The Good
This film is able to pull off its period look.
The Bad
Yet another boring, music video, horror movie about vampires.
Taking place in an alternate world in New Zealand in the 1960s, vampires have been genetically enhanced to protect mankind as a group known as The Brotherhood. These two species live side by side in a symbiotic union, but things soon get altered when a virus is a created that turns man against them. What ensues is a battle in which both sides must find a common ground so that they can stop the bloodshed and fighting.
It would be very easy to look at Perfect Creature and see it’s obvious parallels to world affairs. We have America pre-9/11. We may not have gotten along with everyone but we certainly weren’t in the position we are in throughout the world today. Now, if you believe the news, the world is fighting against radical Islam and it seems like the only way they can be stopped is if members from all sides band together to do so.
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Perfect Creature speaks to this in some ways that are extremely overt, while also trying to tell its own story. My mind may have wandered during this film as I was sort of uninterested in its subject matter, I do think that fans of such theories (and these sorts of films) will most likely find themselves enthralled.
Myself? I just wish Perfect Creature didn’t feel so familiar.
Features
Designing the Perfect Creature
Examining the look of the Perfect Creature set, this featurette does its level best to explain why the movie looks the way that it does. We hear from the director, the actors and the production designers as they explain the look of this film. Essentially, the goal was to mix the past with the present. They explain about The Brotherhood and how its history and lore was layered throughout this movie. As I have stated above, if you like these sorts of films than this featurette is definitely something you need to check out.
Making Perfect Creature
Video
Widescreen. For a burned DVD (Fox didn’t send me a regular DVD copy), I found the images on this disc looked quite good. I can’t say that I was blown away, but for a low budget film (at least I am assuming that that is what this is since it seemed to come out under the radar) the production design seems to recall The Prestige. The colors looked like they had a cubist perspective and this little detail seemed to add a great deal to the richness of what was presented in the frame.
Audio
Dolby. The audio on this release was okay but ultimately forgettable. It didn’t sound like some amazing vampire movie and by that I mean it wasn’t very strong or rich. This isn’t really a problem but it sort of put the power of this movie in a midway point. It wasn’t strong enough to be a large sounding vampire movie, however, at the same time this movie didn’t feel small either. It’s a weird hybrid but one that Perfect Creature seems happy to occupy no matter if it is in its own stratosphere.
Package
Fox sent this release to us in a white envelope without the proper packaging. Sadly, I really can’t say anything about it.
Final Word
I wish this movie would have grabbed me more but I found its stylized look to be a little too much for my tastes. I love horror movies and I also love films about vampires. The problem that I had with Perfect Creature is that its setting and story simply left me cold. Mix in with this that it is filled with many moments of over-stylization, and you have one of those films that seems to telegraph all the scares that it is trying to put across on screen. I wish that this wasn’t the case. I wish that filmmakers would try and play things a little more straight. It seems like so many filmmakers think that you have to dazzle the audience visually every 5 seconds; it’s as if it keeps them interested in the film. Sadly, it is the stories that seem to get the short shrift. It almost feels like as long as the films have certain elements (that all films of Perfect Creature’s ilk have) that should placate viewers.
I am here to say that, sadly, it doesn’t.
Perfect Creature was released August 16, 2007.
