Review of Bad Taste (1987) by Ryan H — 02 Sep 2012

In 1983 Peter Jackson embarked on a journey to create a short film about aliens who harvest human bodies for a fast food chain. Little did he know it would turn out to be a feature he would make during the weekends for four years.

In 1987, the world was introduced to Bad Taste. It will forever be known as the start up of one of the greatest directors of our time and a funny/disgusting cult comedy and horror film. Bad Taste starts out with no credits or anything, just a guy walking around a deserted town and being followed by something that walks at the pace of a zombie.

Here's when we know that this was a story that changed over time: Derek tells the guy down below that he must shoot the alien in the head. That's the only way he'll die. Later on we see them shoot plenty of aliens in the chest and they die.

They even die from falling from tall places. They have the same mortality as humans. The inconsistency doesn't ruin the film; in this case it makes it more fun. There's not much story to Bad Taste.

It's basically just a group of people from a government agency go to a small town in New Zealand to see that the people are gone and it's invested with aliens, and now these people have to kill the aliens before they leave so that the entire human population is not killed and turned into fast food.

The title fits very well here because what keeps us watching more than anything are the gross special effects in the film. For example, the guy falling off the cliff and blood goes everywhere, then he wakes up and discovers his skull is cracked and his brain keeps spilling out, so he needs to find a way to keep that flap closed.

The above picture was pretty gross, where Peter Jackson as one of the aliens eats a man's brains. Then there's the scene where they eat his vomit. And my favorite of all was when Derek chainsaws through a guy's body and goes through him only to come out through his butt and say "I've been reborn!" The film's filled with non-stop excitement.

Only one spot really stops to have the characters talk to explain the plot, and that was kind of dull, but the rest is totally fun. You can see from this one why Dead Alive would turn out to be the goriest film ever made.

Peter Jackson has a wide range of talent in filmmaking and I hope to see him go back to his horror b-movie roots again one day.