Aliens have invaded and taken over the population of Kaihoro, New Zealand. A group comes to investigate. Barry shoots one of the aliens. Derek (Peter Jackson) is in control on a hilltop and calls in Frank and Ozzy to Kaihoro. They find aliens who are processing humans for food.

This indie is Peter Jackson's debut feature. He throws everything into this. Some of it works. Some of it doesn't. It is above all ambitious. He leaves little on the drawing board. The brain eating and other general grotesque creature feature stuff are great. It's always fun to have the gross squishiness. The gun action and fights are less compelling. It is shot very flatly. Peter has yet to absorb the HK action style. The story would be more compelling if the characters start out together. It would allow them to develop chemistry. These characters don't have enough personalities. They seem to be under-written. There is some good camera work. Overall, this is an ambitious debut.

Nowadays he's one of the world's most famous directors after his incredible success with the LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy, but everyone has to start somewhere and BAD TASTE is Peter Jackson's beginning. Shot over a period of 4 years as an amateur film and clearly inspired by the likes of THE EVIL DEAD, Jackson's film is equally inventive although totally different in tone. Instead of being a horror film, this is a comedy out and out, with the emphasis on dumb humour. Not really my cup of tea, but at least I could enjoy all the effort that went into this – especially the large-scale climax, with the flying house, which must have taken some doing!

The simple story of an alien invasion is handled well on what is a very low budget. For much of the movie, the aliens look human, only changing into their rubbery true forms near the climax. The heroes facing them are men of action, so there's plenty of shooting and fight scenes, some heavily in debt to Schwarzenegger's COMMANDO, although this time around Jackson amps up the gore to unbelievable levels. Brains are splattered everywhere, blood fountains through the air, bodies are chainsawed and torn into pieces – it's all very nasty stuff, although thoroughly unbelievable and played for laughs at all times.

One scene, the infamous vomit-drinking moment, is specifically designed to make the viewer be sick, and is pretty hard to watch (because of the sound effects, for the most part). This film's biggest detraction is the quality of the acting, which unsurprisingly sucks – particularly Jackson himself, who proves to be an intensely irritating screen star. Thank God then that his directing is good, showing promise even here. While I can't ever see myself sitting through BAD TASTE again, far preferring BRAINDEAD, fans of horror and gore flicks will no doubt have a ball with this silly outing that just goes to show what you can do with special effects and passion.

"Bad Taste" is Peter Jackson's first film and it shows. This is because Peter was not a director....just some guy making a film with his friends. In fact, because they had no money it took four years to piece the project together...and they didn't even have a script! But despite this and many other shortcomings (including using a 16mm camera and having ridiculous bloody effects),the film is VERY watchable and even, at times, quite funny.

The story is very simple and there really isn't any context or backstory. It begins with some zombie-like folks trying to kill and eat a group of guys. Later, the guys all don commando outfits and take on a whole house filled with what you've come to realize are blood-thirsty aliens!

There are two thins that really help this film....the sense of humor AND the cheesiness of the guys and blood. If the movie was more realistic (such as Jackson's "Dead Alive" made just a short time later),it would have been repulsive and sick. Instead, you find yourself laughing at the guts, blood and mayhem since it's so obviously fake. Well worth seeing and a great example of cheap filmmaking that works.