Bad Taste 1987

Watch out Aliens... here comes Derek!

6.32 / 10   781 vote(s)
NR
Action Comedy Horror Science Fiction

A team from the intergalactic fast food chain Crumb's Crunchy Delights descends on Earth, planning to make human flesh the newest taste sensation. After they wipe out the New Zealand town Kaihoro, the country’s Astro-Investigation and Defense Service (AIaDS) is called in to deal with the problem. Things are complicated due to Giles, an aid worker who comes to Kaihoro the same day to collect change from the residents. He is captured by the aliens, and AIaDS stages a rescue mission that quickly becomes an all-out assault on the aliens’ headquarters.

Release Date 1987-12-01
Runtime 1h 32m
Directors Peter Jackson, Peter Jackson
Producers Peter Jackson, Tony Hiles
Writer Peter Jackson

So it begins...

Made on a shoestring budget, starring friends and shooting on the weekends, this is how NZ's blockbuster director Peter Jackson got his start.

Gross, silly, with terrible masks and effects, weird acting and bad overdubbing, this film is an utter classic in DIY splatter. The sheer passion and ingenuity oozes from every frame. Hasn't dated too well, but it still has serious charm, and I am pleased to have grown up watching it.

For fans of late night B films

furious_iz

The humble (and repulsive) beginnings of Peter Jackson's career.

This film fell into oblivion a long time ago, and it's good to let it be where it is: it has no truly notable qualities and doesn't deserve a recap at a time when there are so many much better films to see. In fact, it's hard to think that the great director Peter Jackson, who is so widely respected today, started out with such bad work.

Apparently, Jackson was enchanted by the cheap horror of the 80s and the bad taste comedies that also populated this decade, where it seems that tastes were all changed. The film is completely amateurish and this can be seen in the terrible cinematography full of grain and the clumsy and disconnected editing. There are some effects, but almost everything is cheap and sounds plastic, fake and ugly. Still, considering the modest budget and lack of quality resources, I think Jackson did a decent job. Perhaps the director himself, however, would prefer not to be remembered for this film!

The story couldn't be more oily and greasy: we have an alien invasion of a small rural community, in which the aliens are simply looking for a good source of protein, which is obviously us, humans. There is a lot of gore and blood and human flesh everywhere, it is a film where some stomachs may feel upset, and with good reason. It's not a horror film, it's a comedy with a lot of action and scenes that are disgusting and make us lose the desire to eat popcorn or even question the intelligence of some characters, who seem to act randomly instead of using their heads.

Filipe Manuel Neto