Heavenly Creatures (1994)
Movie · 1994 · Drama, Fantasy · 1h 49m · R · English
Curator score: 7.8/10 (143.4K ratings)
Tagline: Not all angels are innocent.
Precocious teenager Juliet moves to New Zealand with her family and soon befriends the quiet, brooding Pauline through their shared love of fantasy and literature. This friendship gradually develops into an intense and obsessive bond.
Ratings:
- Curator score: 7.8/10
- IMDb: 7.2/10
- Letterboxd: 3.77/5
- Rotten Tomatoes: 95%
- Metacritic: 86
- TMDB: 7.0/10
Director: Peter Jackson
Production: WingNut Films, New Zealand Film Commission, Fontana Film Production
Cast: Melanie Lynskey, Kate Winslet, Sarah Peirse, Diana Kent, Clive Merrison, Simon O'Connor, Jed Brophy, Peter Elliott, Gilbert Goldie, Geoffrey Heath, Kirsti Ferry, Ben Skjellerup, Darien Takle, Elizabeth Moody, Liz Mullane, Moreen Eason, Pearl Carpenter, Lou Dobson, Jesse Griffin, Glen Drake
Curator Review
Verdict: A feverish, psychologically intense drama that turns adolescent fantasy into something beautiful, dangerous, and tragic. It’s especially strong if you like stylized filmmaking, unreliable emotional worlds, and stories about obsession, class, and the terror of being misunderstood.
Best for: Viewers drawn to dark coming-of-age stories; Fans of psychologically charged female friendships; People who like stylized, imaginative direction; Audiences interested in true-crime-adjacent drama without procedural framing; Viewers comfortable with unsettling emotional escalation
Skip if: You want a straightforward, realistic drama; You’re looking for a light or comforting teen story; You dislike obsessive relationships or morally ambiguous protagonists; You prefer restrained, naturalistic filmmaking; You want a film that stays emotionally easy to watch
Overview: Heavenly Creatures is one of the most distinctive coming-of-age films of the 1990s: lush, feverish, and deeply unsettling. Peter Jackson treats the girls’ shared fantasy life with real wonder, then lets that wonder curdle into something claustrophobic and tragic. The result is both emotionally intimate and horrifying.
Top Letterboxd reviews:
- Joe: Best scene in the movie is when they spend 20 minutes running away in terror from Orson Welles. Real life situations.
- Marian: kate winslet has been out there doing it for the lesbians for all this time
- emma: I love vintage homicidal lesbians
- dselwyns: Teenage girls are just like that
- Betty: i too would develop an unhealthy obsession with kate winslet to the point of delusion
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Topics: psychological drama, coming-of-age, female friendship, obsession, dark fantasy, true story, 1990s cinema, tragic, stylized visuals, new zealand
https://watchlist.tannermartz.com/apple/movie/heavenly-creatures/1024
Heavenly Creatures (1994)
Movie · 1994 · Drama, Fantasy · 1h 49m · R · English
Curator score: 7.8/10 (143.4K ratings)
Not all angels are innocent.
Overview Precocious teenager Juliet moves to New Zealand with her family and soon befriends the quiet, brooding Pauline through their shared love of fantasy and literature. This friendship gradually develops into an intense and obsessive bond.
Ratings
Curator score: 7.8/10
IMDb: 7.2/10
Letterboxd: 3.77/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 95%
Metacritic: 86
TMDB: 7.0/10
Production WingNut Films, New Zealand Film Commission, Fontana Film Production
Cast Melanie Lynskey, Kate Winslet, Sarah Peirse, Diana Kent, Clive Merrison, Simon O'Connor, Jed Brophy, Peter Elliott, Gilbert Goldie, Geoffrey Heath, Kirsti Ferry, Ben Skjellerup, Darien Takle, Elizabeth Moody, Liz Mullane, Moreen Eason, Pearl Carpenter, Lou Dobson, Jesse Griffin, Glen Drake
Curator Review
Verdict
A feverish, psychologically intense drama that turns adolescent fantasy into something beautiful, dangerous, and tragic. It’s especially strong if you like stylized filmmaking, unreliable emotional worlds, and stories about obsession, class, and the terror of being misunderstood.
Best for
Viewers drawn to dark coming-of-age stories
Fans of psychologically charged female friendships
People who like stylized, imaginative direction
Audiences interested in true-crime-adjacent drama without procedural framing
Viewers comfortable with unsettling emotional escalation
Skip if
You want a straightforward, realistic drama
You’re looking for a light or comforting teen story
You dislike obsessive relationships or morally ambiguous protagonists
You prefer restrained, naturalistic filmmaking
You want a film that stays emotionally easy to watch
Overview
Heavenly Creatures is one of the most distinctive coming-of-age films of the 1990s: lush, feverish, and deeply unsettling. Peter Jackson treats the girls’ shared fantasy life with real wonder, then lets that wonder curdle into something claustrophobic and tragic. The result is both emotionally intimate and horrifying.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Joe (4★) · 2421 likes
Best scene in the movie is when they spend 20 minutes running away in terror from Orson Welles. Real life situations.
Marian (4★) · 1947 likes
kate winslet has been out there doing it for the lesbians for all this time
emma (5★) · 1807 likes
I love vintage homicidal lesbians
dselwyns (4★) · 1753 likes
Teenage girls are just like that
Betty (4★) · 1489 likes
i too would develop an unhealthy obsession with kate winslet to the point of delusion
Recommended similar titles
2000 · Drama, Romance · 1h 37m · R · Curator 8.4/10 (3.6K ratings) · Where to watch: fuboTV
A dreamy, tragic portrait of adolescent girlhood, obsession, and the distance between private feeling and public understanding.
2003 · Drama · 1h 40m · R · Curator 5.3/10 (713K ratings)
Captures the volatility of teenage identity, intimacy, and self-destruction with raw emotional force.
1993 · Drama, Romance · 2h · R · Curator 8.0/10 (223.5K ratings)
Another New Zealand-set film about female interiority, repression, and intense emotional worlds.
2007 · Drama, Romance · 2h 3m · R · Curator 8.4/10 (1M ratings) · Where to watch: Netflix, Netflix Standard with Ads
Explores imagination, desire, and the devastating consequences of a story told from inside a young mind.
2010 · Drama, Thriller, Horror · 1h 48m · R · Curator 8.9/10 (3.7M ratings)
A similarly feverish descent into obsession, identity fracture, and psychological collapse.
1976 · Horror, Thriller · 1h 38m · R · Curator 8.1/10 (1M ratings) · Where to watch: fuboTV, MGM Plus, Philo
A classic of teenage isolation, humiliation, and emotional eruption turned catastrophic.
2002 · Drama · 1h 54m · PG-13 · Curator 7.7/10 (273.2K ratings) · Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video, Amazon Prime Video with Ads
For its layered emotional interiority, literary sensibility, and focus on women trapped by circumstance.
2009 · Fantasy, Drama · 2h 16m · PG-13 · Curator 3.1/10 (607.6K ratings)
Shares a stylized approach to trauma, memory, and the afterlife of violence, even if more overtly fantastical.
1999 · Crime, Drama · 1h 58m · R · Curator 7.4/10 (189.9K ratings)
A devastating true-story drama about identity, intimacy, and the violence surrounding vulnerable young people.
2016 · Thriller, Drama, Romance · 2h 25m · R · Curator 9.7/10 (930.9K ratings) · Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video
A lush, manipulative, and emotionally charged story of obsession, desire, and deception.
2005 · Drama · 1h 45m · NR · Curator 9.0/10 (613.9K ratings)
Deals with trauma, memory, and the long shadow of adolescent experience in a deeply affecting way.
2014 · Drama, Horror · 1h 34m · R · Curator 5.2/10 (1M ratings) · Where to watch: Hulu, AMC+, Philo, Shudder, Sundance Now, MUBI
For its psychological intensity, grief, and the way inner turmoil takes on a monstrous shape.
Topics
psychological drama, coming-of-age, female friendship, obsession, dark fantasy, true story, 1990s cinema, tragic, stylized visuals, new zealand
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