Bad Taste

Peter Jackson, New Zealand 1987, 90 minutes

Imagine Mars Attacks as a zero budget production made without regard for the certificate. Alternative titles could have included `Man-eating space aliens invade New Zealand and lots of bad imitation gunk and chainsaw accidents ensue', or even ,`The film that will have you laughing to death and wanting to be violently ill at the same time' On reflection however, `Bad Taste' sums it up far better.

Aliens have landed on earth and they aren't friendly:

"There's no glowing fingers on these bastards. We've got a bunch of extra-terrestrial psychopaths on our hands."

Representatives of an intergalactic fast food company, they're here to turn humanity into the galaxy's new taste sensation. The only thing that stands in their way is the unfortunately acronymic Astro Investigations and Defence Service (the indefatigable Derek and three others, armed with uzis, magnum, rocket launcher and chainsaw).

The characters of the film are classic comic figures falling somewhere between the three stooges and Harry Enfield's scousers; witness their sheer determination and imaginative efforts as to the best way to kill the alien invaders and splatter serious amounts of intestine over the screen. In its 90 minute running time Bad Taste gives us an alien who accidentally slits his own throat; vomit eating; multiple mutilations; an exploding sheep and an incredible finale where Derek chainsaws the head off an alien only to exit out of its bum, "reborn".

It's very sick. It's also very, very funny. The gore effects are so unrealistic and taken to such parodic excesses that you can't but help laugh. Jackson clearly understands the difference between good and bad taste; and it's a point of interest that his supposedly bad taste film, with its all male cast, pointedly avoids that bete noire of the horror genre: misogyny.

Its easy to see Bad Taste's flaws/charms: Post synchronised sound which isn't in synch; acting (from Jackson's schoolfriends and workmates) that doesn't merit the term; an atrocious score played by some of these same friends (memorably described in a previous EUFS magazine as "James Last plays The Professionals"). But the real question is whether anyone else could have done any better with the extremely limited resources available and the answer has to be "no". Jackson (more recently directing Heavenly Creatures and The Frighteners) took a hand in the production, writing, camera operation, editing, effects and acting, for reasons of budget more than rampant egotism.

Anyone who manages to last to the end will be able to do nothing but agree that Jackson has created a masterpiece (of bad taste). Bad Taste is guaranteed to make you laugh more than many films costing 100 or even 1000 times as much. The challenge for Jackson, now a respected mainstream director, is to continue making great entertainment within a system that doesn't like to take risks.

Review by Keith H Brown/Andrew Hesketh
Taken from EUFS Programme 1997-98