If film portrayals are any indication, the ultra-wealthy have a certain knack for getting dangerously bored a lot. Take Cruel Intentions or The Game, for instance: the protagonists in these films have such a proclivity for mayhem that they put lives in danger. In David Verbeek’s Dead & Beautiful, we see similarly bored, disgustingly wealthy individuals, but this time the bougie games these people play with each other take on a slightly stranger slant.
At the beginning of the film, we’re introduced to a motley crew of five young, sexy individuals who are heirs to billion-dollar empires and take turns playing bizarre pranks on each other to pass the time. Their games are taken to the next level when one of them convinces the group to partake in a mysterious shamanic ritual in the woods at night that apparently turns them all into vampires. The rest of the film depicts the ways in which this group of shallow friends takes on this new identity and decides to use their vampiric powers, and as you might expect, the trajectory gets bloodier the more this story unfolds.
What Dead & Beautiful does well, it does very well. Set mostly in Taipei, the landscape that these novice vampires tread is sleek, sterile, and stunning, just like they are. It manages to give this vampire film a unique identity amongst the vast slew of other vampire portrayals that saturate the market nowadays. From the hip lounges they haunt to their trendy living quarters, the sets and cinematography combine to make this film pure eye candy to watch. The dark, posh wardrobe these vampires don is icing on the cake, and anyone who is a sucker for “style over substance” cinema will likely appreciate this aspect of the film. There’s also some amusing, humorous moments one wouldn’t expect from a mostly serious vampire film: one of them, for instance, decides to do a PowerPoint presentation about the origin and history of vampires in an auditorium for his friends, which is such an odd choice that it almost works.
As for the “substance” in this “style over substance” vampire film...well, there is virtually none. The plot is wafer-thin, somehow nothing feels at stake (no pun intended), and there’s very little empathy the audience is able to garner for these obviously selfish people we’re essentially taught to dislike. Sure, a few of the protagonists have some redeeming qualities, and terrible people in films can be delightful to watch, but most of them don’t have enough charisma in this film to pull that off well. Moreover, there’s not enough differentiation between all five of the characters to create a truly interesting group dynamic outside a couple of rare exceptions. All things considered, there’s really not much holding the story together outside of a decent concept and an on-the-nose message regarding the inherent nature of the upper-class.
Dead & Beautiful attempts to redefine vampires, but it only somewhat succeeds in its venture. There’s potential within the framework of this film that is never truly actualized, and it’s a shame. It could have given us a more interesting commentary if it had been executed better, but we are instead left with a slick-looking piece of cinema that’s as vapid as its main characters.
-Andrea Riley
