review from twitchfilm.net (spoilers)

Perfect Creature Review
(Posted In Horror Random Festival News Reviews UK / Ireland / Australia / New Zealand ) 8/10

perfectcreature.jpgPeter Cornelissen once again checks in from the Amsterdam Fantastic Film Festival with a major scoop: what appears to be the very first review of Glenn Standring's Kiwi vampire flick Perfect Creature to appear anywhere. I'm not ruling out the possibility of others being out there, but Google and the IMDB don't know about them if there are ...

This film was a last minute addition to the program because the distributor of Wolf Creek was still negotiating a distribution deal for the Netherlands. Because of this we were treated to an uncut version of this film while Fox is re-editing this before releasing it into theatres later this year in the United States and other countries. Is a re-edit needed? I don’t think so, but the movie might be a bit long for those who are expecting a lot of action. The main star of the movie is the alternative reality that is created.

In the world of Perfect Creature humans have suffered from many global epidemics until, about three centuries ago, a mutation created a new kind of human. These new humans, called nosferatu in their early days, were better in many ways and they developed many sciences including genetics which they used to help the humans. They in turn also needed the humans, their forefathers, because their species lacked females and could not reproduce. A peaceful balance was formed with the nosferatu forming a closed society of scientist-priests called ‘the Brothers’ living in gigantic gothic cathedrals. In the time and place that the story of the film takes place in, these cathedrals form the largest part of the city while the humans live in slums and have very few technological luxuries. There are cars and televisions and so on, but they look as if they were made in Victorian age London. The amount of detail that has been put in the design of this world is amazing.

I also liked the spin on the vampire mythos. The Brothers need to drink blood, they live long lives and have heightened senses, agility and strength but instead of being afraid of a cross, they áre the cross (with humans going to church to give blood!). The story is an intrigue about a genetic experiment gone wrong making one high ranked Brother crazy with bloodlust. A human cop (Saffron Burrows) teams up with this Brother’s brother (Dougray Scott) to stop his rampage that threatens to disrupt the balance between the two species. With the hurt to this balance already done, the bond that the two develop between them may be the only chance that humans and Brothers will have together.

As I said before the development of the story is not very fast paced because a lot of time is spend on building the background and atmosphere. There are a few fight scenes in there though. Because of the strength of the vampires and their black priest-like clothing, these fights reminded me a bit of the last two Matrix films. I don’t think that is good or bad by definition, but it was done in a nice stylish manner anyway without being to hip or flashy. The film looks good and the acting is reasonable. Dougray Scott finds a good balance for his character between an old aristocratic super strong being and a compassionate priest who also has human feelings and although Saffron Burrows has to be tough and beautiful for this role, these are two things she always does very well. Maybe the re-edit will only be to make the flow of the story a bit tighter, but I hope they manage to keep most of the background details the makers put into creating the world of Perfect Creature while doing this.

Review by Peter Cornellisen