Super mega epic Spielberg type director dude NOW, but BEFORE he became The Peter Jackson of King Kong and Lord of the Rings, he was Peter Jackson, the Splatstick guy. He was also only taken seriously after his first Academy Award worthy movie “Heavenly Creatures” which took him to the mainstream fame game.

This little gem of a movie is really something else. Released in 1994, it was played on TV every single year for ten years when I was living in New Zealand. For good reason too. The plot focuses on a real life murder case that happened in 1954’s Christchurch, New Zealand, incidentally, where I lived while in the country. The two characters, Pauline Parker and Juliet Hulme (played by Melanie Lynskey of “Ever After” and Kate Winslet of “Titanic” respectively) get into some pretty trippy scenarios without the use of any drugz, which is pretty amazing stuff considering all the parallel hallucinations they get into, and end up plotting to kill Pauline’s mother (which they do), so the both of them can be together…forever (which they don’t).

Er, the acting is pretty intense, and the flow of the storyline and character development is quite delicious and juicy, with Jackson forcing you to relate to the characters and actually somehow even liking them, before bursting that whole mindset with the old rock-inna-sock murder scene.

The murder takes place in Victoria Park, where I’ve gone to have a looksee, and it looks EXACTLY the same 0_o while Juliet lives in Ilam, where I lived, and her father was the rector (THAT sounds a bit RUDE doesn’t it?! Sounds a bit like… BUM!! HAahhahaaa ouchmysides ^^) of the University of Canterbury, where I went to school, and both girls attended Christchurch Girls’ High School, which was also attended by the moi.

Owh! Curiouser and curiouser!

So, I just had to post it! It’s an awfully well known movie within New Zealand, but I’m not sure if many people outside of the little island have heard of it. It was actually Kate Winslet’s claim to fame, not surprisingly, as she gets the super cool, posh and high class character with the Queen’s English accent, whereas Melanie Lynskey had to wait a full four years before getting another role, even though, she does play the dumpy and surly Pauline creepily well. Probably so well that people assumed that was the real her.

SO! Because I was posting up the movie, I thought it only fair to do a wee bitty bit o’ research about the whole case.

After the murder took place, police arrested the girls and used a diary that Pauline kept as evidence to prove the whodunnit. Jackson uses the original entries of the diary as voice overs throughout the show, which is pretty cool.

He also manages to make his actresses look remarkably similar to the real Pauline and Juliet. Observe:

That’s Melanie and Kate in the photo on the left, and that’s Pauline and Juliet on the right. Freaky innit?

You’re probably wondering what happened to them after. (The crazies not the actresses. We all know Kate Winslet ends up killing Jack by not sharing the bit of wood she floated on. ) Well, Juliet becomes Anne Perry, the famous mystery slash detective novelist:

You can visit her website here. She talks a bit about the movie and her take on what happened back then in her biography. Actually, she doesn’t say much really. Just that she doesn’t want to talk about it. She does however, acknowledge her involvement and tragedy of her youth and such, though.

While, Pauline became “Hilary Nathan”, a horse riding school owner in some little village of Hoo, near Strood, Kent. Wherever that is. As you can see, she doesn’t age particularly well:

After being jailed for 5 years a piece for the murder, both girls got released on provision that they never see each other again. So, they wander off to their new lives, without contact forever and ever. Of course, after the movie aired, naturally, people were searching up and down to see what became of the real Pauline and Juliet. Turns out, what they find are the two ladies who didn’t even know anything about the movie, or that one was even made and released. Both ladies also chose to live in the UK, not knowing that the other was actually just around the corner, both chose to not marry, and both have never seen the movie nor wish to. No surprises there. But kinda weird how that all panned out in the end eh?

Anyhoo, I’m sure you’re absolutely DYING to see the movie by now, so here it is:

You can watch Heavenly Creatures by Peter Jackson HERE.