Perfect Creature (2007)

I love this movie so much

Purely Joyful Movie!

It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

Wow. What a movie. Not very interesting, not very exciting, not very horrifying and, especially, not very nice to look at. Striking, certainly, and original in many respects, but pretty unattractive.It's a shame. This parallel world tale of a symbiotic relationship between vampires and humans being put at risk by a lunatic vampire terrorist should have been much more engaging than it was but it did not, in any way, grab my attention to any serious extent - the only character to make any mark was the main baddie, and that was only because he was so unpleasant. But his unpleasantness was very one-note, and I didn't want to spend time in his company.However, the film is well enough made that, if you're in tune with it, you'll enjoy it.

Perfect Creature is set in a city called Jamestown where a brotherhood of Vampires live alongside humans in supposed harmony, it has been this way for 300 years but one brother Edgar (Leo Gregory) has developed a taste for human blood & has been feasting on local young ladies while his brother Silus (Dougray Scott) hunts him. Local police detective Lilly (Saffron Burrows) learns the truth behind the dead bodies turning up & tries to keep it quiet as widespread panic would break out, together with brother Silus the police & Lilly set out to find & kill Edgar but there's more to what Edgar is doing than just killing a few girls as he releases a virus which turns humans into ravenous Vampires. Jamestown is quarantined & the authorities feel complete extermination of everyone within it is the only answer including thousands of innocent uninfected humans...This New Zealand & British co-production was directed by Glenn Standring & is a sort of moody atmospheric Vampire horror thriller that had the potential to be great but a lack of focus & a general pedestrainism means I would struggle to even call perfect creature average let alone good. The script is the problem here, there the usual romantic subplot about the two leads falling in love, there's no real explanation given as to why Edgar goes crazy & starts killing people & none of the other Vampires ever has, the whole virus angle is abruptly dropped into the story late on & is never really given a conclusion, there's a subplot about humans dying from flu which is mentioned a few times but nothing significant becomes of it & the typical clichéd final confrontation between the two brother's (hunter & hunted if you prefer) is present & correct although it's totally forgettable & uninspired stuff. The film didn't feel that long & it's visually interesting but the bland character's, the predictable plot, the subplots that go nowhere & add very little to the film overall & a lack of any real entertainment value means it's not really worth making any sort of effort to see.As already mentioned the film does look very good with a variety of different eras & styles used to depict the fictional world seen here, from war torn streets to futuristic labs to Victorian style fantasy with a dark & brooding 40's detective noir thriller feel too, it's quite strange to sit down & watch these contradictory settings & time-lines & decor come together (horse drawn carriages & motor cars on the same roads at one point along with air ships in the sky). There's not much blood or gore here, a few bitten necks & that's about it. The CGI is OK but the early scene of Edgar climbing a wall looks terrible.With a supposed budget of about $11,000,000 this wasn't cheap & that's a decent amount of money & one suspects that most of that went on the production design & look of the film. Filmed in New Zealand. The acting is alright but no-one seems to show much interest & with such thin character's one can hardly blame them.Perfect Creature is average at best, a Vampire horror thriller than could have been great if a bit more time had been spent on the script & a decent story that meant something. It's not terrible & it's interesting visual style is cool but overall I couldn't really recommend it.

Given its mediocre reviews and ratings, I was not expecting much from "Perfect Creature." However, I found the film to be liberating in light of common vampire representations. Though the film does maintain certain Vampire lore like rapid healing and increased senses, their role in the world is fascinating, representing the major religion of human society.The merit of the writing lies in this concept that is, sadly, explored very little. Why not revere a race that is faster and stronger than we are, whose blood has medicinal uses? Their strength can be used to protect mankind from its greatest threat: itself. There is mention of The Brotherhood collaborating with the human government, and political intrigue when one of The Brotherhood goes rouge. However, these concepts are not pursued beyond their direct affect on the chosen storyline.Mankind typically does one of two things when faced with a force greater than our own; we worship it or we destroy it. Where most vampire tales will feature the latter, in which a 'champion' of sorts arises from a terrorized society to overcome, the setting of "Perfect Creature" lies in the coexistence between humans and The Brotherhood where both support the other. In a world torn apart by the Influenza epidemic, humans supply blood as sustenance and vampires develop vaccines for resistant strains of the virus. Though they also provide the religion of the city, there is no depth to this aside from three or four lines of dialog. It is reasonable to complain that too much focus is invested in the cop-serial killer plot, but there is still value in the concept that lies beneath the film's surface. Perhaps the writer/director planned to pursue the greater story in future endeavors, but it is sad to report his first installment did not hook audiences as it could have. The fight scenes should have been mixed up a little bit, where they tended to resemble the same cookie-cutter processes. Perhaps too much screen time was wasted on the exact same things over and over, excessively showing off the director's visions. But if it had been managed a little better, and made a little longer, then this could have been a real success.As it is, you should watch "Perfect Creature" just for the exercise of the imagination on how vampires in a human world could be received.

It is so hard to see originality in horror, even for someone with as little experience in the genre as I have, but here is a new one for me. Vampires and humans in mutual cooperation. Humans generously give blood at the Vampire church and the Vampires protect the humans, who are coming out of a massive flu epidemic.But, one of the head Vampires (Leo Gregory) is trying to breed new ones. There hasn't been a Vampire born in 70 years because there are no females. Unfortunately, as often occurs in horror films, something goes wrong and the scientist vampire is infected.The lovely Saffron Burrows (Troy, The Galíndez File) is a cop who joins with the brother of the scientist (Dougray Scott), himself destined to lead the Church, to find the infected Vampire.Seems easy enough, but there is more to the story and that is what makes it interesting and makes for some enjoyable Vampire horror.