by Ryan Robert Hallett

Created on: May 25, 2010

Many will associate the name Peter Jackson with triumphant scores and tastefully done CGI effects, and above all, epic movies. He is the director of J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy, each by far the most successful film adaptation of its respective book, and the only live action versions. More recently, in 2005, he put together the less successful but equally spectacular King Kong. He was perhaps one of the most influential directors of the beginning of this century, his movies enjoyed by people of all ages and persuasions, all over the world.

But Jackson has a dark past. Prior to his explosion into the mainstream, the now 46-year-old New Zealander made lower budget, but in some ways equally spectacular sci-fi, horror, and fantasy movies. Themes varied, but their common thread was that they were definitely not for the family. His first film, The Valley, dates back to 1976. It was a silent time-travel movie made on a shoestring budget with a few of his friends, shown on a television show called Spot On. Eleven years later, he began his journey into "real" film making and made Bad Taste, a low-low budget alien invasion flick filmed mostly in the New Zealand countryside, and let's just say what money they did have, they spent on graphic blood and guts. For those who can stomach the visuals, the horror is counterbalanced by a very heavy dose of humor. In the same way, 1992's zombie flick Dead Alive balances an even heavier payload of both gore and humor. Its increased budget allowed Jackson to hone his craft, hiring more and better actors, affording a greater variety of sets and locations, higher quality film and of course, better and much more blood and guts. Sandwiched between these two films is 1989's Meet the Feebles, Jackson's homage to Jim Henson's Muppet's. Here he trades horror violence for explicit drug use and sex, as well as heaps of vulgarity, all within the framework of a theater company populated by disjointed and severely maladjusted Muppet-like characters.

In an unexpected career twist, the director ventured into pure drama/ thriller territory when in 1994 he made Heavenly Creatures, featuring a young Kate Winslett. It was based on the true tale of a pair of young teenaged girls in love with each other, who together create a rich fantasy land in order to escape what they perceive as the injustices committed to them by their parents and school. This fantasy land creates a window of opportunity for a small amount of very interesting special

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