Dead Creatures (2001) Reviews

• Very different zombie movie.

  Industrious2001-11-30

  Dead Creatures is a very different zombie movie. The "zombies" are not the mindless, monstrous ones you are used to from traditional zombie flicks, but rather ordinary people who look, speak and feel like everyone else. Their difficult life in the apathy of British Suburbia is made even more difficult by a middle-aged man trying to hunt them down, and whose motives are not explained until toward the end of the film. The uncommon approach of making the zombies human, in conjunction with good acting, good script and gorgeous photography makes this a memorable movie. The gory scenes are quite disturbing and very well made.

• A new spin on old ideas

  johnnycourageous2004-08-03

  There has been some interesting horror films emerging from the UK in recent years, and 'Dead Creatures' is yet another in my opinion. Whilst Japan and perhaps other parts of Europe have contributed to a 'revival' of certain horror sub-genres, Britain has quietly been producing some fantastic horror films. Set in contemporary London, we largely follow the lives of a seemingly normal bunch of women - one of whom is decomposing badly, and just looks absolutely disgusting. There are a couple of single 'zombie' guys depicted in the film also. The deliberately slow pace of the film eventually reveals that these people have contracted a strange virus, resulting in an urge to eat human flesh. Luring victims via various means, we bear witness to some gruesome images of cannibalism. Unlike other zombie films, these creatures are not green-gray skinned uncontrollable maniacs, but intelligent and emotional beings. They do not physically transform immediately either, but rot over a period of 12 to 18 months. Meanwhile, a mysterious man is hunting these 'zombies' primarily for the purpose of extracting information. After gaining some information, he kills these zombies in a gruesome but effective manner, before dismembering and disposing of the bodies. Dead Creatures is obviously low budget, and looks it in parts. Look closely and you'll notice occasional camera shadows on the actors, or even a crew member darting off in the distance to avoid the camera! Yet no expense appears to have been spared for the horror effects, which seem gut-wrenchingly realistic. It's difficult to draw comparison to other films. The aura of starkness and dread reminded me slightly of the atmosphere evoked in Pete Walker's 'Frightmare' (1974). There appears to be a direct homage made to the bathtub scene in 'Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer' (1986). In this case the zombie women used a hacksaw to dismember a fellow zombie in the bathtub, lifting her head out of the bathtub in the same manner as Henry! I also noticed that one of the female actors wore a t-shirt of Russ Meyer's 'Super Vixens' (1976), and another later on depicting the silhouette of the 70's TV soap 'Charlie's Angels'. Not sure if the director intended to imply that these women were cannibalistic vigilantes, but that's how I interpreted it! This film is definitely worth a look if you are interested in the zombie genre. It is certainly something completely different, and quite unlike any other zombie film I have seen. Just don't expect thrill-a-minute action. This is not that type of film.

• Zero style, lots of substance

  spacemonkey_fg2004-03-23

  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

• a quiet and beautiful, yet disturbing film

  thanatonaute2002-04-06

  Dead Creatures is of course no film for weak stomachs, but it is not the typical, plain gross and bloody, horror film you might think it is. Dead Creatures is a very calm film. No big shock effects or action scenes, yet the film is not boring at all. Mr. Andrew Parkinson films his so-called zombies as human beings. His dead creatures are not dead they are only almost dead; in fact they are dying. They are all victims of some strange disease forcing them to feed on human flesh and making their skin degenerate. Parkinson shows his zombies as victims of their fate and not as those evil, generally really stupid creatures. So this is an intelligent gore film; it is the first gore film I've seen so far (with the exception of Romero's Night Of The Living Dead) which doesn't exist because it wants to show you ugly bloody stuff, but because the plot requires the gore. Parkinson doesn't show you all the bloody details; he often uses ellipses, which proves his courage (most gore film-makers profit every time they can show you some blood) and shows that he had a special approach to his film and that he focuses on the characters. The gore in his film is almost what Mr. Hitchcock would call a McGuffin (something you need for your plot, but which is not really important). Parkinson's camera is almost never moving, it usually stands still and lets the characters develop themselves. There Mr. Parkinson was really lucky to have gathered a great cast. Horror film actors often act really bad, but here there are some really fine and talented actors. The editing of the film is quite interesting as well. The cinematography is quite standard, but picturesque shots wouldn't have fitted in this film. Mr. Andrew Parkinson is probably one of the most gifted gore film-makers around. I can just recommend you to watch this film, (though it isn't easy, because this film is mainly shown at film festivals.)

• This about bored me to tears...

  Shadow_Destiny2002-07-08

  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