Before They Were Stars: Peter Jackson in “Bad Taste”

When Peter Jackson won the “Best Director” Academy Award for The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, horror geeks everywhere celebrated since it was once unfathomable to think that the same guy who was responsible for the twisted, gory shit in the preceding clip would be allowed anywhere near an Oscar podium. Horror junkies will probably already be familiar with Bad Taste, Jackson’s ultra-low-budget 1987 directorial debut from New Zealand, which was filmed over the course of four years and told the story of aliens invading Earth to harvest humans for their intergalactic fast food franchise. At the time it came out, it was one of the goriest films anyone had ever seen, and here you will see a thinner, clean-shaven, almost unrecognizble Jackson playing one of the heroes, who does such badass things as using his belt to hold his brain inside his skull after splattering it on a rock, and using a chainsaw to carve himself out of an alien’s scrotum. Given the film’s lack of budget, you’ll also a bearded, more recognizable Jackson doing double duty by playing an alien. Yep, the Academy was definitely 16 years too late with recognizing Jackson’s brilliance.