Bad Taste

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Frank: "Just remember, we're only authorized to use violence when there's a threat to the planet Earth." Barry: "And the Moon." Frank: "Yeah, and the Moon."

Bad Taste is first film made by the Oscar winner Peter Jackson. It's a splatter movie about a bunch of aliens working for intergalactic fastfood company, who massacrie the town of Kaihoro for the meat of its inhabitants.

However, one of the townsfolk manages to send a distress call and Astro Investigation and Defence Service sends out The Boys to investigate. The team consists of four members: Barry (the Straight Man of the group), Frank, Ozzy (a trigger-happy duo), and Derek (a sociopath with a slight drooling problem). Hilarity Ensues as The Boys clash with the aliens; Derek goes berserk, a charity collector Giles is abducted and The Boys have to clean up the whole mess.

Notable for being shot with a shoestring budget during weekends in period of four years.

Tropes used in Bad Taste include:

• Absurdly Sharp Blade: Derek's chainsaw.
• Acting for Two: both Derek and Robert are played by Peter Jackson, which makes the scene where Derek tries to torture Robert to reveal why the aliens are here all the funnier.
• Alien Lunch: The vomit gruel.
• Aliens in Cardiff
• An Arm and a Leg
• An Axe to Grind: One of the alien mooks attack Barry with an axe.
• Baa Bomb: Ozzy tries to destroy the aliens headquarters with a RPG. He misses and hits a sheep instead.
• Badass:

Derek: "I'm a Derek. Dereks don't run."

• Bald of Evil: The alien leader.
• Bloody Hilarious: For the record, some VHS versions came with barfing bags.
• Bond One-Liner: Given by Ozzy when he shoots one of the mooks on the head.

"That cleared the sinuses!"

• Bound and Gagged: Giles when he is captured by the aliens.
• Brain Food: Robert is shown happily eating the brains of one of his own.
• Bring My Brown Pants: They're not brown enough...
• Chainsaw Good: Derek's weapon of choice.
• Cigar Chomper: Frank.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: It involves a hammer, a bayonet and a foot.
• Comedic Sociopathy: Ozzy!

Frank: "Yeah but you know what the rules are. When we work undercover we have to remain faceless." Ozzy: "Oh I get it, just in case we kill a lot of innocent people!" (Cocks gun)

• • Also, Derek shows a little too much joy torturing Robert (the alien he captured) and at the end when he'a cutting aliens up with a chainsaw
• Cool Car: Derek's Beatles-mobile.
• Conveyor Belt of Doom: Happens when the alien leader rolls back the house-ship's grass and is stuck on it.
• Creepy Basement
• Cruel and Unusual Death: Derek going through boss alien's head and coming out his rear with his chainsaw.
• Distress Call: Doomed Kaihoro sents one in the opening.
• Dude in Distress: Giles.
• Does Not Like Shoes: One of the alien mooks moves barefooted.
• Dressing as the Enemy: Frank dresses as one of the mooks during the infiltration.
• Drop the Hammer: After hearing one of their own being tortured by Derek, bunch of aliens grab sledgehammers and rush to the rescue.
• Efficient Displacement: At one point Derek saws a hole shaped like himself on the aliens headquarters' wall.
• Evil Chef: One of the aliens who looks suspiciously like Peter Jackson during his The Lord of the Rings years.
• Eyepatch of Power Worn by one of the alien mooks.
• Flipping the Bird: As seen on the cover (at least, the original cover. later versions added a second finger). Giles, also flips Robert off at one point.
  • A little harder to notice is one of the aliens flipping off the protagonists as they make their escape in a car.
• Fun with Acronyms: Astro Investigation and Defence Service. Lampshaded in the movie:

Ozzy: "Wish we'd change that name!"

• Ghost Town: Kaihoro.
• Groin Attack: Ozzy knees one of the post-transformation aliens on the groin.
• Half the Man He Used To Be: One of the aliens after Derek runs him over with his car.
• Hat Damage: Derek's hat (that keeps his skull together) is shot off by a stray bullet, and he's immediately sent into spasms.
• Heroic Sociopath: Derek before his cranial trauma and Ozzy to some degree.
• Human Aliens: for all but the last 20 minutes of the movie, the aliens look like regular humans
• I Am a Humanitarian: One of the boys is forced to in order to maintain his mole status. He finds it quite tasty.
• Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy
• Impromptu Tracheotomy: Barry kills Roberts by throwing a machete on his throat, pinning him into a pillar.
• The Infiltration: The Boys start one when they set out to save Giles.
• Let's Fight Like Gentlemen: At one point Ozzy encounters one of the aliens, who puts its dukes up. Ozzy attempts to follow the suite, but is interrupted by Frank.
• Machete Mayhem: The alien chef attacks Ozzy and Giles with a machete during the big shootout.
• Made of Plasticine: The aliens; lampshaded with the line "They sure go to bits easy!"
• Meaningful Name: Kaihoro means "Foodtown" in Māori.
• Mugged for Disguise: Happens to one of the aliens when The Boys inflitrate their headquarters.
• My Car Hates Me
• Off with His Head: One of the aliens gets his head ripped off (and his spine along with it) when Frank steals his costume.
• Pre-Ass-Kicking One-Liner: Two of them, both provided by Derek.

"Eat lead, sucker!" "Suck my spinning steel, shithead!"

• Prop Recycling: One of the alien masks can be seen in Meet the Feebles.
• Psycho Party Member: Derek after falling off a cliff.
• Railing Kill: Ozzy kills the alien chef by throwing him over a railing.
• Refuge in Audacity
• Psychopathic Manchild: Some of the alien mooks, including Robert.
• Shout-Out:
  • "There's no glowing fingers on these bastards."
  • When The Boys wonder the aliens have hid their spaceship, Ozzy proposes that perhaps they came in a telephone booth.
• Slashed Throat: When the Evil Chef threatens Giles with a throat slice motion, Robert tries to mimic him and accidentally cuts his own throat.
• Sliding Scale of Comedy and Horror
• Staggered Zoom: Done after Ozzy kills the alien chef and he turns to see that Giles was abducted while he was occupied.
• Take That: Which no one outside New Zealand will get. Derek doesn't think the aliens destroying Auckland would be so bad.
• To Serve Man: Aliens work for intergalactic fastfood company Crumb's Crunchy Delights, who wants to add humans to their menu.
• Transformation Sequence: Happens when the aliens decide to bail out and ditch their human disguises.
• Use Your Head
• Van Helsing Hate Crimes: Derek's attitude toward aliens.
• Vomit Indiscretion Shot
• Weaksauce Weakness: After falling off from a cliff, Derek's head becomes very vulnerable and if it's hit Derek is sent to spasms. Even a hit from a pinecone.
• Who You Gonna Call?: The Boys, that's who.