It's all about the aim in this tongue-in-cheek (or should I say, tongue in cranial cavity) shock-horror gross-out fest from early in Pete Jackson's career. It's hard to imagine how Mr. Jackson went from this to incredibly campy comedy of guts and brain chunks to the brilliant Lord of the Rings Trilogy in 20 years, but, if you take a look at the films he made along the way - Meet the Feebles, Heavenly Creatures, Dead Alive, etc - you will see the common threads.

Like most of Jackson's work, this film sets out to make the best possible use of the available talent, sets and budget, and does so with verve. In this case, Jackson worked with very little of these three elements, and yet managed to pull off a hilarious bit of campy horror-comedy, with remarkable no to low budget special effects and plenty of the slapstick (with cow blood and chicken guts) that characterizes most of his early films.

To describe the plot with more than two or three sentences would require spoilers. In other words, there isn't much of one. The film opens with a group of mulleted New Zealand special agent security guys investigating a massacre of an entire village by aliens which first appear to be extras from a living dead movie, then later somehow become more intelligent, agile, and.... inhuman. The film is decorated with an amazing array of creative gore and slapstick death scenes, and once the bullets start flying, the alien's demonstrate their fatal flaw - they have less talent with guns than the average criminal in a Matt Damon film.

To his credit, Jackson knew what he could get away with considering what he had on hand, and didn't try to make a serious film. The camera work is, as always, excellent, and the make-up compliments the absurdity of the plot quite nicely. The result is hilarious, but only if you grock his sense of humor. I would recommend Dead Alive first, because it's humor is more (literally) in your face and obvious. This is definitely worth an evening, but, unlike the rest of Jackson's repertoire, it is a disposable film - worthy of one or two viewings, max.

"Bad Taste" is Peter Jackson's first film and it shows. This is because Peter was not a director....just some guy making a film with his friends. In fact, because they had no money it took four years to piece the project together...and they didn't even have a script! But despite this and many other shortcomings (including using a 16mm camera and having ridiculous bloody effects), the film is VERY watchable and even, at times, quite funny.

The story is very simple and there really isn't any context or backstory. It begins with some zombie-like folks trying to kill and eat a group of guys. Later, the guys all don commando outfits and take on a whole house filled with what you've come to realize are blood-thirsty aliens!

There are two thins that really help this film....the sense of humor AND the cheesiness of the guys and blood. If the movie was more realistic (such as Jackson's "Dead Alive" made just a short time later), it would have been repulsive and sick. Instead, you find yourself laughing at the guts, blood and mayhem since it's so obviously fake. Well worth seeing and a great example of cheap filmmaking that works.

Aliens have invaded and taken over the population of Kaihoro, New Zealand. A group comes to investigate. Barry shoots one of the aliens. Derek (Peter Jackson) is in control on a hilltop and calls in Frank and Ozzy to Kaihoro. They find aliens who are processing humans for food.

This indie is Peter Jackson's debut feature. He throws everything into this. Some of it works. Some of it doesn't. It is above all ambitious. He leaves little on the drawing board. The brain eating and other general grotesque creature feature stuff are great. It's always fun to have the gross squishiness. The gun action and fights are less compelling. It is shot very flatly. Peter has yet to absorb the HK action style. The story would be more compelling if the characters start out together. It would allow them to develop chemistry. These characters don't have enough personalities. They seem to be under-written. There is some good camera work. Overall, this is an ambitious debut.