Source-Count Gore Devol's airing on Vimeo
Ahhhh Bad Taste,the first film and first movie I saw from a guy who is one of my favorite director,Mr Peter Jackson. I had heard about the movie thanks to Fangoria and a few horror zines I read. I was on my way home from school on a Friday. Had just spent most of Chemisty II class reading an article in Fangoria about Peter Jackson's newest film Dead/Alive AKA Braindead. A buddy had told me that this one video store had just gotten in a bunch of horror films. So I stopped by to see if there was anything worth renting. This store ,that I later found out got shut down cause it was renting bootlegs,never had more than one copy of any film. But they had a huge horror,sci fi and porn selection. Seriously I could find pretty much any horror film that was on VHS at this store. I went in and headed straight for the horror section. Saw the above image and grabbed it cause I knew it was a film I had been reading about for years now.
I got home. Put the tape into my VCR and right at 90s minutes I sat there with my jaw on the floor. I had seen gore movies before this. But none of them had as much comedy. Or were made on such a low budget. Then right at the very end the tape stopped and started rewinding. This is when I started to suspect the video store was renting out bootlegs. Almost none of the tapes you rented from them had the FBI warning or a bunch of trailers before the film started. A friend swears he rented some Euro softcore film from the same store and saw the Cinemax After Dark logo pop up a few times. So I was a bit mad that I didn't see the entire film. But really going back now I see that all I missed was the credits.
The plot is fairly simple. Aliens have come to Earth.They want humans to serve as the food in their intergalactic fast food places. And Peter Jackson and some friends are the Earth's only defense.
Mr Jackson shot this film over a long period of time. With himself and various friends playing all the roles. And sometimes not being able to shoot footage cause they were out of money. It was mostly made on the weekends.
What sucks is AFAIK it hasn't gotten a Blu Ray release in the USA. The legit DVD release doesn't look that great and is OOP. I figured once Jackson hit it big with the Lord of the Rings films,fuck I hate those movies,that all his previous stuff would get re-released on DVD. But that doesn't seemed to have happened.
Notice how I said legit DVD release. Somehow a few companies seem to think Bad Taste,which was released in 1987,is in the public domain. So it has shown up on a handful of those multiple horror movie sets. You know like 50 Chilling Classics on 10 DVDs for only 20 bucks. The versions of Bad Taste found on those sets looks worst than the bootleg VHS I rented back in 90 or 91.
What is even odder is early this year Count Gore DeVol aired Bad Taste on his Vimeo show. Count Gore is a horror host that used to be on TV in the DC area. And in the early 2000s switched over to being online. Every week or so you get a new film from him. And it is free to watch. I am guessing whoever picks the movies for his show saw Bad Taste on those PD horror sets and just assumed the film is PD. The print Count Gore used looks decent. It looks as good if not better than the officially released DVD. And hell it is free. Added bonus if you have the Vimeo app you can download videos off Vimeo to watch offline. Whenever I am making a road trip I always load up a few Count Gore episodes on my Tablet to watch while in the van going to what ever tiny town we are heading to.
I love this movie. But then I love all of Jackson's pre-LOTR stuff. Sadly it looks like the days of him making amazing horror/comedies is over. I thought after the huge success of LOTR Jackson would use that to get a big budget and make the best horror/comedy ever. But nope we got a decent but un-needed remake of King Kong. Then the horrible Hobbit trilogy.
Since the DVD is OOP and selling for too much if you want to see this goto Vimeo and watch Count Gore's airing of it.
Bad Taste gets a B+.