Peter Jackson scored his first taste of global success with this shocking and hypnotic drama based on a true story.

In early 1950s Christchurch, two teenage school girls - the mousey Pauline (Melanie Lynskey) and the vibrant Juliet (Kate Winslet - in her first major role), a recent arrival from England, become close friends who create their own fantasy world informed by the movies and music they love.

But their intense friendship eventually leads to murder when they convince themselves they must kill Pauline's mother in order to stay together.

A masterfully made movie, Heavenly Creatures takes you inside the girls' minds and forces the viewer to participate in their fantasy escapes. It's stirring viewing which leads to a shocking finale.

The fantasy sequences convey true wonder and established Jackson's affinity for (and judicious use of) cutting-edge special effects.

Jackson and his partner/collaborator Fran Walsh won numerous festival awards for the film and were nominated for a Best Screenplay Oscar. The pair next made the commercially disappointing The Frighteners, but followed that up with the history-making Lord of the Rings trilogy. Following the recent release of King Kong, their next film could be described as a return to the milieu of Heavenly Creatures - it is an adaptation of the novel The Lovely Bones, in which a young murdered girl observes her family from the afterlife.

Heavenly Creatures launched Kate Winslet's career and she followed it up with a well-received turn in the 1995 adaptation of Sense and Sensiblity as well as that film about the sinking boat.

Melanie Lynskey is currently starring in the TV2 comedy Two and a Half Men.