As it celebrates its 30th anniversary, Hasitha Fernando looks at the story behind Peter Jackson’s Heavenly Creatures…
Peter Jackson is a filmmaker who requires very little introduction. Starting out as a cult film director with efforts such as Meet the Feebles and Braindead, Jackson has gone on to become one of Hollywood’s most critically acclaimed directors with the epic Lord of the Rings franchise. However, three decades prior he gained international recognition for a complex and visually stylish true crime drama named Heavenly Creatures. This is that story…
The story was based on a real-life murder case in New Zealand
The story of Heavenly Creatures was based on the Parker-Hulme murder case, which was a notorious real-life murder case that received major publicity in 1950s New Zealand. It concerned the premeditated killing of Honorah Mary Parker by her 16-year-old daughter Pauline Parker and 15-year-old friend Juliet Hulme in Christchurch, New Zealand. The trial proved to be a sensational affair with wild speculation swirling regarding the teenage girls sexuality and mental stability. As the two children were underage to be considered for the death penalty they were each sentenced to spend five years in prison. After serving their allotted prison sentences they were released and they both moved to the United Kingdom, going about their separate ways. Juliet Hulme changed her name to Anne Perry and even became a successful crime novelist later on.
Fran Walsh has a keen interest in telling the story
Fran Walsh and Peter Jackson received widespread acclaim and recognition for their contributions to The Lord of the Rings trilogy in the early 2000s. However, over a decade prior both Walsh and Jackson were merely two talented creatives living in New Zealand cranking out inventive low-budget, horror flicks like Meet the Feebles and Braindead. But Walsh, who was Jackson’s partner, showed a keen interest in the Parker-Hulme murder case since her early childhood and suggested to Jackson that they craft a screenplay centered around it. Wanting to seek the advice of another long-time collaborator Jackson took the idea to producer Jim Booth and the trio decided that the focus of the story should be about the friendship between the two girls and not the murder or its subsequent trial, with Jackson stating: “The friendship was for the most part a rich and rewarding one, and we tried to honor that in the film. It was our intention to make a film about a friendship that went terribly wrong.”
Both Walsh and Jackson researched the backstory extensively by reading contemporary newspaper accounts of the trial that eschewed the more sensational aspects of the narrative. In order to gain more insight into the two children the pair spoke to seventeen of their former classmates and teachers from Christchurch Girls’ High School and also conversed with neighbors, family friends, colleagues, police officers, lawyers and psychologists to bring a more humane side to the chain of events that resulted in the tragedy. Walsh also read Pauline’s diary, where she’d documented her friendship with Juliet and the things that transpired in their young lives. In the film all of Pauline’s voice-overs are excerpts from her journal entries.
Heavenly Creatures was Kate Winslet’s feature film debut
Kate Winslet is one of those actresses that require no introduction. Known for taking on emotionally complex roles the British performer has received numerous accolades over the years including an Academy Award, a Grammy Award, two Primetime Emmy Awards, five BAFTAs and five Golden Globe Awards. Some of the critically acclaimed flicks to her name are Titanic, Quills, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Finding Neverland, Revolutionary Road and The Reader. However, it was in Peter Jackson’s emotional biographical drama Heavenly Creatures that Winslet made her feature film debut as a young actress. Winslet was one of 175 girls who auditioned for the role of Juliet Hulme and was cast following a successful audition. Jackson was particularly impressed with the intensity the young Winslet brought to her part.
Melanie Lynskey was in awe of Kate Winslet’s action prowess
The producers found it problematic when it came to finding an actress that resembled Pauline during the casting process. Fran Walsh scoured schools all over New Zealand in the hopes of finding the ideal candidate and had nearly given up when she finally came across the young Melanie Lynskey, two weeks before production commenced. Upon being cast, Walsh showed Kate Winslet’s intense audition video to Lynskey and was told: “This was how good you have to be”. Throughout the shoot, Lynskey was in complete awe of Winslet’s acting prowess and skill and this power dynamic strangely mimicked the relationship seen between their respective characters as well. The girls were so absorbed in their roles that they even kept acting like Pauline and Juliet even after production had wrapped. After moving to the United States, Lynskey has found great success in the small screen with TV shows like Two and Half Men and Yellowjackets and films such as Shattered Glass, Flags of Our Fathers, The Informant, Win Win and The Perks of Being a Wallflower.
The debut of the mighty Weta Digital VFX powerhouse
In the wake of The Lord of the Rings franchise was birthed one of the greatest VFX houses of the modern age – Weta Digital. Conceived by Peter Jackson, Richard Taylor and Jamie Selkirk in 1993 to produce the digital effects required for Heavenly Creatures the trio undoubtedly had no clue regarding the instrumental role their little initiative would play in shaping digital effects in the future ahead. The VFX requirement for Heavenly Creatures was supervised by George Port who oversaw the digital manipulation of over thirty shots that ranged from morphing the garden of the ‘Fourth World’ to castles in sprawling fields and dreamlike sequences featuring Orson Welles played by Jean Guérin. Richard Taylor, who went on to win an Academy Award for his stellar work on Lord of the Rings through Weta Workshop also contributed to the creation of the ‘Borovnian’ extras and their costumes who are figments of the Pauline and Juliet’s magical fantasy world.
The movie where Peter Jackson received his first Oscar nomination
The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King swept awards season in 2004 nabbing a jaw-dropping 11 Oscars at the 76th Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director. It was the first fantasy flick to walk away with the coveted prize and to date ties with 1959’s Ben Hur and 1997’s Titanic as the movie with most Academy Award wins. However, prior to these awe-inspiring wins Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh were also nominated for an Oscar a couple of years before and that was with Heavenly Creatures, which received an Academy Award nomination in the Best Original Screenplay category.
Critical acclaim, awards success & an enduring legacy
Produced on a shoestring budget of $5 million, Heavenly Creatures went on to gross only $5.5 million at the worldwide box office. However, despite the rather disappointing box office performance the movie proved to be a major hit with film critics who praised its compelling performances, engrossing and heartfelt narrative as well as Peter Jackson’s direction. As of writing, the review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a 95% score based on 108 reviews, with an average rating of 8.2/10. The site’s critical consensus describes the effort in the following manner, “Dark, stylish and captivating, Heavenly Creatures signals both the auspicious debut of Kate Winslet and the arrival of Peter Jackson as more than just a cult director”. Nick Hyman writing for Metacritic gave the film high-praise and called it one of the year’s best efforts, “Peter Jackson’s masterful blend of fantastical visuals and a heart-breaking real-life tragedy has arguably not been topped.”
Heavenly Creatures commenced its winning streak at awards festivals by winning the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival in September 1994. Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh’s screenplay drew much acclaim and received nominations at the Academy Awards and the Writers Guild of America Awards ceremony. The talented Kate Winslet went on to win Best Actress at the London Film Critic’s Circle Awards and at the 1st Empire Awards. The movie also won pretty much all categories it was nominated for at the 1995 New Zealand Film and Television awards.
Even thirty years later the movie’s impact still endures. Although The Lord of the Rings franchise brought a lot of attention to the New Zealand film industry and what it has to offer, Heavenly Creatures was one of the very first efforts to do so and therefore holds a significant place in New Zealand’s cinematic history. The film’s nuanced exploration of how a complex, intimate relationship could metamorphose into a destructive one and how such a tragedy of true crime can be brought to life tastefully and respectfully without losing its sense of poignancy certainly continues to inspire filmmakers and creatives even to this day.
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Hasitha Fernando is a part-time medical practitioner and full-time cinephile. Follow him on Twitter via @DoctorCinephile for regular updates on the world of entertainment.
