If I had known what I now know about movies and directors when I was a kid, then I would have told you that New Line Cinema was out of their freaking minds for picking Peter Jackson to direct Lord of the Rings. His body of work didn’t seem to start out as high brow and classy as it is considered now.
His first film was called, appropriately enough, Bad Taste, about an alien invasion. It feature an insane amount of gore and was considered very edgy.
And then he went on to do Meet the Feebles, a raunchy puppet based film that was basically a spoof of the Muppets and had some very adult situation.
And then there came the film that many people would consider the “splatterpiece” (criminally bad punning, I know). That movie would be Braindead. You say you haven’t heard of it? That’s because here in the US of A it was titled Dead Alive. Yeah, now you know what movie I’m talking about. I saw Braindead when I was about 4 years old, and I’ve got to say, I still occasionally get nightmares of an evil baby attacking me (although I’m able to laugh at it nowadays). It is seriously the goriest film I’ve ever seen, and my repertoire is pretty extensive.
So then in 1994 something happened. Nobody who could call themselves a fan of Jackson could have seen it coming, but it happened. He made a film without intentionally controversial material. It didn’t have splatter based violence. That movie was the drama Heavenly Creatures, for which Jackson and his partner Fran Walsh were nominated for an Academy Award for screenwriting. Jackson was shifting to mainstream.
Then, of course, he did the Frighteners, which has a large cult following. Then he did Lord of the Rings, which really doesn’t need to be elaborated on. And then he went on to do King Kong, which while I do think was just a little bit too long by about 30 minutes, I enjoyed.
And now his latest film is an adaptation of the novel The Lovely Bones. The film is about a teenage girl who is murdered and tries to help her family solve the murder from a Heavenlike world. The trailer for the film looks fantastic. Which you can watch here.
This could very well be Jackson’s next Oscar, but to all the fans who fear he may be a sellout, don’t worry. He has recently stated that he is interest in returning to his roots with a sequel to Bad Taste, although nothing official has been said.
Here are some of Jackson’s works on DVD if you think you’d like to pick them. I chose ones that are more memorable. Remember, if you buy a DVD here and there from me, it helps keeps this blog going. Keep in mind that Dead Alive (Braindead) is NOT for the faint of heart.
