MOVIE REVIEWS

So it begins... Made on a shoestring budget, starring friends and shooting on the weekends, this is how NZ's blockbuster director Peter Jackson got his start. Gross, silly, with terrible masks and effects, weird acting and bad overdubbing, this film is an utter classic in DIY splatter. The sheer passion and ingenuity oozes from every frame. Hasn't dated too well, but it still has serious charm, and I am pleased to have grown up watching it. For fans of late night B films

**The humble (and repulsive) beginnings of Peter Jackson's career.** This film fell into oblivion a long time ago, and it's good to let it be where it is: it has no truly notable qualities and doesn't deserve a recap at a time when there are so many much better films to see. In fact, it's hard to think that the great director Peter Jackson, who is so widely respected today, started out with such bad work. Apparently, Jackson was enchanted by the cheap horror of the 80s and the bad taste comedies that also populated this decade, where it seems that tastes were all changed. The film is completely amateurish and this can be seen in the terrible cinematography full of grain and the clumsy and disconnected editing. There are some effects, but almost everything is cheap and sounds plastic, fake and ugly. Still, considering the modest budget and lack of quality resources, I think Jackson did a decent job. Perhaps the director himself, however, would prefer not to be remembered for this film! The story couldn't be more oily and greasy: we have an alien invasion of a small rural community, in which the aliens are simply looking for a good source of protein, which is obviously us, humans. There is a lot of gore and blood and human flesh everywhere, it is a film where some stomachs may feel upset, and with good reason. It's not a horror film, it's a comedy with a lot of action and scenes that are disgusting and make us lose the desire to eat popcorn or even question the intelligence of some characters, who seem to act randomly instead of using their heads.