Perfect Creature
Tags: neo noir, sci-fi

Plot synopsis:
The film opens as a pregnant woman (Danielle Cormack) gives birth to a vampire. A young Brother, Silus, aged 10–13 is told this child, Edgar and he are from the same mother. Throughout this introduction the mother is in visible emotional distress, reaching out across the room to Silus, trying to touch him.
Captioned "100 Years Later." Jamestown slum has had a series of attacks on women, who are all found with their throats bitten. Lilly Squires (Saffron Burrows) is in charge of the human police investigating these cases. She states that she comes from a workhouse in this same slum, and we establish that she is one of the few cops who care what happens to these people at the bottom of the socioeconomic heap. Lilly finds a small boy who witnesses one attack, and tells her that a Brother was responsible. As the police don't want to panic the city, the string of murders is explained away as being the result of an outbreak of the rampant influenza virus.
Silus (Dougray Scott) is detailed by the church cardinals to work with the human police, because the Brothers know that these attacks have been carried out by a Brother; Silus's brother Edgar (Leo Gregory). Edgar has sent Silus a recording of his last murder, challenging him to find and stop him before he kills again. Edgar provides the location of his next murder.
With Silus' help, Lilly puts together a task force to stake out the area Edgar has targeted. However Edgar distracts the cops and attacks Lilly, biting her in the neck. An officer interrupts the attack and Edgar flees. To save Lilly's life, Silus tells her to drink his blood, which she does. Silus then pursues Edgar, managing to shoot him with a tranquilizing dart. Silus later visits Lilly in hospital. We establish that she has no family as they died from influenza. Lilly is having visions from drinking Silus' blood. The newspapers have published a fake story of the death of the killer; a deranged human who believed he was a Brother.
Edgar is being held in a "brace", a spiked body restraint in a cell in the church basement. Because Silus is soon to be made a member of the "inner circle" he is told the full details of what happened to Edgar. The cardinals are worried that not a single Brother has been born for 70 years, and that a female vampire has never been born. Although they have publicly banned genetic research, the church has been carrying it out in secret. Edgar has been developing a virus to inject into pregnant women, to force the baby to be born a vampire. Alas the virus has mutated, and it has turned the women into violent, insane, psychopaths. Ten of Edgar's research subjects are already dead, and the last one is dying. Edgar has also become infected, and is now insane, although the effect is slower due to his strong immune system.
Silus visits Edgar, who vows to escape and finish off Lilly. Edgar accuses Silus of being in love with Lilly, despite Brothers being forbidden to love. The night Silus is at a ceremony in the church for his investiture as a cardinal Edgar escapes, killing the guards and receptionist, and disappears into Jamestown. He enlists the help of a local named Freddy to help him catch Lilly. Edgar has installed a tap and tube system into his forearm, so he can turn on a flow of his own infected blood at any time. He catches a policewoman and fills her mouth with his blood. Freddy insists on getting his own share as well, not knowing it is infected.
Silus is guarding Lilly at her apartment with Lilly's colleague Jones. When she is sleeping Silus shows some affection for her by imagining kissing her. Later, Silus leaves to investigate a noise downstairs and Lilly and Jones patrol around. When Lilly approaches a window, Edgar bursts through from outside and grabs her. Silus and Edgar grapple, however Silus is knocked unconscious long enough for Edgar and Lilly to disappear.
The virus has spread throughout Jamestown. The government has instituted a quarantine, and soldiers shoot anybody who attempts to leave. Humans are rioting outside the churches, and throwing their rosaries back at the Brothers.
Silus discovers Edgar's location is Jamestown's water source. Edgar is dripping his blood into the water supply, infecting all of Jamestown. However, each suburb has its own separate water supply. Silus is determined to go in and rescue Lilly, however another cardinal tells him that Jamestown will be burned to the ground to make sure that the virus dies, and Edgar with it. He warns Silus that his own career will be doomed if he ignores the "greater good" and breaches quarantine.
Silus breaks through into Jamestown and heads to the aquifer, dodging the infected. Lilly is handcuffed to a water pipe in a locked basement. Edgar comes in and she tries to persuade him to stop but instead he challenges her about her dead child, saying that her race is good at abandoning children. Edgar finds Silus and they fight. Just as Silus is winning, Edgar throws him backwards onto the prongs of a steam injector. As Silus lies groaning, and possibly dying, on the ground, Edgar approaches with a portable steam injector. When Edgar depresses the trigger steam comes out. Edgar threatens to burn Silus's face off so that he will be more of a monster just like him. Lilly comes up behind Edgar and kills him by stabbing another steam injector into the back of his skull.
Silus escorts Lilly from the water facility. He kisses Lilly and says she must do something. He gestures to a building then tells Lilly she must look after what she will find in there and keep it away from the Brotherhood. Lilly enters the building, and finds the other Brother, a dead woman, and a baby. The Brother tells Lilly the infant is the first female vampire ever born. The virus has created her and she is truly the first Perfect Creature.
Silus is branded a heretic, and must stay in hiding. Meanwhile, Lilly is caring for the baby and Silus is watching over her. The movie ends with Silus saying that he is being hunted but he will always fight back, leaving scope for a second movie.

Review: In a world not unlike ours in the 50's, the human race has been coexisting for three hundred years with a genetically enhanced breed of vampires called The Brotherhood that lead the church and researches.
Due to the political issue, the church sends Silus (Dougray Scott) to help her, and he discloses that his brother Edgar (Leo Gregory) was infected a couple of weeks ago and killed other women, but the Brotherhood has covered-up the murders to avoid the return of prejudice against their race.
Silus and Lilly succeed to arrest the insane vampire, but when Edgar escapes from the compound, he begins to infect the human race."Perfect Creature" is a surprisingly good, underrated and absolutely original and stylish vampire movie.
The great thing about this film is that we slowly grow to understand the society of this new place, rather than it all being rammed down the viewers throat as is usually the case with alternate realities.
Very good,original vampire action movie ...I'm very impressed.
The world of the film - an alternate world where vampires are like priests who look after humanity and whom humanity respects - is original and feels very solid.
A new, genetically empowered race of human/vampire like creatures has come forth, first despised but finally accepted as protectors of humanity.
Leaving both the new super race and humans alike facing possible extinction.The story has a competent, crazed blood sucking super villain who brings a bit of horrific red carnage to the screen as he threatens to destroy all around him.
It all works.High tension, horror, drama, great sets, atmosphere, very good cast and an original Sci-Fi horror story make this film a fun, rewarding experience.
I rented this movie last night and was blown away.It's a different kind of vampire movie.It reminded me a bit of underworld because of the action not so much the story.I don't know how this movie didn't hit theaters because I would have been there.Or if it did I missed out.Or maybe it was only released in New Zealand and the U.K.If it is a straight to DVD release then it's one of the best ones i've seen.The location in New Zealand was a perfect spot for this movie.It had a very old Gothic look even though it also seemed a bit modern.
It was supposed to be 1969 but seemed more like 1949 by the way people talked and dressed, and the cars looked older then 1969.But then again,it is taking place on a different earth(I read that in an article about the movie),and there is a mention of it at the beginning so it doesn't matter how it appears.
I was impressed with this movie.It has good special effects,original story,lots of action and good acting.I want to buy my own copy of it.Now I'm anticipating a sequel because of how it ended..
The movie looks stunning: with a comparatively tiny budget, writer/director Glen Standring makes good use of computer generated imagery but blends in beautifully with the 'real life' shots.
It's up to his "biological" brother (Dougray Scott) and a cop (Saffron Burrows) to rein him before he gives The Brotherhood a bad rap."Perfect Creature" has a lot going for it.
The interactions between the characters held the possibility of layers of intrigue and backstory which could have led to spin offs into other media.But it plays like a hastily written love story wedged into an interesting world view.
Just when the story seems ready to move into an action sequence, it gets all boring and at the exact moment you expect some deeper relationship exposition, it stumbles onwards to progress the action.The acting is great (even if a number of the actors are regular players on New Zealand TV and film), cinematography and editing is OK but nothing special, and the effects are passable for the budget.
Well that was a surprise what a great film~If you are looking for a moody atmospheric vampire flick you can't get much better than this~Good mix between action suspense and thrills~I liked the style of the film reminded me a little of silence of the lambs for some reason~Slightly dodgy acting in places but this doesn't spoil a fan~g~tastic plot~ oops i've said it twice nowI thought some of the camera work was superb and there are a few funny moments and jumpy moments that are exactly that~.
After reading the plot synopsis here on IMDb, I realized that the lack of film time for the main characters' relationships likely resulted from an effort to include too many of the details of the story.
While not reaching the heights it could have, "PERFECT CREATURE" is certainly an intriguing little film that throws up a lot of fascinating twists on the well-worn vampire genre.The alternate world created (which feels like a mix of OLIVER TWIST and DUNE) is wonderful, and a lot of care and attention has gone into making this environment seem believable and convincing.A capable cast do their best (when was the last time Dougray Scott actually smiled in a film?), bringing an effective melancholy to their characters that the script unfortunately lacks.
If the characters were as well-constructed as the setting, the movie would have had more dramatic impact.At a scant 90 minutes (and I hear it is being chopped down for it's U.S release), writer/director Glenn Standring could have spent more time opening up this eye-popping world and its history.
At least it doesn't make the same mistake as UNDERWORLD, another vampire film that gave us its backstory in 2 minutes, but then still managed to go for a yawn-inducing two hours.PERFECT CREATURE may prove a hard sell, as there is very little in the way of action, gore, and over-the-top CGI set-pieces.
So I grabbed the opportunity to see PERFECT CREATURE that comes up with a new concept: vampires were created in genetic experiments in the Renaissance era.
Written and directed by Glenn Standring, Perfect Creature falls into one of those fantasy, alternate universe timelines where because of genetic engineering and the likes, humans now are living side by side with the more powerful vampires with whom have forged a truce, that is, to never feed on the blood of humans, but instead, get their dosage of plasma through religious rites of sorts.Which serves as an intriguing premises to begin with, except that it had so much going for it, that it failed to capitalize on the wealth of its potential, instead choosing to coast through the expected until a finale made up of standard fare, with too many plot elements than it could handle, with mistrust between the two species of homo sapiens, an influenza virus, and a murderous vampire hell bent on creating havoc by unleashing his own brand of justice to the world.With movies like Underworld and various other genre incarnations that dwell on super- beings, Perfect Creature at best was on par in terms of the visuals, where the filmmakers have created a stunningly looking dark city, which seemed like a cross between Victorian England, except for the vehicles such as zeppelins which crowd the sky.
Special effects was rudimentary, and you can feel the lack of slickness in the movements of the vampires, not so much as they couldn't fly, but their essence of speed wasn't properly brought across, and looked quite clunky.The story, bared down to the basics, is about how human detective Lilly (Saffron Burrows) has to team up with a high ranking vampire / priest (yes, you read that right) called Brother Silus (Dougray Scott, who walks really stiff here and nary breaks into a smile), despite her and her team's discrimination against the vampire race.
And their common adversary Edgar (Leo Gregory) happens to be a researcher of sorts gone renegade, and with blood relations to Silus, puts a dampener on so called conflict of interest.As an action-fantasy piece, don't expect any award winning acting here, because what thrills are the set action pieces in claustrophobic spaces within dark and dank apartment blocks.
And of course something tells you it's not quite right when the mid-point action sequence trounces the finale which had a distinct lack of excitement.But on the whole, for its mood, settings, and imaginative spin on the vampire genre, Perfect Creature does deserve a watch..
All this in a parallel universe where vampires live together with humans and the world is powered by steam and plagued by genetically designed viruses.Interesting premise and cute universe, but the story itself is dragging like there's no tomorrow (in both universes).
poorly executed.Perfect creature is a clear example of a reasonable that generates a sub par script (I'm thinking shortland street which is New Zealand's stock doctor soap which has been meandering across our airwaves thrilling pubescent girls with ever worsening for the last fifteen years) and not enough money to cover even that as a result the effects are TV quality at best, the acting is slow paced and wooden and the general tone is New Zealand morbid ie there is no emotion other than general peevishness and....Ahhh I grow weary.I've already given it more time than it deserves..
I watched Perfect Creature today, the newest vampire movie right out of Australia.
Yes, in a way it is quite interesting and beyond the usual standard vampire movie stuff.Ah let me explain, first of all it is driven by an alternate reality.
It's different.It's futuristic and Gothic - with a 1930's style to it.It's a nice change from the normal Hollywood overdone blood gore fest that is a huge bore.This was fresh, with a story behind it and one that may follow.It's nice to see characters who don't all look like surfers, models or Tom Cruise/ Bradd Pitt wannabe's.It's got a cool story, good scenes and setting and the period and props relating to it was really cool.This is one of the few vampire movies that I enjoyed.While it is not at the top of my favorite films, it certainly isn't at the bottom.I would have liked to see more action and fight scenes and that would have made this much better, but it was still cool..
Seemingly terrible films get high reviews whilst original and entertaining films are slated to suffer the indignity of being classed in the same vein as their awful bedfellows.Perfect Creature is a film I've re-watched several times over and over because the story is just so very interesting.
But Silos knows that he must keep it together and stop Edgar from destroying the relationships between man and The Brotherhood.Perfect Creature isn't paced well at all and could have been just a little more exciting.
I actually went into this film with fairly high hopes, in spite of the fact that there hasn't been a really decent vampire movie in ages, and naturally came out disappointed.
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.
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.
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..
PERFECT CREATURE is yet ANOTHER film about a future society where vampires co-exist with mankind in their own society.
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..
When a rogue vampire escapes from his detention quarters and starts to unleash a virus on the population that proves fatal to it's recipients, a police officer and a fellow vampire track him down before he spreads it to others.This was a really, really bad effort, more so in the sense that it never really feels like a true horror film, more like a deranged sci-fi film rather as the setting (this is said to be a futuristic time that looks for all the world like 1800's England) and all these ground-rules about the society make it really difficult to get a handle on what's going on.
Normally, he's a good enough actor to look as though he has command of a role but this character completely misses any kind of strong interpretation.On the other hand, LEO GREGORY does a fine, snarling job (he can scowl like nobody else I've seen), a more vicious specimen than his brother.
My blood will change the world."An evolved genetically enhanced race of homo-sapiens("vampires")titled "The Brotherhood" have lived in harmony with humans serving them faithfully for centuries until a rebellious rogue member, Edgar(Leo Gregory), responsible for creating an anti-virus towards the dangerous outbreak of influenza which took many lives, decides he's tired of being a servant towards those he deems inferior.
His brother Silus(Dougray Scott, mostly emotionless and stoic, tilting his head slightly towards an action or something of human nature that fascinates him)is to be a leader of The Brotherhood one day, but Edgar's goal is to infect him with the influenza virus.
The major story is somewhat a "film-noir"esque murder mystery with subplots of epidemics / human evolution / love.The film stars off well enough by giving us a background on the "brotherhood" ( vampires ) and how they are trying to coexist with humans which is interesting in itself but never really develops into anything concrete.Then we are introduced to our main villain( Leo Gregory ) and our protagonist ( Dougray Scott ) with a very well done bit of cinematography.
Not very original nor interesting which is too bad because the performances were pretty good and the actors did a fine job but the sub par character development kept it from being really gripping.The mother ( Saffron Burrows ) / daughter development seemed like an afterthought to appeal to the "Children of Men" fans.
The love story between the vampire ( Dougray Scott ) and the human ( Saffron Burrows ) was completely unnecessary.The whole movie seemed like it started off original and could have taken many different genres to a new level and then someone ran out of steam and just picked away at some more popular movies from this genre causing a big mish mash of unfinished plot lines.Anyway these are my two cents..
Fox apparently didn't know how to market the film, and after sitting on the shelf for two years, it quietly crept out as a direct-to-DVD release.Perfect Creature is set in an alternative reality where (compared to our world) branches of science and engineering have experienced different rates of progress.
Eventually however the information gets out, and Silas (who is being groomed to lead The Brotherhood one day) forms an alliance with a human detective (Saffron Burrows) to catch the murderer.Perfect Creature is an intelligent and entertaining film, but Fox's wariness about how to promote it was probably due to the fact that it contains few surprises and not much actually happens per se.
A new slant on the good vs evil story.Saffron Burrows excels as a Policewoman doing an excellent job catching the day to day bad guys let alone what she needs to do to survive Edgars charming ways.
A race of genetically enhanced vampires called the Brotherhood has peacefully coexisted with human beings for 300 years.
Crazed renegade vampire Brother Edgar (superbly played with frightening intensity Leo Gregory) starts preying on human beings and plans on changing the natural order of things by infecting everyone with a lethal mutant virus.
It's up to dour, compassionate vampire Brother Silus (a fine portrayal by Dougray Scott) and tough, but kind-hearted human police captain Lilly (a splendidly hard-nosed performance by Saffron Burrows) to stop Edgar before it's too late.
Perfect Creature centers on a world where vampires and human beings co-exist.
The vampires form the Brotherhood, which is basically the Catholic Church, and humans look to them for protection.
...In one shot Dougray Scott in outline looks exactly like the vampire in 'Nosferatu'--the shot and the cut of his frock-coat had to have been taken from that film..
In that way, Dougray Scott completely fits the role by keeping Silus' face completely stony, whether he's ogling the policewoman Lilly or beating up his little vampire brother Edgar.
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.
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 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.