Review of Bad Taste (1987) by Gareth J — 26 Dec 2007

As a first feature for New Zealand's favorite son, Peter Jackson's B-movie classic Bad Taste exemplifies the extent to just how much gold can come out of such a low budget. The story is as confusing and chaotic as it could possibly get - with carniverous aliens farming human beings in order to provide an inexhaustable supply of meat - and a wide range of inspirations.

Those with a kean eye will be quick to notice that Jackson himself plays not one but two roles himself in the film. The most obvious of these is mentally retarded chundering Evil ET Robert, and the second is Derek: a nerdy gimp who feels like a mix of Ash from Evil Dead, Doctor Who and Rick Moranis.

Indeed, much like his contemporary Sam Raimi - who took great pleasure from paying homage to The Three Stooges in Evil Dead - Jackson laces references to Doctor Who and indeed other great B-grade sci-fi pieces through out this masterwork: the dialogue between Frank and Oz (their names being a conscious nod to the Yoda-meister) about how the aliens arrived on Earth being the most blatant.

However, like so many B-films, Bad Taste's true gravitas come from knowing that the film is shite. Filmed with what looks like shaky hand-held super 8, the low budget natue of Bad Taste is worn on the film's sleave to great effect as heroes 'The Boys' chase down foam-rubber suited baddies and laff out corny one liners whilst wading through a small abbatoir of blood and offal.

The latter is testament Jackson's innovation as a special effects wizard in his ability to create some truly stomach churning moments - undoubtedly the worst being Derek's headwound which causes his brains to spill out and continues to look painful every time the audience sees it.

The downside is that a large portion of it feels too Hollywood. Whilst the lighting and gore is always amazing, the heavy focus on guns and 80's mullets is a little overwhelming for a low budget film and it does come over as off-putting when such a large portion of the action is done with pretensious Arnie/Sly bravado.

Still, seeing a sheep blown up with a panzerfaust is always funny. For a first effort, Bad Taste is a diamond in the rough. In an age of digital effects and watered down fantasy films it's nice to get some honest to goodness splatter coupled with some surreal, British inspired humour and I thus look forward to seeing both Braindead and Meet the Feebles hopefully in the near future.

If one of the great directors of this decade began with such lowly humble beginnings, then there is always hope for poor young film makers yet.