Bad Taste (1987)
April 1, 2025 4:01 PM - Subscribe
[Trailer] The population of a small town disappears and is replaced by aliens that chase human flesh for their intergalactic fast-food chain.
Feature debut by Peter Jackson, from a script by him, Tony Hiles, and Ken Hammond. Starring Terry Potter, Pete O'Herne, Craig Smith, MIke Minett, Peter Jackson, and Doug Wren.
Plot description from IMDb.
73% / 75% on Rotten Tomatoes.
JustWatch listing
Feature debut by Peter Jackson, from a script by him, Tony Hiles, and Ken Hammond. Starring Terry Potter, Pete O'Herne, Craig Smith, MIke Minett, Peter Jackson, and Doug Wren.
Plot description from IMDb.
73% / 75% on Rotten Tomatoes.
JustWatch listing
Fun fact about this film: you may notice a divot on the top of the alien heads. That's because those heads were made in Peter Jackson's mum's oven. The heads were so large the divot at the top made that impression.
posted by miss-lapin at 6:43 PM on April 1 [5 favorites]
posted by miss-lapin at 6:43 PM on April 1 [5 favorites]
dereks don't back down
posted by Sebmojo at 6:52 PM on April 1 [1 favorite]
posted by Sebmojo at 6:52 PM on April 1 [1 favorite]
Yes, it's shambling and juvenile. Also enthusiastic and joyous filmmaking - "By golly we're going put on a show even if it costs us every weekend for two years. "
posted by Jessica Savitch's Coke Spoon at 6:58 PM on April 1 [3 favorites]
posted by Jessica Savitch's Coke Spoon at 6:58 PM on April 1 [3 favorites]
You can definitely tell in this film where the national film funding kicked in.
This is yet another film I put on DVD over two decades ago! Do you like the “one” ring photoshopped onto the alien’s middle finger on the DVD box art lol? Somehow I doubt it enticed many LOTR fans into buying this disc.
posted by infinitewindow at 7:12 PM on April 1 [5 favorites]
This is yet another film I put on DVD over two decades ago! Do you like the “one” ring photoshopped onto the alien’s middle finger on the DVD box art lol? Somehow I doubt it enticed many LOTR fans into buying this disc.
posted by infinitewindow at 7:12 PM on April 1 [5 favorites]
Peter Jackson supposedly had a team working on 4K restorations of this, Meet the Feebles, and--most importantly--Dead Alive a couple of years ago, but I guess he has been up his neck in Beatles since then, because those restorations haven't been announced for theaters or physical media.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 6:21 AM on April 2 [3 favorites]
posted by DirtyOldTown at 6:21 AM on April 2 [3 favorites]
I actually first saw this at a rep cinema in the early 90s. And the crowd ate it up! Stupid, cheap and crass but you know still a lot of fun! I wonder if a 4K would ruin the experience? It feels like a movie that a person should discover on a shitty VHS tape someone lent you at school.
infinitewindow: This is yet another film I put on DVD over two decades ago!
You worked for Anchor Bay in the early 2000s? That must have been a wild time, we have them to blame for all the weird packaging that dominates the genre film market today. You didn't happen to work on the Evil Dead II "Book of the Dead" box they put out in 2005 did you?
posted by Ashwagandha at 7:53 AM on April 2 [4 favorites]
infinitewindow: This is yet another film I put on DVD over two decades ago!
You worked for Anchor Bay in the early 2000s? That must have been a wild time, we have them to blame for all the weird packaging that dominates the genre film market today. You didn't happen to work on the Evil Dead II "Book of the Dead" box they put out in 2005 did you?
posted by Ashwagandha at 7:53 AM on April 2 [4 favorites]
DirtyOldTown - I would treasure a Criterion release of all of these. They could take the load off Sir Jackson.
(Unless he plans on tarting up these films with Lucas-style digital clutter - Samantha the Pussy atop a bantha and cumming first?)
posted by Jessica Savitch's Coke Spoon at 4:36 PM on April 2 [1 favorite]
(Unless he plans on tarting up these films with Lucas-style digital clutter - Samantha the Pussy atop a bantha and cumming first?)
posted by Jessica Savitch's Coke Spoon at 4:36 PM on April 2 [1 favorite]
infinitewindow: Anchor Bay was ON TOP of things for a while. Then they faded to irrelevance. What happened?
posted by Jessica Savitch's Coke Spoon at 4:37 PM on April 2
posted by Jessica Savitch's Coke Spoon at 4:37 PM on April 2
Criterion? Pshaw. This feels like a job for Arrow. Maybe Second Sight.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 4:56 PM on April 2 [1 favorite]
posted by DirtyOldTown at 4:56 PM on April 2 [1 favorite]
Ashwaganda: yes I did. I just gave my rotting latex copy to a buddy of mine in Pittsburgh! Among others, I also worked on The Wicker Man wooden box edition and the Sleepaway Camp Box Set that had to be recalled because it had a bloody Red Cross on it, which the real Red Cross’s attorneys had something to say about.
Jessica Savitch’s Coke Spoon: Here is some background from working in DVD for damn near twenty years. Bill Lustig, director of MANIAC and VIGILANTE, was an impossible-to-work-with primadonna (he would fire assistants while they were overseas and cancel their tickets back to LA) and THE driving force behind Anchor Bay and releasing many of the greatest/most infamous cult films on DVD in the late 80s through 2007 as well as being an inspiring figure for so many other similar distributors like Twilight Time, Arrow Film, Something Weird Video and Vinegar Syndrome. I don’t know all the details surrounding his ouster, and most of the people who did know have sadly passed away.
However, I think the biggest reason Anchor Bay faded from the pack was the acquisition of Anchor Bay by Liberty Media, a public corporation. The bean counters looking at Anchor Bay’s books in Troy, Michigan quickly realized that the cult releases mostly lost money, which led to Lustig’s ouster and a manufacturing and distributing partnership with 20th Century Fox. Titles on the release schedule went from Repo Man, The Wicker Man, Halloween and Manhunter to Bye Bye Love, Butch and Sundance: The Early Years, Three’s Company: The Seasons Without Chrissy, and Titus: The Complete Series. Needless to say, many releases still lost money.
Without a dedicated madman like Lustig making deals for gialli, splatter classics, and Werner Herzog weirdness, Anchor Bay/Liberty had to turn to original content, which wasn’t and isn’t a core competency. Every now and then the brand gets a revival as some satellite-jockey-turned-SVP decides he wants to leave Colorado for LA, where he can do lines all day and fuck pretty people all night and get paid for it. They all founder because if they were any good, they’d have been doing that long before getting their MBA (New Line’s wunderkind Michael De Luca couldn’t legally drink champagne when he was head of the studio, and Peter Block who built Lionsgate from the ground up got into the production side of the business when he was 13).
posted by infinitewindow at 6:42 PM on April 3 [3 favorites]
Jessica Savitch’s Coke Spoon: Here is some background from working in DVD for damn near twenty years. Bill Lustig, director of MANIAC and VIGILANTE, was an impossible-to-work-with primadonna (he would fire assistants while they were overseas and cancel their tickets back to LA) and THE driving force behind Anchor Bay and releasing many of the greatest/most infamous cult films on DVD in the late 80s through 2007 as well as being an inspiring figure for so many other similar distributors like Twilight Time, Arrow Film, Something Weird Video and Vinegar Syndrome. I don’t know all the details surrounding his ouster, and most of the people who did know have sadly passed away.
However, I think the biggest reason Anchor Bay faded from the pack was the acquisition of Anchor Bay by Liberty Media, a public corporation. The bean counters looking at Anchor Bay’s books in Troy, Michigan quickly realized that the cult releases mostly lost money, which led to Lustig’s ouster and a manufacturing and distributing partnership with 20th Century Fox. Titles on the release schedule went from Repo Man, The Wicker Man, Halloween and Manhunter to Bye Bye Love, Butch and Sundance: The Early Years, Three’s Company: The Seasons Without Chrissy, and Titus: The Complete Series. Needless to say, many releases still lost money.
Without a dedicated madman like Lustig making deals for gialli, splatter classics, and Werner Herzog weirdness, Anchor Bay/Liberty had to turn to original content, which wasn’t and isn’t a core competency. Every now and then the brand gets a revival as some satellite-jockey-turned-SVP decides he wants to leave Colorado for LA, where he can do lines all day and fuck pretty people all night and get paid for it. They all founder because if they were any good, they’d have been doing that long before getting their MBA (New Line’s wunderkind Michael De Luca couldn’t legally drink champagne when he was head of the studio, and Peter Block who built Lionsgate from the ground up got into the production side of the business when he was 13).
posted by infinitewindow at 6:42 PM on April 3 [3 favorites]
I had a rotting latex copy of that that I eventually tossed. It was neat for a while though.
Bill Lustig runs Blue Underground now, which does some solid work here and there.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 11:32 AM on April 4 [1 favorite]
Bill Lustig runs Blue Underground now, which does some solid work here and there.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 11:32 AM on April 4 [1 favorite]
Dirty Old Town, I could have SWORN Bill Lustig died in like 2019. I am glad he’s still around to enjoy California Chicken Café (especially when so many people he and I worked with are no longer with us)… but I still wouldn’t work directly for him unless my unemployment benefits had expired.
posted by infinitewindow at 12:41 PM on April 4 [1 favorite]
posted by infinitewindow at 12:41 PM on April 4 [1 favorite]
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I watched it (again?) today and thought it held up well. It's gross and it's crass, yes; it's in bad taste. It's also a silly romp which I found oddly charming in spite of its gore. I can grant a fair amount of latitude to low-budget DIY projects which are fun and clearly made with real enthusiasm. Your mileage may vary.
posted by johnofjack at 4:09 PM on April 1 [1 favorite]