Perfect Creature (DVD)
Dread Central Staff
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Starring Dougray Scott, Saffron Burrows, Leo Gregory, Stuart Wills
Directed by Glenn Standring
Distributed by Fox Home Entertainment
As long as people can remember, the world has been afflicted by all kinds of diseases and epidemics. But 300 years ago a new species was born … The Vampires. At first mankind was afraid of them, but soon it was discovered that vampires (a race actually called The Brothers in this movie) were better than humans; an advanced step in evolution. Thanks to their religion and science mankind was able to survive.
All these years there has never been a incident between The Brothers and humans; The Brothers even run the Church! Humans are happy to give their blood voluntary because The Brothers create medicines for all the diseases and viruses. But one Brother, named Edgar (Gregory) is infected by a virus and slowly begins going mad…he turns into the kind of vampire that you and I know; a bloodsucking killer. It’s up to highly regarded Brother Silus (Scott), who teams up with the resourceful female police officer Lilly (Burrows), to stop Edgar before he damages the peaceful balance between humans and the Brothers….
Perfect Creature looks wonderful and the world it draws around itself is fascinating. It’s situated in a alternative world, with a dash of Victorian London, a sprinkling of early 20th century America, complete with zeppelins flying through the sky, but we also see some kind of advanced genetics. All these elements combined give Perfect Creature a dark, gritty look, almost like a graphic novel painted upon the screen. I would compare it with flicks like Blade, Underworld or even Blade Runner in terms of is style. Unfortunately Perfect Creature is not entirely as good as one of those.
The acting is actually quite decent, especially Dougray Scott who is perfectly cast for his role; Leo Gregory is pretty scary with his convincing look of madness, but in my eyes Burrows played it too safe as the human police officer.
Perfect Creature contains quite a bit of action, much of it taking advantage of the superhuman abilities that The Brothers possess, and there are some bloody moments, but overall the pace is a bit too slow to capture the real hardcore action- or gorefans. The scariest moments are from the loud sound effects, which are several decibels louder than the conversations.
Writer/director Glenn Standring (The Irrefutable Truth About Demons) does knows how to film the action in a spectacular way, combining some top notch CGI with some great camerawork. The scene where Edgar escapes deserves a special mention for its action and brutality.
Although the story makes some form of sense, there are (of course) some plotholes that you might find distracting, and the romance between the two leads seems every unnecessary. Since the story knows to avoid most clichés it would be better, the way I see it, if Standring had left that storyline out of the script all together, but I guess you have to consider all audience members; even girls.
As for the supplemental material we get two featurettes (one clocking in at twelve minutes, the other at eight) that explore various aspects of bringing this project to life. Not a bad view, but pretty much your standard. Sadly a commentary is nowhere to be found and if any film were a good candidate for needing one, this would be it.
In spite of some aforementioned flaws, I still think Perfect Creature is worth a watch, not just for vampire fans, either. I could imagine it will gain some kind of cult status because it mixes just enough new ideas with familiar treadings to set itself apart.
Special Features
Making of Perfect Creature featurette
Designing the Perfect Creature featurette
3 out of 5
Special Features:
2 out of 5
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