Bad Taste
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- For other meanings, see Bad taste.
| Bad Taste | |
|---|---|
| Image:Bad taste poster.jpg | |
| Directed by | Peter Jackson |
| Produced by | Peter Jackson |
| Written by | Ken Hammon, Tony Hiles, Peter Jackson |
| Starring | Terry Potter, Pete O'Herne, Peter Jackson, Mike Minett, Craig Smith |
| Music by | Michelle Scullion |
| Editing by | Jamie Selkirk, Peter Jackson |
| Distributed by | New Zealand Film Commission |
| Release date(s) | 1987 |
| Running time | 91 mins |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $25,000 + $230,000 |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Bad Taste is a low-budget 1987 cult film, the first directed by Peter Jackson, in which aliens invade the fictional New Zealand village of Kaihoro (population 78) in order to harvest human beings for their intergalactic fast food franchise but are repelled by a four-man paramilitary force.
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[edit] Plot Synopsis
The Astro Investigation and Defence Service (AIDS) sends Derek (Peter Jackson), Frank, Ozzy, and Barry to investigate the disappearance of the entire township of Kaihoro, New Zealand. Barry kills the first alien and speaks with Derek over walkie-talkies. Barry is attacked by more aliens and after Derek notifies Frank and Ozzy, he begins torturing an alien named Robert they caught earlier. Robert begins screaming and attracts more aliens, Barry calls Derek to warn him and Derek replies that he has everything under control. Derek takes out three aliens and ends up on the edge of a cliff where he kills two more. He is attacked by the alien he tortured and falls from the cliff to his presumed death.
Barry sees Robert and notifies Frank and Ozzy of Derek's demise and tells them to stay where they are as he follows the alien. Meanwhile a collector named Giles is going through Kaihoro and is attacked by Robert, who is eating the brains of the alien Barry killed. Robert tries to kill Giles, but he escapes in his car and goes to nearby house for help. An alien answers the door and captures Giles, and Barry tells this to Frank and Ozzy. Giles wakes up in a tub of water and the alien leader tells him that he is to be eaten. Later, Derek wakes up and finds that he fell in a seagull's nest, he laughs and then panics as his brains start falling out the back of his head. He stuffs them back in and goes to his car to put on a hat, he then passes out again.
Meanwhile Frank, Ozzy, and Barry decide to rescue the collector at midnight. That night they sneak in and stumble upon a room filled with bloody cardboard boxes, an alien walks in and they kill him. Frank puts on its blue shirt and goes out with the other aliens and finds that Kaihoro is being used for fast food. Robert barfs in a bowl and the aliens eat it as dinner, Frank eats it too and is disgusted, he then sneaks away to tell the others of the plan and they leave to save the collector as the aliens go to sleep.
They try to leave the house at sunrise and are attacked by aliens, and a huge gunfight ensues. Derek's hat is shot off, he then wears his belt. He drives off and runs into an alien, gets out his chainsaw and heads for the alien house. As the boys leave with the collector, the leader (Lord Crumb) and his alien followers go back to their alien form and follow them. Frank's car is damaged and the aliens get in, but Ozzy gets out the rocket launcher and blows them up. Lord Crumb thinks that the boys are dead and decides to head home, but Ozzy comes and shoots at the house angering the aliens.
Frank and Ozzy go in to find Lord Crumb and kill many aliens along the way. Derek comes in with the chainsaw and kills an alien, replacing the missing parts of his brain with alien brain. An alien prepares to shoot Frank and Ozzy, but has its head cut in half by Derek who sticks his face through a hole in the wall. Frank and Ozzy are shocked to see him alive, but run out of the house noting that he has become erratic and violent.
As they run, Lord Crumb shoots Ozzy in the leg and Frank shoots the rocket launcher at the leader, but it misses the leader and almost hits Derek, hitting a sheep out the other window. Derek is knocked out by the alien leader who leaves and pilots the house into space with Derek still aboard. Frank and Ozzy are upset that Derek is still in the flying house, but are relieved that the aliens are gone.
On board, Derek looks out the window to see that he is leaving Earth. When Lord Crumb calls home he hears the sound of Derek's chainsaw, goes to investigate and is killed as Derek dives from a hole in the ceiling, before proclaiming: "I'm born again!" He then shouts "I'm coming to get you bastards!" into the phone and puts on the alien leader's skin laughing maniacally as he heads for the alien planet. On Earth, Frank, Ozzy, Barry, and Giles drive away in Derek's car into the sunset.
[edit] Production notes
Heavily influenced by special effects pioneer Tom Savini, Peter Jackson incorporated easy camera tricks while giving the audience impressively gory special effects. Part of the film was shot in Jackson's home town of Pukerua Bay, north of Wellington, New Zealand. It was shot primarily on weekends over the course of four years, at a total cost of around $25,000 (toward the end of the shoot the New Zealand Film Commission invested around NZ$235,000 into the film to ensure its completion), and Jackson himself plays at least two roles. Careful editing, from shots taken months apart, makes it possible in one scene for one character played by Jackson to fight with the other character played by Jackson (one with beard, Robert, and one without, Derek).
The rest of the roles are filled by Jackson's friends and family, many of whom were co-workers of his at the time. Jackson also created the over-the-top gory make-up effects, which emphasized absurdity. The film secured international distribution (quite unexpected even by its director) after playing at the Cannes Film Festival.
[edit] Main cast
- Terry Potter - Ozzy/3rd Class Alien
- Pete O'Herne - Barry/3rd Class Alien
- Craig Smith - Giles/3rd Class Alien
- Mike Minett - Frank/3rd Class Alien
- Peter Jackson - Derek/Robert
- Doug Wren - Lord Crumb
- Dean Lawrie - Lord Crumb SPFX Double/3rd Class Alien
- Peter Vere-Jones - Lord Crumb's Voice
[edit] 2001 Armageddon Convention
On September 15, 2001, the Michael Fowler Center in Wellington, New Zealand hosted Armageddon. One of the main features for the 2001 convention was the cast of Bad Taste attending for a quick Q&A on the main stage, and a screening of the film.
The cast members that attended were; Craig Smith (Giles), Pete O'Herne (Barry), Mike Minett (Frank), Terry Potter (Ozzy), Ken Hammon (Writer, 3rd Class Alien) and Dean Lawrie (Lord Crumb SPFX Double, 3rd Class Alien).
[edit] Sequel plans
The first official biography on Jackson (Peter Jackson: A Film-maker's Journey by Brian Sibley), reveals that in 1993, after Jackson's third film, Braindead, he approached the New Zealand Film Commission with plans to make Bad Taste 2 and 3 back-to-back for $7 million.
In Bad Taste 2, the heroes of the first film would travel to an alien planet to save zombie hunter Derek, played by Jackson. In Bad Taste 3 the aliens plan to enact revenge on Wellington with "a spectacular aerial battle over the city with dozens of flying houses, buzzy bees and Santa Claus".
Peter Jackson told a New Zealand newspaper The Dominion Post he is still interested in making a sequel of the movie.[1]
[edit] Trivia
| Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones. |
- The weapons used in the movie were made using aluminium tubing and the actors had to shake them to simulate the recoil. A flash and sound effect was added later. Also, all the masks in the film were baked in Peter Jackson's mother's oven.
- This film may have established the exploding sheep concept in the computer gaming subculture.
- The banning of an already cut version of Bad Taste in Queensland, three weeks into its run, led to the firing and dissolution of the Queensland Film Board of Review in 1990. The film had to be trimmed for release in Australia at the time, as the OFLC felt the gore too excessive. The uncut version was released by Universal Home Entertainment on DVD in 2005.
- Kaihoro, the name of the town whose inhabitants are butchered, is a Māori word coined by Jackson and his crew early in the shooting of the film. It has two parts - "kai" which means food and "horo" which means town or village. Foodtown is also the name of a New Zealand chain of grocery stores.
- Some dialogue of the Spanish translation of the film is featured on the famous demos "46 Cabezas Aplastadas Por Un Yunque Oxidado" and "Realmente Disfruto Comiendo Cadáveres" of the Spanish grindcore/death metal band Machetazo.
[edit] References
- ^ Peter's dream: back to Bad Taste (dead link)
[edit] External links
- Bad Taste at the Internet Movie Database
- Bad Taste at the Open Directory Project
- The Ultimate Bad Taste Web Site
- Big appetite for Bad Taste
- Bad Taste 2 and 3?
Films directed by Peter Jackson |
|---|
| Bad Taste · Meet the Feebles · Braindead · Heavenly Creatures · Forgotten Silver · The Frighteners · The Lord of the Rings trilogy (The Fellowship of the Ring · The Two Towers · The Return of the King) · King Kong · The Lovely Bones · Tintin |
es:Bad Taste (película) fr:Bad Taste it:Fuori di testa (film 1987) nl:Bad Taste ja:バッド・テイスト no:Bad Taste pl:Zły smak pt:Bad Taste fi:Bad Taste sv:Bad Taste
Categories: English-language films | Articles with trivia sections from September 2007 | 1980s horror films | 1987 films | Alien visitation films | B movies | Comedy horror films | Science fiction films | Directorial debut films | Films directed by Peter Jackson | Films shot in Super 16 | New Zealand films
