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Heavenly Creatures Review

· superuser

Review Ratings

Art/Style: 
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final_score: 8.6
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final_score: 8.6
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final_score: 8.6
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final_score: 8.6
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final_score: 8.6
Production Value: 
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final_score: 8.6
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final_score: 8.6
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final_score: 8.6
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final_score: 8.6
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final_score: 8.6
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final_score: 8.6
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final_score: 8.6
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final_score: 8.6
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final_score: 8.6
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final_score: 8.6
Content: 
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final_score: 8.6
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final_score: 8.6
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final_score: 8.6
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final_score: 8.6
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final_score: 8.6
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final_score: 8.6
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final_score: 8.6
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final_score: 8.6
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final_score: 8.6
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final_score: 8.6
Personal Enjoyment: 
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final_score: 8.6
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final_score: 8.6
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final_score: 8.6
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final_score: 8.6
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final_score: 8.6
Overall Popularity: 
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final_score: 8.6
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final_score: 8.6
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final_score: 8.6
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final_score: 8.6
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final_score: 8.6
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final_score: 8.6
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final_score: 8.6
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final_score: 8.6
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final_score: 8.6

Final Review Score

8.6 / 10

Amazing

Heavenly Creatures (1994) is a Peter Jackson film whose storytelling, performances, and direction deserve attention beyond its place in the director’s filmography.

Story and Characters

In 1950s New Zealand, teenagers Pauline Parker and Juliet Hulme form an intensely close friendship, escaping into an elaborate imaginary kingdom as their families grow alarmed by their bond.

Performances and Direction

Melanie Lynskey and Kate Winslet deliver fearless early performances, portraying the girls’ creativity, vulnerability, and increasingly dangerous insularity. Jackson treats their fantasy world with exuberant visual invention rather than reducing them to a simple case study.

Filmmaking and Themes

The film’s shifting balance between whimsy and dread is deeply unsettling, and its depiction of a real-life tragedy avoids easy comfort. Its subject matter is disturbing, but the psychological perspective is unusually vivid.

The Final Verdict

A haunting, formally inventive drama that announced Jackson as a filmmaker capable of far more than genre spectacle.

Movie Information

  • Film: Heavenly Creatures
  • Year: 1994
  • Director: Peter Jackson
  • Cast: Melanie Lynskey, Kate Winslet, Sarah Peirse, Diana Kent
  • Genre: Biographical psychological drama