In Peter Jackson’s Heavenly Creatures, Pauline Parker and Juliet Hulme live in Christchurch, New Zealand.
The film is based on the real 1954 Parker–Hulme case, which took place in Christchurch. Pauline Parker and Juliet Hulme formed an intense friendship as teenagers, and the story follows their relationship, imaginative inner worlds, and conflict with their families.
Melanie Lynskey plays Pauline Parker, while Kate Winslet plays Juliet Hulme in her film debut. Jackson filmed the production in New Zealand, using Christchurch locations and other settings to recreate the period atmosphere of the early 1950s.
The case became internationally known after the two teenagers were convicted of murdering Pauline’s mother, Honora Parker. Heavenly Creatures focuses on the girls’ lives and psychological bond rather than presenting the event as a conventional crime procedural. The film premiered in 1994 and helped establish Jackson as a director capable of combining dark subject matter with elaborate fantasy imagery.