30 years ago, Peter Jackson paved the way to Lord of the Rings with this fantastical crime movie

The year 1994 was a seminal one for entertainment: television changed forever with the premiere of two iconic shows; two movies often considered among the all-time best came out to rave reviews; an underrated gem of cinema also premiered, but was largely ignored. Yes, many major movies came out in 1994, a year also infamously remembered for featuring so few “good” female performances that the Best Actress Oscar category had trouble filling out five slots. And yet, it’s curious that the two best female performances from the year weren’t nominated and were, in fact, outright ignored throughout awards season.

Thirty years ago, future Oscar-winner Kate Winslet and Yellowjackets star Melanie Lynskey made their feature film debuts in Peter Jackson’s biographical crime drama Heavenly Creatures. Based on the sordid real-life Parker-Hulme murder case that shook New Zealand in the mid-1950s, Heavenly Creatures was a bold and showstopping debut for two actresses who, over the years, would prove themselves among the best and most versatile of their generation. And yet, it’s barely mentioned today as a highlight for Jackson, Winslet, or Lynskey, and is largely overshadowed by rings, sinking ships, and cannibal cheerleaders. On its 30th anniversary, Digital Trends looks back at Heavenly Creatures and assesses its legacy as an early true crime picture and a brilliant introduction to Jackson, Winslet, and Lynskey’s many talents.

Two such heavenly creatures

Heavenly Creatures is based on the highly publicized Parker-Hulme murder case of 1954. In broad terms, the case involved 16-year-old Pauline Parker and her best friend, 15-year-old Juliet Hulme, who used a brick inside a stocking to beat Parker’s mother, Honorah, to death on the afternoon of June 22, 1954. The trial and the subsequent sentencing became a public sensation in New Zealand, to the point where it even made waves across the pond at a time when international, non-war-related news didn’t exactly cross over. The girls were released after about five years on the condition that they never saw each other again. Not much is known about Parker’s life post-prison, but both girls moved to the U.K., where Hulme changed her name to Anne Perry and became a renowned crime novelist.

Such a salacious case would, of course, be prime fodder for an equally scandalous movie, so it’s quite a surprise that Peter Jackson’s Heavenly Creatures is so clinical, insightful, and introspective. Wide-eyed and rosy-cheeked, Lynskey and Winslet play Parker and Hulme as vulnerable and overly sentimental girls desperate to feel everything– they are open wounds overflowing with blood and unwilling to close. The film chronicles the intense friendship from the beginning, when they bond over their shared experiences with debilitating illnesses as children. Together, they bond over music and art, creating a fantasy world called Borovnia that they escape into until it becomes their reality.

Winslet and Lynskey are the beating heart of Heavenly Creatures; much like the real girls, the two don’t spend more than a couple of scenes apart. Their bond is instantly believable, with the actresses injecting it with a mix of passion and youthful enthusiasm that will evoke memories in any adult watching. For his part, Jackson is more concerned with evoking emotions than stating outright facts, thus immersing the audience in the state of mind of these two adolescents who were also increasingly becoming detached from their reality. Heavenly Creatures has a defined plot, but it’s much more about the experience; the murder literally happens in the second-to-last scene because the sensationalism surrounding the trial is not the point. Instead, the film is about connection and deception, the shared delusion between two people who meet at the right place and the right time — or, in this case, the wrong place and the wrong time.

Heavenly Creatures seeks not to explain, justify, or even empathize; instead, it’s merely an observer, offering a study of the inner world of these two young girls who often felt alone in a world joined against them. The movie does what few others did with the real Juliet and Pauline: it listens to what they have to say without ridiculing or judging them. By validating their feelings and giving them a voice, Heavenly Creatures goes against many of the common tenets of the modern true-crime drama, allowing them to tell their story without victimizing or lionizing them.

It’s all frightfully romantic

A huge part of the Parker-Hulme case was the strong, co-dependent attachment between the girls, which many interpreted as homosexual. Indeed, both Hulme and Parker’s families were concerned at the prospect of a potential physical or emotional relationship between the girls, which was apparently one of the main reasons why they wanted to separate them. The details of the case remain vague, but the media has really played up the potential homosexual nature of their relationship. In the mid-2000s, about a decade after the release of Heavenly Creatures, Hulme, then known as Anne Perry, stated that they were not lesbians, although she admitted to the obsessive nature of their dynamic.

The film also prefers to exist in the subtext. It does portray the girls as exceedingly close and very physically expressive — they hold hands, share warm smiles, embrace each other, and do everything you do with a romantic partner short of kissing. Yet, it never outright commits to portraying them as lovers; instead, it chooses to depict their connection as mental and spiritual, bound by feeling and intent. In a way, that approach only makes the bond between Juliet and Pauline feel stronger and more definitive. They are soulmates connected by something beyond explaining and, is it turns out, understanding.

At a time when the true crime genre is increasingly comfortable sensationalizing every detail of its real-life stories, when showrunners aren’t afraid to depict brothers as incestuous just to become viral on X, Jackson’s approach in Heavenly Creatures is all the more refreshing. The director and his co-writer, Fran Walsh, choose not to make assumptions and instead offer a literal depiction of what Pauline’s writings depict. They earned an Oscar nomination for their efforts. In doing so, Jackson allows Winslet and Lynskey to find the nuance in Pauline and Juliet’s bond, crafting something not only compelling, but also surprisingly truthful — well, at least as truthful as a fictionalized account can be.

How odd, yet how pleasing

Thirty years later, Heavenly Creatures feels not only remarkably timely, but wonderfully refreshing. As the true crime genre continues to drop movies, miniseries, and even podcasts based on increasingly obscure cases, Jackson’s film only seems brighter and more inspired, a true outlier in a genre that is becoming increasingly homogenous. It is quirky, flirting with camp without fully committing to it. Intense scenes are marked by quick close-ups, and heavy scenes are framed in dark, confined spaces, with the occasional thunder roar in the background for further impact.

Heavenly Creatures is dripping with style and individuality. Much like its two central figures, it is unconcerned with seeming cool or heavy and instead prefers to march to the beat of its own drum, one which only it can hear because perhaps it’s coming from Borovnia. Winslet and Lynskey understood their assignments incredibly well, offering furious, commanding performances that remain standouts in their filmography, which is saying much.

And yet, it’s tragic that neither received their due for their stellar work, and while it’s tough to feel bad for Winslet, a future Oscar and Emmy winner with enough accolades to sink the Titanic, Lynskey remains unrewarded despite her numerous worthy turns in film and television. And while Peter Jackson is best known now as the director of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit movies, his skills as a dramatist, which Heavenly Creatures showed off so well, aren’t given their proper due. It’s a shame that once Jackson hit the jackpot with LOTR, he devoted himself almost entirely to the fantasy genre, and never went back to the true crime genre that jump-started his career in the first place.

Heavenly Creatures is available to purchase on Amazon.