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
