Bad Taste

Dir Peter Jackson / 1987 / New Zealand

One of the more strange decisions that the OFLC made in the late 80's was the banning of Peter Jackson's splatter comedy.

In 1989 CBS/Fox were refused a rating for an 88min (v) version. A second listing in 1989 showed that the board gave it an M rating when cut to 82mins (v), thankfully this was not released. It wasn't until the following year that a cut 87min (v) print was passed with an R18+. This version can be found on CBS/Fox video, and has an exact runtime of 86m 31s. A fourth listing shows that applicant, Reid and Puskar also had an 86min (f) rated R18+ in 1990. The uncut UK Colourbox tape runs 87m 42s, which means this version was censored by 66 seconds.

A second VHS release appeared in the mid-90's on the JVB label. It runs 86m 25s and is also cut.

There is a confirmed Customs confiscation of this from 1992. A dub of the UK Colourbox tape was forwarded to the OFLC, who released it with no problems. This seems very strange as it was less than two years earlier that they were demanding cuts.

This was back before the OFLC in July 2004, the first time in 14 years. This time they were more sensible, and passed it R18+ (Medium Level Violence). Universal Picture Video released this as a Collectors Edition DVD in September 2004. The film is fully uncut, restoring all the gore missing from the theatrical print, and two previous VHS releases. The longer running time of 91m 33s indicates that this is an NTSC print.

DVD Comparisons

Bad Taste VHS CBS/Fox Video [au] Bad Taste VHS JVB [au] Bad Taste DVD Universal Pictures Video [au]

Here are the scenes that were missing from the JVB tape (presumably the same as the CBS/Fox version) which are now present in the Universal DVD. Note that this is not an exact comparison, so there may be more missing footage. The times refer to the points in the Universal DVD where you can view the previous cuts.