1994 - Heavenly Creatures

This reviews has sorta spoilers. It's pretty known how the film ends though and it's the most pivotal part of the movie, so I have to talk about it.

"Heavenly Creatures" is based on the true lives of two girls who commit murder in 1954 New Zealand. Juliet Hulme (Winslet) moves to New Zealand from England and befriends Pauline Parker. The two girls become very close and create a fantasy world together. When their parents decide that their relationship is becoming unhealthy, they plot to murder Pauline's mother so they can run away together.

This movie was directed and co-written by Peter Jackson pre-fame from Lord of the Rings. Prior to this, he had only directed a few low budget extreme horror films. Jackson really shows his talent through this film. It's absolutely HAUNTING.

The movie starts out showing the girls running out of the woods covered in blood, screaming. Then it backs up and shows everything leading up to the actual murder at the end. The murder itself is one of the most disturbing scenes I have ever seen in a film. It's not really gross/gory or anything, but it is still harrowing. SPOILERS----The girls invite Pauline's mother to go on a walk with them and when she bends down to look at something on the ground, they beat her to death with a brick in a stocking. The look on her face and the SOUND, my God the sound she makes, is the most horrible thing I have ever seen or heard.

And the worst part? The girls only spent 5 years in prison for the murder because they were underage. They were forbidden to ever contact each other again after leaving prison. They are both still alive and well....ones is a successful writer of detective novels (but under an assumed name).

This movie stayed with me for a long time after I watched it. The movie did very well on the awards circuit, even going so far as to be nominated for an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.The writing was phenomenal. The acting was amazing (Kate Winslet's career pretty much took off from this movie). The whole film was just gorgeously filmed.

Random Thoughts:
-I loved that they stayed so close to the original murder. They even used Pauline's actual journal entries as voice-overs.
-Time magazine called this one of the 10 best films of 1994.

Verdict?
5/5 stars. I would highly recommend this movie. Amazing.