Thriller Research- Heavenly Creatures

Institutional Information

Heavenly Creatures

Directed by Peter Jackson

Date of release: 10th February 1995

Country Made: New Zealand

Awards: Nominated for Oscar. Another 16 wins & 3 nominations

Genre: Thriller/Drama

Leading Actors/Actresses: Melanie Lynskey, Kate Winslet


Audience Response

External Reviews

Heavenly Creatures was not a huge success, though preformed well for a small, lower budget film and grossed over $3million in America. The film remained a steady favourite for many awards and was celebrated in film festivals worldwide, bringing the attention to it’s lesser known (at the time) director, Peter Jackson, who has since gone on to win Oscars for his trilogy Lord of the Rings and blockbuster King Kong.

“Heavenly Creatures is the new film by Peter Jackson. The movie shows the crime (Honora Parker’s murder) as resulting from a tragic confluence of coincidences: Two girls, both emotionally unstable in just the right way to complement each other's weaknesses, are outsiders in a Christchurch girls' school. They become fast friends, bound by a fascination for the macabre.
Adults grow disturbed by the closeness of the girls; lesbianism is suspected by people for whom the very word cannot be spoken. Indeed we can see, in awkward little scenes in which they wrestle together or exchange "accidental" kisses, that there is a strong bond between Juliet and Pauline, but whether it is homosexual or asexual is not for anyone in this movie to ask, or understand. In any event, it is decided the girls "see too much" of each other, and would "benefit by a change," and in terror at being separated the girls plan and carry out a horrible murder.Casting is a delicate matter in telling a story like this, and in Melanie Lynskey as Pauline and Kate Winslet as Juliet, Jackson has found the right two actresses. There is a way Lynskey has of looking up from beneath glowering eyebrows that lets you know her insides are churning. And Juliet, superficially so "bright" and normal, laughs too much, agrees too quickly, always exists just this side of hysteria.
The insight of "Heavenly Creatures" is that sometimes people are capable of committing acts together that they could not commit by themselves.
What makes Jackson's film enthralling and frightening is the way it shows these two unhappy girls, creating an alternative world so safe and attractive they thought it was worth killing for”.

By Roger Egbert

According to the Internet Movie Database the film has had just under 22,000 user ratings. These have averaged out to the give the film a 7.6 out of 10 overall rating with women on the whole (although the minority in voting) giving the film a slightly higher rating than men.

The Murder Scene

Heavenly creatures, is hard to pin down in terms of what genre it is in, though it certainly displays aspects of a suspense thriller and drama genres. I believe that this scene especially displays conventions of the thriller genre.

This is the final scene in the motion picture where Kate Winslet’s character Juliet Hulme and Melanie Lynskey’s character Pauline Parker murder Pauline’s mother Honora Parker. The three characters are walking in Victoria Park when the two girls ambush Honora, attacking her and eventually killing her with a brick inside a stocking as they repeatedly swing it into her head. The two characters are fuelled into doing this as they believe that she is the primary obstacle in the way of their happiness together, and with her there, they will only be separated as they are accused of being homosexual (which, in 1950’s New Zealand was highly illegal and diagnosed as a form of severe mental illness).

The characters are each dressed in formal wear of the era, long dresses, hats, shawls and coats. The scene is located in a woodland, and though arguably this may usually be associated with a horror setting it works as other aspects such as lighting and sound compliment it and transform it into an isolated, secluded space. The trees help to establish the thriller aspects of the film as they form a claustrophobic space, especially in the pathway were the murder takes place, entrapping Honora.

Pauline reaches for her bag whilst her Mother is kneeling on the ground looking at a coloured stone that Juliet has just dropped purposefully. With heavy breathing of nervousness, Pauline takes out her cruel make-shift weapon that is a brick inside of a stocking and thrusts it down upon her Mother’s head as she utters a cry. Her Mother screams and the two girls continue to take turns in battering her head till she is dead. This weapon suggests an unplanned, amateur murder and implies that she is further concerned with the results of the murder (a happy future with her lover) over the actual process.
The lighting throughout is ambient, though just at twilight which creates large shadows within the woodland area and gives the surroundings an uncomfortable feel. As the light is still quite bright in areas not in shade, the camera is exposed to sudden moments of lens flare. These help to make the audience feel at unease further. Shadows are also used very often in the scene, in one example a large shadow is used to make Pauline appear menacing as she walks in front of the other two characters.
In this scene, Peter Jackson uses a classical piece; the Humming Chorus from the opera Madame butterfly by Giacorno Puccini. This music adds to the suspense by creating a sense of unease for the audience. Although the non-diegetic music suits the idyllic surroundings of the woodland it does not suit the expressions of nervousness and menace that appear on the two girls’ faces. The music continues till the killing takes place, where it cuts out and is replaced by diegetic sounds such as screaming and birds in the tree’s chirping.
Camera angles vary in the scene. They range from low angle shots, making Honora appear insignificant compared to Juliet and Pauline and high angle shot/reverse shots where the two girls bludgeon the Mother.