Heavenly Creatures (1994) Movie Review

『🩸 A Fantasy More Intense Than Reality, Ending Drenched in Blood.』

🎥 Movie Overview

🎬 Title: Heavenly Creatures (1994)
🌍 Country: 🇳🇿 New Zealand
🎞️ Genre: True Crime Drama / Psychological Thriller
📢 Director: Peter Jackson
🖋️ Screenwriters: Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh
👩‍💼 Cast: Kate Winslet – Juliet Hulme
Melanie Lynskey – Pauline Parker
📺 Platform: Watcha, Amazon Prime Video (VOD)

🧩 In-Depth Story Exploration (Spoilers)

👭 The Girls’ Escape from Reality and Fantasy World

In 1952, two girls meet at school and quickly bond over a shared interest in literature, fantasy, and art. To escape reality, they create an imaginary kingdom called 'Borovnia' and their own heaven, 'The Fourth World,' cultivating a paranoid and intense friendship.

💬 “We will never be apart. We’ll be together forever.”

Adults around them expressed concern over the girls’ excessively intense (romantic/lesbian) relationship. When efforts were made to forcefully separate them, the girls despaired. In particular, when Juliet’s family decided to leave New Zealand, Pauline resolves to murder her own mother, Honora Parker, the only obstacle to their relationship.

🔪 Tragedy Born from Love and Obsession

On June 22, 1954, the girls lured Honora to a park and brutally beat her to death with bricks in stockings. Being minors, they were spared the death penalty and sentenced to five years in prison. They were released on the condition that they would never see each other again.

🦋 Emotional Resonance and Significance

🌪️ Blind Love and Obsession in Young Hearts

The film is not merely a depiction of a brutal true crime. It constantly questions how feelings believed to be ‘love’ by two young girls can become destructive when confronted with reality, and whether those feelings were truly love or a desperate search for salvation.

Pauline truly loved Juliet, but her attachment stemmed from insecurity born of a loveless life. Juliet, driven by intellectual pride to conquer reality, sometimes manipulated feelings, and together they formed a co-dependent relationship. They did not commit murder purely for love. Their blind emotions, which they thought could save each other, could not withstand reality and tragically sought to eliminate it.

🎭 Aftermath (Juliet Hulme Today)

The real-life 'Parker–Hulme murder case' shocked all of New Zealand at the time, and debate over whether their relationship was romantic persisted through the trial. → They were released after five years under different names and never met again.

After the film’s release, it was revealed that Juliet Hulme lived as a famous crime novelist under the name Anne Perry, astonishing the public once more. She expressed deep remorse and spent her life in reflection. (Pauline Parker later led an ordinary life and avoided media contact.)

🎬 Early Work of Director Peter Jackson

This film deals with a tragic murder case while portraying the dangerous power of intense emotions, imagination, and isolation during adolescence with remarkable visual and psychological depth. As an early work of the later master Peter Jackson, it excellently captures the blurred boundary between reality and fantasy and the psychological tension. Being based on real events adds weight, exploring the delicate balance of love, obsession, and violence.

🎯 Personal Rating

💕 Love Scene Intensity: ♥
⭐ Rating: ★★★☆