10 Amazing Teen Movies You Might Have Missed

Heavenly Creatures tells the true story of Juliet Hume and Pauline Parker, two teenagers in Christchurch, New Zealand who brutally murdered Pauline’s mother in 1952.

The girls are played by Kate Winslet and Melanie Lynskey, both in film debuts. Pauline is a loner at school until Juliet arrives as a new pupil and the girls become extremely close almost immediately.

They are both from very different backgrounds but their personalities seem to fill the gaps in each other's lives. They enter into an obsessive relationship, one that draws concern from their parents, particularly Juliet’s father who convinces Pauline’s parents to take her to a psychiatrist – who promptly diagnoses her with a ‘phase of homosexuality’, as if it was a passing cold.

The girls are separated when Juliet contracts tuberculosis and is hospitalised, but this only serves to deepen their relationship as they write letters to each other as personalities they have created in the fantasy world they share. This world is portrayed wonderfully throughout the film by Director Peter Jackson, showing an early flair for the visual effects he would become so famous for.

When a more permanent separation becomes a potential reality, the girls conspire to kill Pauline’s mother whom they focus their blame on, although she really only attracts the blame as she is the parent who shows the most concern for the welfare of the girls.

The performances of Winslet and Lynskey are both astounding. Lynskey plays the moody girl who has perhaps been sheltered too much from the realities of oncoming adulthood and Winslet is wonderful as a know-it-all from a good family and background, but quite possibly bordering on insane.