Monday, August 17, 2015

Heavenly Creatures (1994)

Director: Peter Jackson

Writers: Fran Walsh, Peter Jackson

Composer: Peter Dasent

Starring: Melanie Lynskey, Kate Winslet, Sarah Peirse, Diana Kent, Clive Merrison, Simon O'Connor, Jed Brophy, Peter Elliott, Gilbert Goldie

More info: IMDb

Tagline: The true story of a crime that shocked a nation.

Plot: Two girls have an intense fantasy life; their parents, concerned the fantasy is too intense, separate them, and the girls take revenge.



My rating: 8/10

Will I watch it again?  Nah, twice is fine.

I first watched this in the months leading up to Peter Jackson's first LOTR movie 'cause I wanted to see what this guy did that was so special to go from low budget horror to this film to the gargantuan LOTR trilogy.  Great flick, this one.  I like it a little more now than I did 15 years ago. It's playful, the relationship between the two girls is cute and infectious and the story takes us on a natural and understandable path that leads to murder and the murder is cringe-worthy even if you don't get to see it full on.  Dasent's score is beautiful and it's ideal for the picture.  The performances are strong, too, as is everything else. It's a well-crafted drama that spends nearly the entire film building the relationship between these girls and creating the atmosphere that justifies (in their minds only) their actions.  Fascinating and engaging pretty much sum this up.  The nearly bare bones Mirimax DVD has a nice anamorphic widescreen print but the extras are weak as you only get a trailer for this film and for BACKFLASH, TEACHING MRS. TINGLE, SHIPPING NEWS, PNERO and one that features a best of Mirimax which is them just trumpeting how good they are, all of which are fullscreen. 

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