Peter Jackson is one of the most important and influential filmmakers of the last 30 years, so it's a little bizarre for fans when they first hear about his video nasty roots. This term was coined by the National Viewers' and Listeners' Association in the United Kingdom, used to pinpoint the violent and explicit exploitation films that audiences might come across on home video, a field that this filmmaker has a great deal of experience in.
Many see Jackson as the kind of guy to only make massive epic films like his Lord of the Rings trilogy or 2005 King Kong remake, but his abilities branch out much further than that. Jackson's exploitation films are not inherently mean or crafted with ill intention, rather they are very silly, vile explorations into the future Middle-Earth filmmaker's unique sense of humor. Unique is putting it lightly; these movies go straight for the gut and don't care if they make you squirm or tickle your strangest funny bone. They're repulsive, gnarly, disgusting, and an absolute blast, the signal of a filmmaker ready to take audiences on thrill ride after thrill ride, for generations to come.
Bad Taste
Growing up in 1960s and '70s New Zealand, Peter Jackson spent his time making Super 8 movies inspired by the Ray Harryhausen, James Bond, and World War II movies that he loved so much. He even attempted to remake his favorite film King Kong at the age of 9, showing great ambition early on in life. Jackson was absolutely obsessed with films, watching and making as many as he possibly could. He would go on to drop out of school at the age of 16, work for the local paper, and save up money for film equipment to use on a feature film eventually, that film being his directorial debut, Bad Taste.
This 1987 sci-fi horror comedy absolutely rules. It's a film that took several years to make, and it shows in the most charming way possible. This film, very much so, is in the same vein as The Evil Dead, standing as one of the ultimate backyard movies. Jackson recruited friends, family, and local talent to make this gonzo epic. Bad Taste is the story of aliens invading a small New Zealand town, where they will use the humans as food for their intergalactic fast-food franchise, with the town locals railing against their invaders' efforts. Does this sound fun? Because it is. With a budget of $25,000, Jackson's debut feels like it's held together by scotch tape, but that's all the more reason to love it. The battle scenes between humans and aliens are bombastic, Jackson's incredibly niche sense of humor shines through like a lighthouse to the face, and the effects are joyously rough-yet-impressive. It's a film that is sure to fascinate fans of the latter half of Jackson's career, inspire low-budget filmmakers, and scratch that video nasty itch for fans of obscure genre films.
Meet the Feebles
You could try guessing how Peter Jackson decided to follow up his alien invasion comedy, and even after 100 guesses, there's still no way that you'd be able to land on the right answer. Jackson's sophomore film, 1989's Meet the Feebles, is a dark, dark comedy set in a world entirely inhabited by animals and featuring an entire cast of puppets. Oh yeah. Feebles is about as weird a direction as he could have gone, but that's kind of what's so fun about it. It's the story of a troupe of stage performers looking to be picked up for a syndicated TV show. We follow Robert the Hedgehog, Heidi the Hippo (both voiced by Mark Hadlow), Bletch the Walrus (Peter Vere-Jones), Trevor the Rat (Brian Sergent), and more as the various members of the troupe deal with addiction, rise and fall in fame, disease, debt to criminal organizations, and even the Vietnam War.
In just over 90 minutes, Meet the Feebles is an epic character study of nauseating proportions. Half hilarious in the absurdity of its concept and presentation, half disturbing due to the deeply bleak subject matter and crude puppets, 100% undeniably entertaining. Meet the Feebles is like if you took Team America and Birdman, dragged both films through the mud, and crammed them together. The finished product is Jackson's most unique film, hands down. It's not for the faint of heart, but if you can lock in for 93 minutes, you'll find yourself laughing just as much as you cringe in repulsion.
Braindead
Jackson's last video nasty is his nastiest, easy. Known in some parts of the world as Braindead and Dead Alive in others, this 1992 horror-comedy technically has to wear the horror label due to the hordes of zombies and boat loads of gore that fill the film's runtime, when in reality, this is one of the silliest films of all time. Jackson's third film feels like a clear spiritual successor to what he was up to in Bad Taste, with a return to excessive violence and bizarro slapstick sense of humor, but this time with a much greater budget behind it — $3 million. It's the story of Lionel (Timothy Balme), his girlfriend Paquita (Diana Peñalver), and his overbearing mother Vera (Elizabeth Moody) who is a bit on the arm by an extremely rare monkey and slowly begins turning into a zombie, turning others into zombies as the film violently unfolds.
Braindead is so, so funny, but it's also one of the goriest films of all time. People get punched through the back of the head and through the mouth, a ridiculous amount of pus is shot all across the screen, someone's head turns into a light bulb in the absolute worst way (as opposed to the good ways), and there's a bombastically violent set piece involving a lawnmower. It might sound like too much, but believe me, if you can get the right group of friends together in a room and take on Braindead, you'll be in for a phenomenal time. It's a blast, and outside of Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy, it just might be his best movie. Braindead rocks.
Moving On From Video Nasties
After his third video nasty, it seems as though Peter Jackson was ready to move on from his splatstick roots. He would go on to make 1994's Heavenly Creatures, a biographical drama that would garner up a Best Original Screenplay Oscar nomination and 1996's The Frighteners, a much more tame horror comedy than his early efforts. If you were an audience member watching Bad Taste, Meet the Feebles, or Braindead in a theater during their original theatrical runs, you would never be able to predict that the man who helmed those films would go on to change the face of cinema forever. With his Lord of the Rings trilogy, Peter Jackson filmed the impossible, demolished the box office, won hundreds of awards, and have been celebrated ever since. I'm sure you are familiar with them. After rocking the landscape of an entire artistic medium, he continued working in the world of big budget films with his remake of King Kong and Hobbit trilogy, directed 2009's supernatural thriller The Lovely Bones, and has crafted two of the most acclaimed documentaries of the last 10 years, They Shall Not Grow Old and The Beatles: Get Back.
Peter Jackson has come a long way from his early days of making ridiculous low budget genre films. Whether you are in the middle of one of the many epic battle scenes in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, or even one of the eerier stretches in those movies, you can tell that he has never truly lost his early sensibilities. Jackson has always known how to make movies that entertain audiences, be it with mass appealing, box office shattering franchises, or in the most niche and violent horror comedies you can imagine. He's one of the most gifted filmmakers of all time, and with his video nasties, proves that even the most epic of artists can start in the most unpredictable places.