Heavenly Creatures

The movie that won splatterking Peter Jackson mainstream respectability was born from writer Fran Walsh's long interest in the Parker-Hulme case: two 1950s teens who invented imaginary worlds, wrote under imaginary personas, and murdered Pauline Parker's mother. Jackson and Walsh's vision of friendship, creativity and tragedy was greeted with Oscar nominations, deals with indie company Miramax, and rhapsodic acclaim for newbie actors Melanie Lynskey and Kate Winslet. Time magazine and 30 other publications named it one of the year's 10 best films. Read more about Heavenly Creatures here.

...combines original vision, a drop-dead command of the medium and a successful marriage between a dazzling, kinetic techno-show and a complex, credible portrait of the out-of-control relationship between the crime’s two schoolgirl perpetrators.

– David Rooney, reviewing Heavenly Creatures in Variety, 12 September 1994

Key Cast & Crew

Peter Jackson

Writer, Director, Co-Producer

Fran Walsh

Writer

Melanie Lynskey

As: Pauline Parker

Jim Booth

Producer

Simon O'Connor

As: Herbert Rieper

Diana Kent

As: Hilda Hulme