Bad Taste is a 1987 New Zealand science-fictioncomedy horror film[3] directed, produced and filmed by Peter Jackson, who also starred in it and co-wrote the screenplay, along with Tony Hiles and Ken Hammon. Independently produced on a low budget, it is Jackson's first feature film. Jackson and friends take on most of the key roles, both on and off-screen. The plotline sees aliens invade the fictional New Zealand village of Kaihoro to harvest humans for their intergalactic fast foodfranchise, where they face off against a four-man paramilitary force. The film was shot in Northern Wellington over the course of four years, and eventually reviewed nearly a quarter of a million dollars in New Zealand Film Commission assistance, providing Jackson with the leverage necessary to advance in the film industry.
Since its release, Bad Taste has become a cult film and has received stronger reviews. It is regarded as a classic of New Zealand indie cinema.[by whom?] In 2008, British film magazine Empire ranked Bad Taste as the 416th greatest film ever made.[citation needed]
Plot
After the town of Kaihoro's entire population disappear, the Astro Investigation and Defence Service (AIDS) sends their agents Derek, Frank, Ozzy, and Barry to investigate. They find the town overrun by man-eating space aliens disguised as humans in blue shirts. Barry kills one of the aliens and is attacked by others. After Derek notifies Frank and Ozzy, he begins torturing Robert, an alien they caught earlier. Robert's screaming attracts a number of aliens. Derek kills the would-be rescuers, but he is attacked by Robert and falls off a cliff ledge, to his presumed death.
Meanwhile, charity collector Giles passes through Kaihoro. He escapes Roberts' attack and comes to nearby house for help, only to get captured by another alien. Giles later wakes up in a tub of water filled with vegetables and is told he is about to be cooked and eaten. Derek wakes up in a seagull's nest with a hole in his head, so uses a hat to keep his brains from leaking out.
That night, Frank, Ozzy, and Barry infiltrate the aliens' house and find a room filled with bloody cardboard boxes, likely containing the corpses of former Kaihoro residents. They kill an alien, and Frank wears its shirt to infiltrate their meeting. He learns that the victims have been harvested for food and hears of their recent hostage, Giles. The alien later dine on Robert's vomit, and the disguised (and disgusted) Frank has to follow suit. He escapes and tells the others of the plan. They save Giles as the aliens sleep.
At sunrise, they try to leave but are attacked by the aliens, and a gunfight ensues. Derek emerges and joins the fight, using his belt as a headband when the hat is shot off. He grabs a chainsaw from the boot of his car and heads for the aliens' house. As the group leaves with Giles, the alien leader (Lord Crumb) and his followers morph into their true form and follow. Ozzy uses a rocket launcher to explode Frank's car, which has been overrun by aliens.
Frank and Ozzy hunt for Lord Crumb and kill many aliens along the way. Meanwhile, Derek kills an alien with his chainsaw and replaces the missing parts of his brain with its brain. An alien prepares to shoot Frank and Ozzy, but it is beheaded by Derek. Frank and Ozzy are shocked to see him alive, and see he has lost his mind.
After they escape the house, Lord Crumb shoots Ozzy in the leg and Frank fires his rocket launcher at the leader, but misses. Lord Crumb knocked out Derek; the house transforms into a giant space ship and blasts off into space.
On board, Derek looks out the window to see Earth. He ambushes Crumb and kills the alien with his chainsaw. He proclaims war on the alien, then puts on the alien leader's skin and laughs maniacally as he rockets towards the alien planet.
Back on Earth, the survivors drive away in Derek's car.
Much of the film was shot in and around Jackson's home suburb of Pukerua Bay in northern Wellington, using a 25-year-old 16mm Bolex camera.[4] Originally begun as a 20-minute short film called Roast of the Day,[5]Bad Taste was shot primarily on weekends over the course of four years, at an initial cost of around $25,000. Toward the end of the shoot the New Zealand Film Commission invested around NZ$235,000 into the film to ensure its completion. Heavily influenced by special effects pioneer Tom Savini, Jackson incorporated many absurdly goryspecial effects.[2]
Peter Jackson himself plays two acting roles. In one early scene halfway down a cliff, careful editing, utilising shots taken months apart, makes it possible for the two characters, Derek and the alien Robert (both played by Jackson), to fight one another.[4]
Bad Taste begins Jackson's penchant for using the Morris Minor in his films - Giles drives a Morris Minor. Subsequently, every car in Meet the Feebles is a Morris Minor (including a limousine) and several are seen in Braindead.
A combination of blank firing firearms and homemade weapon props were used in the film. Most of the firearm props were made using recycled aluminium and wood. The actors also had to shake them to simulate the recoil. A flash and sound effect was added later during post production.[4]
All the alien masks in the film were baked in Peter Jackson's mother's oven.[4]
Kaihoro, the name of the town whose inhabitants are butchered, is a Māori word coined by Jackson and his crew early in the shooting of the film. It has two parts - "kai" which means food and "horo" which means town or village. Foodtown is also the name of a New Zealand chain of grocery stores. Kai horo in Te Reo Maori means 'greedy' - but is made up of the words Kai (food) and horo (quickly) which, loosely translated, could be said to mean fast food, a play on the fate of the villagers.
The sheep in the film was to have played a larger role as a running gag, being surprisingly aggressive and chasing "The Boys" at various points throughout. This was reduced to the single sheep/rocket launcher moment of the final scene.
Release
The film sold to many countries after playing in the market at the 1987 Cannes Film Festival. Despite its wide acclaim, the film failed to impress at the 1989 NZ Film and Television Awards, winning no awards. As well as this, a TVNZ executive spoke out the next day about whether or not the film industry needed films like Bad Taste. The film did however still win favour among the country's cult film audiences.[2] In France, the film received 29,339 admissions.[6]
Reception
Bad Taste received generally positive reviews. Kim Newman of Empire gave the film three stars out of five, with praise being directed to the special effects.[7] For AllMovie, Jason Buchanan wrote that Bad Taste was "amazingly resourceful," but that it moves at such a "hyperactive" pace that "it's nearly impossible to draw a breath, much less take a moment to laugh at the revoltingly hilarious exploits."[8] In a much less positive review, Time Out summarised that although "the film had its moments," it was not a worthwhile watch.[9]
The film holds a 73% approval rating on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 22 reviews with an average rating of 6.50/10. The site's consensus reads: "Peter Jackson's early low-budget shocker boasts a disgusting premise—aliens harvesting humans for fast food—that gives the budding auteur plenty of room for gross-out visuals and absurd cleverness."[10] On Metacritic, the film holds a score of 52 out of 100 based on reviews by 4 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews."[11]
Censorship
The banning of an already cut version of Bad Taste in Queensland, Australia, three weeks into its run, led to the firing and dissolution of the Queensland Film Board of Review in 1990. The film had to be trimmed for release in Australia at the time, as the OFLC felt the gore too excessive. When released on home video in Australia, the words "BANNED IN QUEENSLAND" was proclaimed on the cover. The uncut version was released by Universal Home Entertainment on DVD in 2004.[12]
Apart from the uncut version, there is a heavily cut FSK 18-rated and an even more censored FSK 12-rated version in Germany available on DVD. The former is cut by approximately 6 minutes, the latter by approximately 10 minutes.[13]
In December 2018, Peter Jackson announced that he plans to restore Bad Taste, along with his two following films Meet the Feebles and Braindead (known as Dead Alive in North America) for a possible 4K release.[15]
Legacy
During his acceptance speech at the 2004 Academy Awards, Jackson mentioned Bad Taste (along with Meet the Feebles), joking that it had been "wisely overlooked by the Academy."[16]
On 15 September 2001, the Michael Fowler Centre in Wellington, New Zealand, hosted Armageddon. One of the main features for the 2001 convention was the cast of Bad Taste attending for a quick question and answer session on the main stage, and a screening of the film. The cast members who attended were, Craig Smith (Giles), Pete O'Herne (Barry), Mike Minett (Frank), Terry Potter (Ozzy), Ken Hammon (Writer, 3rd Class Alien), and Dean Lawrie (Lord Crumb SPFX Double, 3rd Class Alien).
In 2008, Empire ranked Bad Taste as the 416th greatest film of all time, based on opinions from readers and industry professionals.[17]
Australian grindcore band Blood Duster sampled Bad Taste in their 1993 EP Fisting the Dead, which includes the track "Derek" referring to the character played by Peter Jackson.
Meet the Feebles is a 1989 New Zealand puppet musical black comedy film directed by Peter Jackson, and written by Jackson, Fran Walsh, Stephen Sinclair, and Danny Mulheron. The plot follows a stage troupe of puppet animals in a perverse comic satire, in contrast to the positive innocence and naïve folly of The Muppets, the Feebles largely present negativity, vice, and other misanthropic characteristics.
Braindead is a 1992 New Zealand zombie comedy splatter film directed by Peter Jackson, produced by Jim Booth, and written by Stephen Sinclair, Fran Walsh, and Jackson based on an original story idea by Sinclair. It stars Timothy Balme, Diana Peñalver, Elizabeth Moody and Ian Watkin. The plot follows Lionel, a young man living in South Wellington with his strict mother Vera. After Lionel becomes romantically entangled with a girl named Paquita, Vera is bitten by a hybrid rat-monkey creature and begins to transform into a zombie, while also infecting swathes of the city's populace.
Dame Frances Rosemary Walsh is a New Zealand screenwriter and film producer.
Miramar is a suburb of Wellington, New Zealand, south-east of the city centre. It is on the Miramar Peninsula, directly east of the isthmus of Rongotai, the site of Wellington International Airport.
Ramon Rivero is an animation director, digital puppeteer and computer animator best known for his work on the 2001 film The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.
Stuart Forbes Devenie is a New Zealand actor and theatre director, whose career spans three decades on stage and screen. He has performed in theatre productions nationally and internationally. In the 1980s, he was the artistic director of Centrepoint Theatre in Palmerston North and has been a senior educator at Toi Whakaari New Zealand Drama School. In 2000, he founded Playfair Ltd theatre company.
WingNut Films Productions Ltd is a New Zealand production company based in Wellington, with other offices in Hollywood, United States, London, United Kingdom, and Melbourne, Australia; notably for producing and collaborating predominantly with filmmaker Peter Jackson, especially on The Lord of the Rings. WingNut Films also has produced at Pinewood Studios in England. Its US subsidiary is WingNut Films, Inc.
James William Arthur "Jamie" Selkirk is a film editor and producer who has worked primarily in New Zealand. He is particularly noted for his work on The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, which he co-produced with Peter Jackson. He received the Academy Award for Best Film Editing for the last film of the trilogy, The Return of the King (2003).
Cinema of Unease: A Personal Journey by Sam Neill is a documentary about the history of New Zealand cinema written by Sam Neill and co-directed by Neill and Judy Rymer. The film was released in 1995, and was New Zealand's contribution to the British Film Institute's Century of Cinema series. The title refers to the dark and brooding nature of many of New Zealand's most notable films, which Neill considers a reflection of the nation's struggle to find, or form, its own identity. The film screened in the 1995 Cannes Film Festival, and won Best Documentary in the 1996 TV Guide Film and Television Awards of New Zealand.
Christian Rivers is a New Zealand storyboard artist, visual effects supervisor, special effects technician, and director. He first met Peter Jackson as a 17-year-old, and storyboarded all of Jackson's films since Braindead. He made his directing debut in the film adaptation of Mortal Engines, and planning a remake of The Dam Busters, both produced by Peter Jackson.
Jed Brophy is an actor from New Zealand. He has appeared in several of Peter Jackson's films, including Braindead, Heavenly Creatures, The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, and King Kong. Brophy also appears as the dwarf Nori in The Hobbit films.
The Valley is a 1976 stop motion live action adventure/fantasy post-apocalyptic short film made by a then fifteen-year-old Peter Jackson with his friends. It was strongly influenced by the films of Ray Harryhausen. It was filmed silent on a Super 8 camera and was shown on the children's television show Spot On.
Sir Peter Robert Jackson is a New Zealand filmmaker. He is best known as the director, writer and producer of the Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001–2003) and the Hobbit trilogy (2012–2014), both of which are adapted from the novels of the same name by J. R. R. Tolkien. Other notable films include the critically lauded drama Heavenly Creatures (1994), the horror comedy The Frighteners (1996), the epic monster remake film King Kong (2005), the World War I documentary film They Shall Not Grow Old (2018) and the documentary The Beatles: Get Back (2021). He is the fifth-highest-grossing film director of all-time, his films having made over $6.5 billion worldwide.
Brian Sergent is a comedian, writer and actor born and based in Wellington, New Zealand.
Elizabeth Moody was an English-born New Zealand film, television and theatre actress and director.
Stephen Sinclair is a New Zealand playwright, screenwriter and novelist. He is the co-author of stage comedy Ladies Night. In 2001, the French version won the Molière Award for stage comedy of the year. Other plays include The Bellbird and The Bach, both of which are prescribed texts for Drama Studies in New Zealand secondary schools.
Neil Kinnock was Leader of the Labour Party and Leader of the Opposition from 2 October 1983 to 18 July 1992. He convincingly defeated Roy Hattersley, Eric Heffer, and Peter Shore in the 1983 leadership election, which was prompted by Michael Foot's resignation following the disastrous general election result earlier that year. Kinnock's period as Leader encompassed the bulk of the Thatcher premiership and the first two years of the Major premiership. Kinnock resigned in 1992 after losing his second election as Leader.
Ian Watkin was a New Zealand actor known for the films Braindead and Sleeping Dogs.
Peter O'Herne was a New Zealand actor, known for his collaborations with director Peter Jackson. He appears in Jackson directed films The Valley (1976) and Bad Taste (1987).
The following is a list of unproduced Peter Jackson projects in roughly chronological order. During his long career, New Zealand filmmaker Peter Jackson has worked on several projects which never progressed beyond the pre-production stage under his direction. Some of these projects fell in development hell, were officially canceled, were in development limbo or would see life under a different production team.
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