--- title: "Heavenly Creatures: the reviews" canonical: "https://film.one/film/heavenly-creatures/reviews" title_page: "https://film.one/film/heavenly-creatures" critics_score: 74 critics_reviews: 12 licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Heavenly Creatures (1994): what the critics said Critics' score 74 from 12 reviews: 10 positive, 1 mixed, 1 negative. Most critics admire it. Ten of the twelve reviews are positive, and the praise gathers in the same places: the lead performances of Melanie Lynskey and Kate Winslet, and the fantasy sequences, which most reviewers treat as the heart of the film rather than decoration. The consensus reads it as the moment Peter Jackson turned from splatter comedies into a serious dramatist, and finds he kept his energy in the move. The disagreement is about point of view. The film stays inside the girls’ heads, and the two dissenters, both American and both from the 1994 release, think that is the problem. The New York Times finds the tension leaks away because we never step outside the pair; The New Yorker goes further and objects to the tenderness shown to the killers. Time Out notes some irritating camera moves and Variety warns the flashy style may divide audiences. The spread is wide; the later British reviews are the warmest. ## Empire — Olly Richards Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 20 December 2005. The film is taut and clever, fronted by two excellent performances and a strong choice for Jackson's move into mainstream filmmaking. It singles out the sustained dreamlike state that makes the crime plotting feel like part of the girls' fantasy world. [Read the review](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/heavenly-creatures-review/) ## Los Angeles Times — Kenneth Turan Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 23 November 1994. The film is praised as an adventurous, accomplished work burning with cinematic energy that presents the inevitable story without romanticizing or excusing the events. [Read the review](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-11-23-ca-532-story.html) ## The Guardian Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 26 September 2011. The critic calls Peter Jackson's 1994 film a masterly, formally daring and superbly acted drama about two teenage girls whose obsessive relationship spirals out of control. The fantasy sequences are singled out as a disturbing and sublime coup de cinéma that showcases Jackson's gift for fantasy landscapes born of emotional damage. [Read the review](https://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2011/sep/26/drive-heavenly-creatures-reissue) ## The Telegraph — Tim Robey Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 23 November 2012. Heavenly Creatures remains Jackson's best, most serious and most daring movie, a 99-minute time-bomb that ticks toward an inevitable tragic outcome with desperate force. The performances of leads Melanie Lynskey and Kate Winslet are singled out as making one of the most unforgettable portraits of female friendship in cinema. [Read the review](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/recommendations/9697194/Tim-Robey-recommends...-Heavenly-Creatures-1994.html) ## The AV Club — Scott Tobias Fi1m's normalised score 85/100 (inferred from the text). 26 February 2009. The film marks Jackson's transition from splatstick to prestige drama while retaining his energetic style, focusing tightly on the obsessive friendship and shared fantasy world of the two teenage girls at its center. [Read the review](https://www.avclub.com/the-new-cult-canon-heavenly-creatures-1798215829) ## Time Out — GA Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 17 November 2015. The critic welcomes Peter Jackson's shift from splatter films to this drama based on a real New Zealand murder case, focusing on the intense friendship between two teenagers rather than the violence itself. The film is distinguished by its immersive depiction of the girls' secretive relationship and is acted with conviction and directed with febrile vibrancy, though some camera movements are noted as irritating. [Read the review](https://www.timeout.com/movies/heavenly-creatures) ## Film Comment — Michael Atkinson Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 1 May 1995. Jackson's film is noted in the context of his early career shift, examining the real-life murder case through the lens of the girls' intense bond and imaginative escape. [Read the review](https://www.filmcomment.com/issue/may-june-1995/) ## The Times Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 18 January 2003. The film marks Jackson's transition from splatterpunk to mainstream dramatist with a macabre period yarn based on real New Zealand events. The fantasy sequences are praised as showing the director shining as a visual effects virtuoso, creating an unsettling and hallucinatory journey through adolescent mania. [Read the review](https://www.thetimes.com/world/australasia/article/film-of-the-week-qhnf2fhd7mn) ## Variety Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 12 September 1994. Festival review. The review calls it an exhilarating retelling that combines original vision with a complex portrait of the out-of-control relationship, though it may divide audiences with its flashy style. [Read the review](https://variety.com/1994/film/reviews/heavenly-creatures-2-1200438653/) ## The New York Times — Janet Maslin Fi1m's normalised score 50/100 (inferred from the text). 16 November 1994. The critic finds the film an eccentric exploration of the girls' fantasy world that captures their detachment from reality but ultimately loses tension by staying too close to their point of view. [Read the review](https://www.nytimes.com/1994/11/16/movies/film-review-heavenly-creatures-fantasies-and-a-love-that-led-to-murder.html) ## The New Yorker Fi1m's normalised score 30/100 (inferred from the text). 14 November 1994. The review criticizes the director for filming the story from the girls' hysterical perspective, glamorizing their warped view and treating the murderers with suspicious tenderness instead of critical distance. [Read the review](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1994/11/21/blood-lust) ## HeyUGuys — Jon Lyus Rating 4/5. 3 October 2011. The film is Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh at their most confident, beautifully capturing the emotional ties and teenage angst between the two girls in their screen debuts. It remains Jackson's most honest film, with breathtaking fantasy sequences from the fledgling Weta workshop. [Read the review](https://www.heyuguys.com/heavenly-creatures-blu-ray-review/) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Our review: https://film.one/film/heavenly-creatures.md