Peter Jackson (born 1961) is one of the most acclaimed and successful directors working in film today. His frankly outstanding Lord Of The Rings trilogy, which has been one of modern cinema's most profitable and noteworthy achievements, has started a tourist trade and placed him alongside the legendary directors. Before this commercial breakthrough, however, Jackson was busy serving his duties as the "Prince of Splatter", making a number of horror movies that effectively made him an icon of the genre.
His first feature, Bad Taste (1987), was a homage to the great George A. Romero. The film's plot revolved around a sleepy town being overtaken by cannibalistic aliens from space. These intruders had a cunning scheme to use human flesh as their new and delicious ingredient for their intergalactic fast-food chains. With flamboyantly chaotic direction from the wicked Jackson, the film featured set pieces revolving around the heroes (played by Jackson's close friends) eating alien vomit; the aliens being mutilated via chainsaws; spinal cords being detached from the body; and humans being marinated for fast-food preparation. Aside from the grisly carnage, the film featured offensive - yet side-splitting - humor as well, which would be evident in all of Jackson's following splatter films and which effectively made the movie a cult classic of 80's horror. Overall, Bad Taste certainly made an impact, winning the "Gore Award" at the 17th Paris Festival Of Fantasy And Sci-Fi and causing huge riots at the Cannes film festival.
Jackson's next effort was the equally outrageous puppet shocker Meet The Feebles (1989), in which a range of puppets (creepily resembling the characters from The Muppets) indulge in every sleazy activity imaginable. Continuously shocking, with little emphasis on blood and more on characterization, the film - according to Jackson - was a satire on human behaviour. Unfortunately for the director, many could not see this message and the majority mainly regarded the whole film as vile trash. The New Zealand Film Cooperation - who funded the effort - were aghast at the film's sick style and gave the willing director only half the amount for his next movie, Braindead (1992), which just so happened to be more outrageous and disgusting than the first two.
Peter Jackson in "Bad Taste"
Jackson broke new ground with Braindead (released in America as Dead Alive). Even though countless zombie splatters, graphic slashers, video nasties and cannibal films had come in the past, Jackson simply took gore to a whole new level with this film. The movie featured the most blood and guts ever seen in a film (in the final infamous "lawnmower sequence", 5 gallons of blood were being pumped per second). Featuring ears being devoured, dogs being eaten, a live set of moving organs, a man being stuffed into a giant zombie's womb, a chimpanzee being torn limb from limb by a Rat-Monkey and deaths via lawnmowers, garden ornaments, blenders, knives and umbilical cords, the outstanding shocker remains practically unsurpassed in its field.
The director's next film, Heavenly Creatures (1994), was his first horror that broke into the mainstream. Making sure his splatter past was behind him, Jackson focused upon a particularly chilling 1954 murder case in this film. This movie was, in many ways, his most visually stunning effort, featuring dazzling imagery when the two girls in the film start to lose their grip on reality. The Frighteners (1996)followed and marked a return to proper supernatural terror. Although set firmly in the horror camp, it was notable for its strain of nasty humor that ran the whole way through.
After the LOTR series, Jackson went back to monster genre with the remake of the horror-tinged fantasy King Kong (2006). Its epic length (179 minutes to be exact), spectacular set-pieces, a great performance from Naomi Watts and superb CGI effects made it one of the most notable of all modern monster movies. Since this blockbuster, Jackson has been thanked on a number of horror projects, appeared in Bravo's 100 Scariest Movie Moments and has produced the acclaimed chiller The Lovely Bones (2009). Imadjafar 20:23, December 31, 2009 (UTC)