Dead Creatures

Just watched this on DVD for the second time, bought a copy then realised I already had it! Could barely remember anything about it (the only scene I recognised was a girl getting out of bed, very brief full frontal nudity), so it obviously didn't make much of an impression first time round. This was released in the UK on the Hard Gore label, compared to some of the trash they put out this one isn't too bad. It certainly delivers on the gore, very graphic, mainly the cutting up of human bodies for cannibalism. This is not a zombie movie, the girls that commit the cannibalism are not dead but instead infected with some unexplained disease, passed on by biting (vampirism, in a way). As much a drama as it is horror much of the running time consists of a bunch of young woman sat in their grotty London flats, talking, drinking and smoking. A few choice lines: "My name is Reece, I'm going to kill you", and "I used to be a vegetarian but now I only eat human flesh!" Low budget movie, this does show, however the special effects are well done, they could prove too strong for some. The soundtrack does have some good tunes. I thought overall it was OK, something a bit different (for the time), but it will bore some.

Title: Dead Creatures (2001)

Director: Andrew Parkinson

Cast: Antonia Bemish, Brendan Gregory, Bart Ruspoli, Anna Swift

Tagline: Not just your girls next door

Review:

Well it defeneatly was obvious from the get go that this was a low budget effort, no big recognizable hollywood stars, no big make up effects, just a very unusual and onorthodox zombie movie.

Story is about these bunch of girls who suffer from an eating disorder. They were bit by an infected person and now they have to eat human flesh in order to survive, all the while trying to continue with their pseudo normal existence.

I have a few complaints. First off, the pace of the movie was slower then one of Romeros zombies. It was very dialogue heavy and had no action whatsoever. At times it seemed like nothing was ever going to happen. Still, I told myself, this is an independent horror film. Its lack of budget forced it to focus on story and characters...so lets pay attention to that.

So I did. The story was very interesting. I liked the way that Parkinson told his story. Mainly becuase he gave us very little information at first as to what was really happening. Its not until a few minutes in the film that you noticed that "hey! Those girls are eating human flesh!....Wait! They are zombies!" And that totally cought me off guard. It felt a little like watching a film like 21Grams, where you get stuff after your allready a bit into the film. Nothing is flat out spelled out for you and that was cool about it.

The characters were likable, and it was strange to see them trying to deal with the whole flesheating thing so matter of factly. Like a regular everyday thing that they have to deal with. In many ways this film also reminded me of Near Dark because part of it has to deal with a new girl trying to learn the ropes of becoming a flesheater. I liked that and yes I agree at times the movie felt like a documentary.

One thing I didnt like was the lack of style, the camera doesnt have any movement. Everything is very stale, no interesting camera angles or takes. Im guessing this also had to do with a fast shooting scheduel and minuscule budget, so hey I let that go. Im thinking up ahead in this directors life, when he gets some recognition and money, he'll have time for style. Here in Dead Creatures style was replaced with substance, which is strange since usually its the other way around.

I did like the subplot about the father hunting down the flesheaters and questioning them in morbid ways. I liked his method of killing them too, I dont think Ive seen anything like that on any movie before.

One really good thing this movie has going for it. The gore. It was realistic. The scenes with the girls eating flesh seemed very real. In fact theres a few decapitations on this and they felt very real to me. The managed the gore here very well, its not cartoony or over the top. Its just real and it certainly makes some of the scenes on the film all the more disturbing.

In conclusion, I think this film was interesting from a story/character development point of view, but suffered from lack of style and small budget. Still, I think that this director has some talent and would defeneatly watch another of his films in the future. Ive still to see I Zombie, Im looking forward to it.

Rating: 3 out of 5

The blurb on the back of my DVD for Dead Creatures describes the film as a cross between the work of Mike Leigh, Ken Loach and George Romero. I'm a big fan of Romero's movies, but cannot abide the dull and depressing social realism of the first two directors; consequently, I found Dead Creatures a tough watch, far removed from Romero's zombieverse despite some pretty nasty and fairly well executed gore effects (given the low budget).

Describing Dead Creatures as a zombie movie is actually extremely misleading: the women in this film are not dead, but rather suffer from a degenerative disease that rots the skin and gives them a craving for human flesh. What we have here are cannibals! Sadly, they're boring and rather unlikeable cannibals, a skanky group of women who spend far too much of their time engaging in dreary conversation, smoking, swigging beer, and, in the case of Anne (Antonia Beamish), shagging total strangers for cash, when they should be munching guts.

Thankfully, when they do get around to feeding between chin-wagging, the film is suitably yucky: appendages are lopped off and passed around like chicken wings, and there is one delightfully revolting scene where the girls tuck into a headless torso in graphic detail, slicing off succulent morsels with a carving knife. Meanwhile, a crazed father is desperately searching for his missing daughter, abducting those he believes might be able to tell him where she is; when they fail to help, he shoots them through the head with a bolt-gun and chops them up.

I rate Dead Creatures 5/10 for the gore, but only 2/10 for the actual storytelling and acting, averaging out at 3.5/10 overall, which I'll round up to 4 for big-breasted slapper Anne simply because she has cool taste in T-shirts (she sports designs for Russ Meyer's Super Vixens, cult '50s sci-fi Attack of the 50ft Woman, and '70s TV series Charlie's Angels).

Let me start off by saying that the cover for this film completely sucks and it has nothing to do with anything that happens in this film. DEAD CREATURES is not a horror movie. I will also say right away that this film is definitely not going to appeal to very many people at all. It is shot in a way that is reminiscent of a documentary. The film is about a community of women somewhere in England who move from one nasty apartment to the next and who are suffering from a zombie-like disease. They have to eat human flesh to stay alive. The only serious problem is that they are decomposing and it gets more and more difficult for them to hide their disease from the public. Now I know that it sounds like a horror film, but the movie itself is actually quite talky. It is very slow-paced and it's remarkably grim tone-wise. There are a lot of scenes where the girls just talk to each other about things and talk about their lives and stuff. The opening scenes in the film remind me of that one scene in Larry Clark's KIDS where Rosario Dawson, Chloe Sevigney, and all those other girls are talking on the couch. If you watch this film expecting a movie where women just go around eating people's guts and stuff, you may be disappointed. There are only a handful of those scenes. However, I have to say, despite the fact that there are only a few scenes of actual on-screen violence, the gore in this film is really really nasty and quite repugnant. In fact, this is one of the few films I've seen where I actually felt quite sick to my stomach while watching. I probably shouldn't have been eating pizza rolls when I watched it. But yeah, just be warned that it's very well done and very sick. Anyway, there's also a running subplot throughout the film that has to do with a madman who is going around capturing zombies and then torturing them and killing them. I don't want to give too much away, but the reasons surrounding why he's doing it are kind of interesting. This film kind of reminded me of HENRY: PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER, except that the murderers were cannibalistic young women. A lot of horror film-buffs will hate this film for all the talking going on. However, I quite enjoyed the dialog and I wasn't bothered by it at all. Also, being the quasi-feminist that I am, I found myself really caring for these women who have to force themselves to eat flesh and guts and stuff. I felt particularly sorry for the woman who used to be a vegetarian. However, this isn't the kind of film where the characters just whine non-stop about being the way they are. This is the kind of film where they eat human bodies in a very casual, and unassuming way. The film did kind of scare me with the idea that all these women seem like perfectly nice, normal, everyday people. It was really good. So above all, I can't really recommend the film since most people will hate it, but I absolutely love it and I am very happy that I bought it.

Ok I will sum up this movie... A bunch of skanky British women have some disease that basically is turning them into zombies. The whole movie consists of these women talking, smoking, and rarely going out for "meat" Or humans to eat. I swear I had to MAKE myself watch this movie... UGH