Dead & Beautiful is a 2021 drama horror film directed by David Verbeek and co-written by David Verbeek and Hugh Travers. The film stars Gijs Blom, Philip Juan, Anna Marchenko, Yen Tsao, and Aviis Zhong. Having made its debut at Fantastic Fest this past September, Dead & Beautiful will make its way to Shudder this week.

Lifelong friends; Mason, Anastasia, Alexander, and Lulu have gathered together to mourn the loss of their friend Bin-Ray. It turns out to be a prank played by Bin-Ray, as they have a history of pranking one another. For his prank, Bin-Ray was not dead and has planned an elaborate hoax to trick his friends, showing that this group of friends has more money than sense.

Anastasia has organised a spiritual cleansing for the group to take part in as they are reunited together as a group. They venture out to a clearing in the woods to meet a shaman who is going to perform the ritual for the group of friends. The next morning, they wake up finding that they have fangs and that someone has killed the shaman. Dead & Beautiful focuses on how the distinct characters in the film process their transformation; some losing their humanity and others trying to find it. There are a few scenes that are blood-filled, but the film doesn’t depend on scares or thrills, but the theme of vampirism as the horror element.

I enjoyed the slow pace of the film, which reminded me of other vampire-esque films I have watched recently (My Heart Can’t Beat Unless You Tell It To). Dead & Beautiful would have benefited from the development of the characters and exploration of their lives after their transformation rather than boring tidbits and hollow interactions with one another. The characters are almost immediately unlikable, but this is possibly the intention behind their creation and the writing of their dialogue and shallow development. The writers have left each character very shallow and it would have been appreciated to be provided with detailed exposition, mainly because the film is rather ambiguous and lacks character depth. Although, I would be doing the film a disservice without mentioning that there are some tender moments between the friends throughout the film that provide a superficial level of substance to some characters.

One of the more outstanding elements of the film is the incredibly beautiful palette of the film. Verbeek filmed Dead & Beautiful against the nighttime cityscape of Taipei; shown through helicopter windows, cool lounge nightclubs and beautiful sunrises over the top of buildings. It perfectly matched the soundtrack to the neon cityscape with its deep synth vibe pulsing in the film's background. The end had a pretty well-planned twist that I had to revisit a few times to work out the ending; which would have been more impactful if I got it the first time around. The film was an enjoyable watch if you can ignore a shallow plot and character development. Dead & Beautiful feels like a vampire version of Gossip Girl with tense friendships and backstabbing⸺rich and bored with the lives that they lead.

Dead & Beautiful will premiere on Shudder on 4th November in North America, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand.

[Review] Dead & Beautiful (2021)

[Review] Lair (2021): Love, Loss, and Demonic Possession

[Review] What We Do In The Shadows Season 3