5 Best Peter Jackson Movies Besides The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit

Ten years have passed since the premiere of the final installment of The Hobbit trilogy, directed by Peter Jackson, one of the most influential directors of the 21st century. The director changed the attitude of producers and viewers to fantasy adaptations once and for all.

Let's take a look at Jackson's filmography, which besides two Tolkien trilogies, includes comedy-horror, psychological drama and a masterful mockumentary.

1. Heavenly Creatures, 1994

It was this movie that brought Jackson to Hollywood's attention, and without it, there probably would have been no The Lord of the Rings. This is a subtle drama based on true events about two New Zealand teenage girls who become friends over their love of fantasy universes.

Together they create a whole magical world with its own rules, and when they are about to be separated, they decide to kill the mother of one of them. Jackson tells this dark story without a judgmental tone.

Heavenly Creatures is a sensitive study of psychology, an attempt to understand how a dreamer can turn into a killer under the pressure of others.

2. The Lovely Bones, 2009

For a viewer who counts Peter Jackson's filmography from The Lord of the Rings, The Lovely Bones might seem like an unexpected career twist. In fact, it was a return to an earlier period of sorts.

The action is set in 1973. The story is told from the point of view of 14-year-old Susie, who was killed a short time earlier by George, her quiet neighbor. Susie's ghost stays on earth and watches her parents, Jack and Abigail, mourn her disappearance.

Later, an acquaintance named Ruth starts dating the guy Susie was in love with, and George is already preparing for another attack.

3. Dead Alive, 1992

This is the peak of Jackson's early work – a bloodthirsty slapstick about an awkward guy who finds himself at the center of a local zombie apocalypse.

It was in Dead Alive that the director's visual style finally took shape, with his love of sharp Dutch angles, uncomfortable close-ups, an emphasis on dramatic lighting and a constantly moving camera, and a passion for practical effects.

One of the film's final scenes was long considered the bloodiest in cinema history, until it was surpassed by the Evil Dead remake.

4. Forgotten Silver, 1995

A hilarious mockumentary about New Zealand film pioneer Colin McKenzie, whose work was supposedly lost for a long time and then miraculously discovered by Peter Jackson.

It's all a big joke, an alternate history of cinema in which all the important achievements of visual language are attributed to one person, but at the same time a touching message to all the forgotten creators and enthusiasts whose voices have been lost in the maelstrom of time.

5. Bad Taste, 1987

Aliens land in a simple New Zealand village and capture all the inhabitants to make food for an intergalactic fast food chain. A special task force is sent to rescue the people.

There will be a lot of blood, and one of the characters (played by Jackson himself) will shake himself off after falling off a huge cliff, fix his split skull and start putting pieces of alien brains in his head.

Jackson filmed his debut without a script, with his own money, over the course of four years, meeting with friends on weekends. The director made all the camera cranes and props in his garage, turning the backyard of his parents' house into a cinematic battlefield.