Heavenly Creatures  

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Heavenly Creatures is a 1994 fantasy thriller New Zealand film, directed by Peter Jackson and written by Fran Walsh, it is based on the notorious 1954 Parker-Hulme Murder, committed by two teenager girls in Christchurch, New Zealand. The film features Melanie Lynskey as Pauline Parker, Kate Winslet as Juliet Hulme and Sara Pierse as Honora Reiper and deals with the obsessive relationship between two teenage girls, Pauline and Juliet, who vow to murder Pauline’s mother in order to avoid a potential separation when the mother fears their relationship is bordering lesbianism.

The film departs strongly, stylistically and dramatically to Jackson’s former films, which where mostly graphic horror productions — however retains his elaborate fantasy sequences, used in the film to show the fantasy world of Pauline and Juliet. Heavenly Creatures open to critical acclaim in 1994 at the Venice Film Festival, celebrated for its visual effects and acting from the then-newcomers and the directing achieved by Jackson. It received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay, a Golden Lion for Best Director and the Jury Grand Prize for Best Film. Due to the film's success in advance screenings, studio executives decided to distribute it in a much wider release than ever before internationally, rather than just New Zealand and the United States. It launched the career of Winslet — who went on to became a major star, while Lynskey has only earnt moderate success outside of her native New Zealand.

Plot

In 1952 Christchurch, an affluent 13-year-old English girl, Juliet Hulme, befriends a 14-year-old girl from a working-class family, Pauline Parker, when Juliet transfers to Pauline's school. They bond over a shared history of severe childhood disease and isolating hospitalizations and over time develop an intense friendship. Pauline admires Juliet's outspoken arrogance and beauty.

Together they paint, write stories, make plasticine figurines, and eventually create a fantasy kingdom called Borovnia. It is the setting of the adventure novels they write together, which they hope to have published and eventually made into films in Hollywood. Over time it begins to be as real to them as the real world.

Pauline's relationship with her mother, Honora, becomes increasingly hostile and the two fight constantly. This angry atmosphere is in contrast to the peaceful intellectual life Juliet shares with her family. Pauline spends most of her time at the Hulmes', where she feels accepted. Juliet introduces Pauline to the idea of "the Fourth World", a Heaven without Christians where music and art are celebrated. Juliet believes she will go there when she dies. Certain actors and musicians have the status of saints in this afterlife, such as singer Mario Lanza, with whom both girls are obsessed.

During a day trip to Port Levy, Juliet's parents announce that they are going away and plan to leave Juliet behind. Her fear of being left alone makes her hysterical, culminating in her first direct experience of the Fourth World, perceiving it as a land where all is beautiful and she is safe. She asks Pauline to come with her, and the world that Juliet sees also becomes visible to Pauline. This is presented as a shared spiritual vision, a confirmation of their "Fourth World" belief, that influences the girls' predominant reality and affects their perception of events in the everyday world.

Juliet is diagnosed with tuberculosis and is sent to a clinic. Pauline is desolate without her, and the two begin an intense correspondence, writing not only as themselves but in the roles of the royal couple of Borovnia. During this time Pauline begins a sexual relationship with a lodger, which makes Juliet jealous. For both of them, their fantasy life becomes a useful escape when under stress in the real world, and the two engage in increasingly violent, even murderous, fantasies about people who oppress them. After four months Juliet is released from the clinic and their relationship intensifies. Juliet's father blames the intensity of the relationship on Pauline and speaks to her parents, who take her to a doctor. The doctor suspects that Pauline is homosexual and considers this a cause of her increasing anger at her mother as well as her dramatic weight loss.

Juliet catches her mother having an affair with one of her psychiatric patients and threatens to tell her father, but her mother tells her he already knows. Shortly afterward, the two announce their intention to divorce, upsetting Juliet. Soon it is decided that the family will leave Christchurch, with Juliet to be left with a relative in South Africa. She becomes increasingly hysterical at the thought of leaving Pauline, and the two girls plan to run away together. When that plan becomes impossible, the two share a bathtub and talk about murdering Pauline's mother since they see her as the primary obstacle to their being together.

As the date of Juliet's departure nears, it is decided that the two girls should spend the last three weeks together at Juliet's house. At the end of that time, Pauline returns home and the two finalize plans for the murder. Honora plans a trip for the three of them to Victoria Park, and the girls decide this will be the day. Juliet conceals a broken piece of brick in her bag and Pauline places it into an old stocking before departing on the trip. After having tea, the three walk on a path down a steep hillside. When Honora bends over to pick up a pink charm the girls have deliberately dropped, Juliet and Pauline bludgeon her to death with the brick.

A post-script states that Pauline and Juliet were arrested shortly after the murder; that, as the girls were too young to face the death penalty, both were sentenced to serve five years in prison; that they were released separately in 1959; and that it was a condition that they never see each other again.