (1992) - Jackson's best film ever is a gore classic!   
Bad Taste (1987) or, Peter Jackson's Hungry Aliens in New Zealand 

Watch the trailer for the movie here

Cost: 26 mil. $

Box office: 29.3 mil. $

= Big flop (returned 1.12 times the cost)
[The Frighteners premiered 17 July (California) and runs 110 minutes. Zemeckis/Jackson were granted final cut privilege and one of the longest-approved (by Universal) shoots, which ran May - November 1995 in New Zealand, including Wellington, and in Oklahoma. Jackson wasn't able to swing the PG-rating that he had promised Universal, and they consequently had to accept an R-rating for Frighteners, (which basically keeps away the younger teen crowds that the film is, to some degree, aimed at.) Jackson's experiences here also made him realize the importance of good marketing. The film opened #5, behind holdover hits Independence Day, Phenomenon, Courage Under Fire and The Nutty Professor to a 5.5 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it was pulled after just 3 weeks, grossing 16.7 mil. $ (57 % of the total gross). Roger Ebert gave the film a 1/4 star review, translating to a notch under this one. Jackson returned with The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001). The Frighteners was Fox's last live-action feature, together with the great Mars Attacks! also a 1996 release. He has since mainly done voice work and TV-series due to his suffering from Parkinson's Disease. The Frighteners is fresh at 66 % and a 6.2/10 critical average on Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Frighteners?