PERFECT CREATURE

In a world not too dissimilar to ours and at an unspecified time, the struggles and rivalries between humans and vampires have ceased, and both races have learned to coexist peacefully without either posing a threat to the other. But with the advent of a mysterious epidemic that is decimating the population, something has decided to disrupt this situation of peace: it is Brother Edgar, a rebellious vampire who, tired of living at the "service" of humans, has decided to satisfy his ravenous instincts by feeding on human blood, thus fulfilling his true nature as a vampire. It will be up to Brother Silus to eliminate Edgar in order to restore a balance between the two races. Starting from when cinema was merely a visual art without sound and reaching our days, we can sum up and say that the vampire, among horror cinema archetypes, is certainly one of the most exploited and overused figures. They have been presented to us in a thousand ways, in all possible forms, but apparently, their charm has not yet faded since productions concerning vampire cinema continue to churn out, without any stop, film after film. But as we all know, unfortunately, "quantity" does not always go hand in hand with "quality" and thus, not all vampire movies manage to hit that target they had set for themselves: "Perfect Creatures" inserts itself forcefully precisely within this restricted (but not so "restricted") circle of failed productions that prove incapable, at the last minute, to land their blow. What a pity, really a pity, because at the end of the day, it must be acknowledged that this time the ideas were not lacking and the requirements to produce a decent vampire film were all present, but as we know, an interesting idea is not enough to guarantee the success of a film, what matters most is the way in which it is achieved and represented. To tell the truth, we regret it greatly, at the end of the viewing, to notice that the overall result is so disappointing, because the interesting and appealing elements that the film had at its disposal were manifold. The main element capable of surprising the viewer is represented by the interesting locations, fascinating urban landscapes devoid of any temporal placement and that seem to want to merge the modern era with the Dickensian London typical of Dickens' novels; a sort of Lucas-like fantasy world in which the viewer is catapulted into an abnormal era and outside any maximum time (we would not be surprised if the film in question had opened with the famous phrase "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away..."). The only problem is that such a scenario only works at a first visual impact, few sequences manage to exploit the essence and charm of this "unreal" world, then everything is left aside and abandoned so that the potential enclosed in the locations remains trapped in a sort of unexplored and self-contained limbo. Result: the world of "Perfect Creatures" does not fascinate as it could, does not capture, and does not succeed in immersing and identifying the viewer within the narrated story. Some sufficiently original good ideas, a handful of locations not fully exploited and a rather well-crafted photography prone to grayish tones useful to increase the dark and gloomy atmospheres: it is here that, to our regret, the favorable cards of this film run out because on everything else there is only a cloud of smoke. The film does not manage to evolve further, it stays there, and the script written and directed by Glenn Standring (the one who had "delighted" us with the bad "The Incontestable Truth About Demons") does not manage to passion and involve at all. We assist powerlessly, and frankly also indifferently, to an aseptically vampire hunting story totally incapable of communicating any kind of emotion, a story not devoid of script holes and capable of parading only two-dimensional characters and with non-existent charisma. The cast is poorly directed and gives the impression of being uninspired: we have a Saffron Burrows ("Deep Blue Sea"; "Troy") in the role of the constantly perplexed and doubtful police officer if the protagonist of the work is her or her colleague Dougray Scott ("Mission Impossible 2") here in the role of the conscientious vampire Silus, expressive as a broken bidet and protagonist of some slow-motion sequences with a high level of ridiculousness; among others, Leo Gregory ("Tristan & Isolde") in the guise of the evil Brother Edgar and Scott Willis ("Boogeyman - The Black Man") in the role of Det. Jones. In short, "Perfect Creatures" is what can be tranquilly defined as a soulless film: it is watched with indifference, between the viewing and the viewer there is always a marked distance, no one is rooting for any character, nothing is felt! The film ends, we gladly put it in the oblivion and everything returns as before.