Shudder Film Review - Dead & Beautiful (2021)

Lulu and her circle of friends represent the next generation of the richest families in Taiwan. Heirs to unimaginable fortunes they take “turns” in curating spectacularly hedonistic, sometimes cruel, nighttime adventures for each other.

Targeted to break the monotony that comes with near-limitless wealth the experiences have been escalating in extremity and bravado. After all, if the shit really hits the fan they can always rely on their personal rescue helicopters to airlift them to safety.

Bored with self-indulgent death pranks and endangered armadillo eating, Lulu concocts a “turn” that will see the over-entitled gang travel deep into an ancient forest for a life-changing spiritual ceremony.

Blacking out after an epic bong session they wake to find their guide dead from a neck bite. Worse still, all of them now have a set of sharp fangs and for the first time in their lives an uncertain future.

Talented director David Verbeek returns to reinvent the vampire picture as an acerbic morality check on greed, rampant narcissism, and the relative inertia of privilege. Deliberate and methodical it’s a film with a salty agenda that cuts deeper into the human condition than its hyper-glossy veneer suggests.

Despite its flashy cosmetics and stylised aesthetics Dead & Beautiful has far more in common with the gritty realism of George A. Romero’s Martin than the glamourous romanticism of the Twilight series. To draw any detailed comparisons with other entries in the swollen vampire canon would risk spoiling some of the machiavellian surprises that set it apart in the first place. Suffice to say, the vibe is distinctly more reflective as in the laconic Only Lovers Left Alive than the slam-bam CGI of Blade. Although ironically enough Wesley Snipes is name-checked in the film.

The painterly cinematography from Jasper Wolf, who lensed the multi-award-winning Manos, is mouth-wateringly gorgeous. Both the stunning architecture and Instagram-perfect cast are shot with the neon precision of a music promo hotshot on loan from the Blade Runner universe. It’s an arresting piece of work that transcends genre contingency to become one of the best-looking horror flicks of the year.

There are times Dead & Beautiful looks like it has been clinically poured onto the screen from the fix-all mixing pot of cult movie making. However, on the whole, it elevates itself above elitist posturing with a concise and witty script and pertinently sassy imagery. It is, for example, the first horror flick to fully exploit the iconic potential of the pandemic face mask as a fashion statement.

Verbeek is a slick operator who has the inherent confidence to allow his movie time to gestate and breathe. Those who stick with its andante pace and understated bloodletting will be rewarded with a series of clever twists and wicked curveballs radiating from the epicenter of its anti-capitalism core.

Intelligent in its exactitude and efficacious in its world-building, Dead & Beautiful manifests a cosmopolitan funhouse for its high concept and sophisticated head fucks to play in. Opulent and decadent, yet subtle and believable, fans of introspective horror will find much to relish in this raffish and ravishing fang flick.