By 1984, Jackson had filmed fifty minutes of footage for the 'short', thanks to the crew's penchant for adding in new scenes, as there was no script to work from. The success of The Evil Dead that same year led Jackson to turn 'Roast of the Day' into a full-length picture.
It was at this stage that 'Roast of the Day' was renamed 'Bad Taste', and Jackson decided it would be a gruesome farce about aliens.By 1986, after submitting to the New Zealand Film Commission, Bad Taste received funding from Jim Booth, a Commission member impressed by the incomplete footage. The funding was enough that Jackson was able to quit his job and work on the film full-time.
It was at this point that Jackson was able to tackle the special effects, which he handled all by himself using a variety of DIY methods. Two sequences required Jackson to take a lifecasting of himself, as he explained in 'Good Taste Made Bad Taste';'I got a bowl of alginate, which (dentists) use to make molds of your teeth with. It sets in just a minute, so I took a deep breath and stuck my head in the bowl, and pulled it out after a minute, gasping for breath. I poured plaster of paris (in the imprint), I had to have this (heaving) expression on my face the whole time, and from this I was able to make a plaster mold'.
The mold was used to make two puppet heads, as Jackson played double roles as the alien Robert and the UFO hunter Derek. The Robert head was for a scene of the alien vomiting, while the Derek head was for shots of his skull splitting open.The Robert head had a funnel to pour in 'vomit', which was actually yogurt and muesli, dyed green with food coloring. The Derek head was hollow, and filled with 'gore' (I imagine the 'gore' was also just food!), with a flap that could be opened or closed.
Jackson also fabricated multiple gored dummy torsos (with fake guts inside), a severed dummy arm, a seagull puppet, several dummy bodies (including a sheep), a chest and back squib appliances and a forehead squib appliance.
(Jackson handled *all* the squibs in the film, not just the ones that required makeup, and made the tiny explosive charges himself too!)
The oven in question was his family's, which Jackson took into account when designing the alien; 'I had to use mum's oven for this, which is only a normal household size. So this head's size was determined by the size of the oven. I managed to get it that it could just squeeze in with just half an inch to spare! Which is why he's got quite a flat top on his head'.
Jackson also fabricated several fibreglass underskulls for the performers to wear under the masks; the underskulls were connected to the latex masks with wires, allowing control over the lips and eyebrows to show expressions.
Several clawed gloves, as well as shoulder, buttocks and stomach parts (strategically placed under torn holes in the clothing), were also sculpted to complement the masks. The mold was also used to create at least two gored dummy alien heads.
The hard work paid off, as Bad Taste put Peter Jackson on the map as an up and coming genre director. Jim Booth, who had funded the film, would form a professional relationship with Jackson, up until Booth's passing in 1994.
At the time of his death, Booth was producing Jackson's first 'serious' film, the haunting psychological drama Heavenly Creatures. Heavenly Creatures received international acclaim, paving the way for Jackson's Hollywood career.
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