History Film / HeavenlyCreatures

The story is {{narrat|or}}ed by [[TeensAreMonsters 14-year old]] Pauline Rieper through her RealLife diary entries from the time she meets [[ManicPixieDreamGirl Juliet]] [[IllGirl Hulme]], to when they create [[ImagineSpot their own fantasy world]], to when their impending separation causes them to believe MurderIsTheBestSolution to their problems.

* DawsonCasting: Avoided. Both leads were teenage actresses.

* CommonalityConnection: Juliet and Pauline bond over their shared history of being [[IllGirl IllGirls.]]

* TheDreaded: Orson Wells...for some reason.

* {{Gayngst}: to the utmost extreme.

* Gayngst: to the utmost extreme.

* ManicPixieDreamGirl: Juliet

* BritishRoyalFamily: The girls are supposed to write an essay on them; Juliet writes about the fictional royals of Borovnia. Pauline stands up for her by pointing out the assignment [[LoopholeAbuse didn't specify]] ''[[LoopholeAbuse which]]'' [[LoopholeAbuse royals]].

The story is [[{{Narrator}} narrated]] by [[TeensAreMonsters 14-year old]] Pauline Rieper through her RealLife diary entries from the time she meets [[ManicPixieDreamGirl Juliet]] [[IllGirl Hulme]], to when they create [[ImagineSpot their own fantasy world]], to when their impending separation causes them to believe MurderIsTheBestSolution to their problems.

* GirlsLove: One of the more disturbing examples really.

* LoveMakesYouCrazy [[LoveMakesYouEvil And Evil]]

* NoKillLikeOverKill: Diello, the young prince of Borovnia, who kills pretty much everyone who isn't his parents.

* [[PsychoLesbian Psycho]] SchoolgirlLesbians: They appear to be this in the movie, but Anne Perry insists it was "only" a really intense two-girl friendship. (Pauline doesn't talk to the press.) The actresses were instructed to play the girls as "devoted friends" who were just role-playing love scenes between their favorite characters.

* ShownTheirWork: The entire film was shot on location in Christchurch, NZ. They even filmed where the actual murder took place. According to IMDB, it became eerily quiet when they started shooting, so they moved up a few paces until things felt comfortable. That's the actual tea shop in the park; when filming was completed, the tea shop was torn down so that it wouldn't become a Graceland.

** The real Dr. Bennett was TheShrink, version 2, right down to testifying at length (somewhat incoherently) on the witness stand that the young women were completely bonkers.

* UnfortunateNames: Pauline ''[[GrimReaper Rieper]]'' [[spoiler: especially after what she does to her mother]].

''Heavenly Creatures'' is a 1994 film by Creator/PeterJackson, and most notably the first film of KateWinslet.

* BritishRoyalFamily: The girls are supposed to write an essay on them; Juliet writes about the fictional royals of Borovnia. Pauline stands up for her by pointing out the assignment didn't specify ''which'' royals.

BasedOnATrueStory. Weird trivia note: the real Juilet Hulme later achieved international fame as best-selling mystery novelist Anne Perry.

* MarySue: In-universe, Empress Deborah and Gina. They are Juliet's and Pauline's idealized self-inserts with love interests heavily based on men Juliet and Pauline like. This becomes particularly apparent when Juliet and Pauline start wanting to be called Deborah and Gina, rather than their real names.

* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: In-universe, King Charles is based on James Mason and Prince Diello on Orson Welles.

* InAWorld: Read straight ''and'' played with in [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-vUl-1FJ9E the trailer]], narrated by none other than DonLaFontaine.

** ''TheSimpsons'' did an episode inspired by this story, with Lisa befriending a young girl named Juliet Hobbes. Together, the two girls invent the fantasy world of Equalia. Unlike Pauline, though, Lisa eventually decides she'd rather live in the real world.
** ''LawAndOrderCriminalIntent'' also did [[RippedFromTheHeadlines an episode inspired by this]]; the two girls are ballerinas and the crazier one even has the PortmanteauCoupleName of Paulette.

* NamesTheSame: Both actresses later achieved fame as characters named Rose: [[{{Titanic}} Rose DeWitt-Buchater]] and [[TwoAndAHalfMen Rose the stalker]].

* [[CaliforniaDoubling New Zealand Doubling]]: Averted, the entire film was shot on location in Christchurch, NZ. They even filmed where the actual murder took place. According to IMDB, it became eerily quiet when they started shooting, so they moved up a few paces until things felt comfortable. That's the actual tea shop in the park; when filming was completed, the tea shop was torn down so that it wouldn't become a Graceland.
** Even the actual 1950's Christchurch Girls' High School was used, despite the school itself moving from the City Centre to Riccarton in 1986 and the building having become an art gallery. The building was later torn down after being damaged beyond repair in the 2011 Christchurch earthquake.

BasedOnATrueStory.

* TheAtoner: According to TheOtherWiki, [[spoiler: Pauline went on to start a riding school, which welcomes disabled children. Or did, until [[http://www.adamabrams.com/hc/faq2/artwork.html Pauline retired in 2009 and sold her house.]]]] [[http://www.flickr.com/photos/29018755@N04/ These illustrations were found therein.]]
** Juliet, on the other hand, went on to become mystery author AnnePerry.

* DawsonCasting: Averted. MelanieLynskey was sixteen and KateWinslet was seventeen, the same ages as their characters at the end of the film.

* HeAlsoDid: The real Juliet Hulme later became moderately famous writing mystery novels under the name Anne Perry.

* TheDiseaseThatShallNotBeNamed: When the doctor tells Pauline's mother he has diagnosed Pauline with "homosexuality," he can barely get the word out.

* DidNotDoTheResearch: At least one news article that showed up after Kate Winslet won her Oscar noted that her first film role was "an ''[[YouFailGeographyForever Australian]]'' school girl" (the movie takes place in New Zealand and Winlset's character is British).
** Averted by the movie itself. While there are a number of changes for dramatic effect (the Orson Welles film they saw wasn't ''Film/TheThirdMan'' but ''Trent's Last Case'' (1954), which Jackson changed because Welles was heavily made up in the role in question), some of the diary entries were edited, a number of people were either omitted entirely (e.g. Pauline's severely disabled younger sister Rosemary) or condensed into single roles, many efforts were made to be as accurate as possible. Almost all of the named people in the movie were real, the principals have very accurate accents and strong physical resemblances to the real people, and wherever possible the real life locations were used, with the significant exception of the Rieper house, which had been torn down long before filming.

** Averted by the movie itself. While there are a number of changes for dramatic effect (the Orson Welles film they saw wasn't ''TheThirdMan'' but ''Trent's Last Case'' (1954), which Jackson changed because Welles was heavily made up in the role in question), some of the diary entries were edited, a number of people were either omitted entirely (e.g. Pauline's severely disabled younger sister Rosemary) or condensed into single roles, many efforts were made to be as accurate as possible. Almost all of the named people in the movie were real, the principals have very accurate accents and strong physical resemblances to the real people, and wherever possible the real life locations were used, with the significant exception of the Rieper house, which had been torn down long before filming.

* HeAlsoDid: The real Juliet Hulme later became moderately famous writing mystery novels under the name Anne Perry.

* ShoutOut: The photo of Orson Welles that floats away on the river is a homage to a scene from ''TheThirdMan''; one of the photos in Pauline's room is the real Juliet Hulme.

** ''LawAndOrderCriminalIntent'' also did [[RippedFromTheHeadlines an episode inspired by this]]; the two girls are ballerinas and the crazier one even has the PortmanteauCoupleName of Paulette.

** In reality, ''Pauline'' was described as glamorous by classmates; a "proud beauty", "like a gypsy". Juliet was considered a [[BritishStuffiness snooty Brit]] with a "perpetual cold" who (they thought) [[PlayingSick exaggerated her symptoms]] for attention.

** Even the actual 1950's Christchurch Girls' High School was used, despite the school itself moving from the City Centre to Riccarton in 1986.