Dead Creatures

"ASTONISHING" Screams the LA Times from the front of the DVD box. They must have been referring to the fact that such a sorry piece of crap was ever released. The film revolves around a bunch of girls who have a disease which forces them to become cannibals, and murder innocent people just to stay alive. Their skin peels off throughout the film, we also see severed legs, heads etc that are about as convincing as a Halloween Fuzzy Felt set. There is an awful lot of talking b*ll**ks, a bit of human cuisine and some weird zombie hunter chap who imprisons the sufferers of said skin illness in his closet strapped to a chair, before stabbing them in the head, chopping them into bits...

You get the picture. Considering there is no acting talent on display at all, and the gore is laughably unrealistic, what is the point of this whole farrago? Again looking at the video box, the guy responsible for it is an "underground cult director". Would that be like those weird religious cults where they brainwash you into thinking one way when clearly the opposite is true? Because that's the only possible reason I can think of for anyone to derive pleasure by watching this tax write-off. Then, on the same paragraph he compares himself to Mike Leigh, Ken Loach and George Romero. HAHAHAHAHA oh stop it. Now you're just being silly.

Do you enjoy this film? Are you offended by the above opinion? If so, you must be a member of said cult. Do they pocket your wages? Do they let you see other family members? Do they force you to watch Andrew Parkinson films till you think he's the best director since A.Hitchcock? Do tell... this sounds like a Panorama special brewing to me. And say hello to the critic of the LA times when you return to your colony, will you? 0/10

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

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.

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.