About Parkinsons

Iain Stott asked:


Dead creatures is, for want of a better term, a zombie film. Although, I’m sure that pedants and horror movie buffs alike will frown upon the term. Because, these “zombies” are, and here’s the problem, very much alive. They drink, they smoke, they socialise, they have sex, they make small talk. At first glance they appear to be very much boringly normal. Of course, anyone who feasts on the flesh of human beings is anything but normal.David Parkinson’s leisurely paced low-budget second feature begins with several different people, some alone, some in pairs, going about their seemingly disparate lives. The characters’ actions appear everyday and normal. Our only clue to what maybe happening is the occasional blink-and-you’ll-miss-it shot of a severed limb.Christian (Bart Ruspoli), who appears to be something of a ladies’ man, makes a date with a young student, Sian (Anna Swift). Jo (Beverley Wilson) and Ann (Antonia Beamish) live together with the severely ill Ali (Lindsay Clarke), and are friends with Fran (Eva Fontaine) and Zoe (Fiona Carr). They spend their time smoking cannabis, talking about sex, and moving from squat to squat in order to keep one step ahead of a man (Brendan Gregory), who kidnaps young men and questions them about the whereabouts of a missing young woman. Slowly but surely these characters lives begin to intertwine.The cannibalism seems to be the result of a virus that is passed on from the bite of an infected person. The disease, which causes a hunger for human flesh, is a degenerative one, which, after approximately 12 months leaves the sufferer literally falling apart, both physically and mentally. Now, quite obviously, the disease, the lifestyle, the cannibalism, these are all things just waiting to be read allegorically. It is quite easy to apply one of a number of metaphors to the proceedings. The easiest, and most obvious, is that of drug dependency - well spoken middle-class people reduced to living in squalor due to their dependencies. Perhaps just as easy, and one that is also just as often attached to vampire films, is that of equating human flesh with any other meat. Is there a fundamental difference between the flesh of a cow and the flesh of a human? Well, I’m fairly sure that most people will say yes, even vegetarians.But my favourite metaphor is that of life itself. As they are born to their life unwillingly by a bite, we are born to ours unknowingly from our mothers. They, like us, live and eat and carry on with that knowledge that one day they will wither and die. They, like we, do what they do because they have no other choice. We are and do because we must.For such a low-budget production, the film appears remarkably professional and accomplished. Jason Shepherd’s lush photography and Andrew Parkinson’s precise mise-en-scène and menacing score give the film a look and feel of a studio production (but with the soul still attached.) The acting is also surprisingly competent, with Brendan Gregory being particularly effective. A special mention must also be made for Paul Hyett’s wonderfully gory special effects.Dead Creatures is a thought provoking, challenging, humourless, slightly grim, and above all else, tremendously well-made anti-horror film. One can only hope that Parkinson continues to find funding for his films and manages to resist the allure of Hollywood.

Dolores