Posted: 11/16/2010 |
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Damned By Dawnby Michael J. Nicholas | |
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The Amazing Krypto Brothers and Image Entertainment bring us ‘Damned By Dawn’, a low budget horror film made in Australia that satisfies on some levels and fails on others. Claire(Renee Willner), along with her boyfriend Paul(Danny Alder), visits her grandmother(Nana), father and younger sister who live out in the country. The purpose of the trip is so Claire can see her grandmother one last time, who happens to be on her deathbed. Sounding as if she’s losing her mind, Nana speaks of the Banshee who lives out in the woods that carries off the souls of the dead and must not be stopped when the time comes for her to take Nana away. The actors involved do a decent job of making do with an average screenplay and there are some scenes that have a creepy moment. The biggest problem in my estimation is the lack of these scenes and other intense situations that could of been. Additionally, there are skeleton ghosts made with CGI effects that are downright comical and take away from the possible horror that comes with being chased by the undead. The cinematography is also questionable because the outdoor filming doesn’t follow a believable time line; the movie takes place over the course of one evening through dawn to morning, but when the scenes are put together and you see the sky and amount of natural daylight, it seems like the time of day/night jumps around like the filmmakers just didn’t care. Another letdown to this movie is how many times they tried to copy the Evil Dead movie series. The cover of the movie poster actually quotes a line from a review and says, “Sick of waiting for Evil Dead 4? Check out Damned By Dawn”. Even though trying to take some cues from a successful and cult classic movie franchise isn’t a bad thing, trying to copy it is just shameful in my opinion. The movie is shot in a nice location and does have some creepy fog effects along with a scary looking screaming Banshee. I would even go as far as to say give it a watch. Just don’t expect to continually be spooked by this movie or to witness the re-invention of the horror wheel. Special Features: Rated R Michael J. Nicholas - a.k.a. Nicky The Note - reviews, opinions & life lessons. Got a problem? E-mail us at filmmonthly@gmail.com |