Bad Taste (1997)

When watching this 1987 film it is difficult to imagine that it’s director - New Zealander Peter Jackson - would in a mere dozen years end up directing one of the most ambitious film projects in cinema history – the “Lord Of The Rings” trilogy. Although this low budget horror comedy lacks the budget or top-quality acting talent seen in his most recent movie, there are still hints of his directing talent and it provides a fair amount of entertainment.

This film is both a typical low-budget B-movie and, simultaneously, a mild parody of the genre. The film is set in a remote village in Jackson’s native New Zealand which is the site of a minor alien invasion - consisting of aliens in human form who have murdered the local population in order to sell their bodies as an exotic food-source. New Zealand’s elite anti-alien-invasion force, the National Air And Space Defense League (which seemingly consists of four people, a couple of cars and some big guns) springs into action to combat the alien menace. It’s not a very serious plot and the script is extremely tongue-in-cheek featuring some rather eccentric characters and one of the silliest cars in movie history.

The dialogue is generally quite amusing, featuring some brilliantly over-the-top lines and as a comedy it works fairly well. Unfortunately, while the action scenes are often quite high quality considering the minuscule budget, the film relies a bit too much on ridiculous amounts of gore. After a while the sheer amount of blood getting spilled begins to get a bit dull, and the film would arguably be better if there was more of a concentration on the plot and the witty dialogue. There is no shortage of gory zombie films out there but very few with a script as good as this so it’s a shame they didn’t put in a bit more deadpan dialogue in place of the gore.

The direction is, by necessity, rudimentary as Jackson didn’t have much professional film-making equipment. Considering the equipment and monetary shortcomings it does look surprisingly good, the picture quality is quite reasonable and there’s even some special effects that don’t look too tacky. The unknown actors don’t acquit themselves too badly either, managing to be of a higher standard than most b-movies although the acting is still very amateurish. Jackson himself takes on two roles, managing the impressive feat of having a fight with himself while playing both one of the aliens, and the deranged hero of the film, Derek.

In summary, this is an often-amusing horror comedy film that manages to be surprisingly well-made for a first feature.

Rating : 7 / 10

All content ©2003 William Marnoch.

Comments? Agree/Disagree with the Reviews? Suggestions? Random Ramblings? Whatever you might want to say, feel free to e-mail me at william@wmarnoch.freeserve.co.uk .