Good Taste Made Bad Taste

Short Film (Excerpts) – 1988

This documentary showcases some of the tricks of the trade used by Peter Jackson in the making of his first feature — the aliens-amok-in-Makara splatter classic, Bad Taste. Compiled following the film's 1988 Cannes market screening, it's framed around an extensive interview with a 25-year-old Jackson at his parents’ Pukerua Bay home. These excerpts offer fascinating insight into his ingenuity: from building a DIY Steadicam, to the making of the infamous sheep-obliterating rocket launcher scene, to PJ musing on the impetus that being an only child provided him.

Movies are a medium in which you can get away with murder. You can show anything you like: it’s safe and harmless and nobody gets hurt, and yet it can also shock or thrill a few people, which is also a bit of fun!
– Jackson