Damned By Dawn

Directed by: Brett Anstey

Starring: Renee Willner, Bridget Neval, Dawn Kilngberg, Danny Alder, Mark Taylor

Synopsis:Prompted by the arrival of a mysterious package from her terminally ill grandmother (Dawn Klingberg), Claire (Renee Willner) drags her reluctant new boyfriend, Paul (Danny Alder), off to meet her family at their remote country home where she hopes she will discover the motivations behind the unexpected gift.

Things seem to be going well until Claire’s heavily medicated gran begins rambling on about a female spirit she is expecting to come in the night to escort her body into the afterlife. That night, as a violent thunderstorm rocks the house, the family is awoken by a succession of piercing, otherworldly shrieks, which prove to be the cries of a banshee. As the terrifying sounds ring out, the dead are summoned to rise again, so beginning a waking nightmare for Claire and her family as the banshee and her army of the undead unleash their fury upon the living.

Review:

Damned By Dawn is a solid little horror movie which shoots itself in the foot with some lucklustre CGI fx work and a whole heap of hype, which is claiming this to be the as good as The Evil Dead. You can certainly see how people have made the link to Sam Raimi’s early horrors – especially Evil Dead 2. The swirling mists that surround the family property certainly evokes a similar look and feel to Ash’s cabin in the woods.

The early scenes have a lot of charm and atmosphere, with some nice quirky humour – Paul asking Claire’s dad for a coffee, only to be absent-mindedly handed a cup of tea which had been stirred with his finger, and Paul’s reaction is pretty class. The scenes where we are first made aware of the Banshee are also well-handled, and when it enters the house the film is genuinely scrary. It’s a shame that the film didn’t follow in that vein of physical effects.

When Claire interrupts the Banshee’s wailing, it opens the door for other spirits to rise from the dead. This is when we are forced to watch badly rendered CGI demons fail to interact with the actors. Fellow reviewer Wayfarer likened the CGI to the old video/board game Atmosfear, and I can see why. The creatures are bland, lifeless and devoid of any interesting or scary features. The sad thing is, the film doesn’t need them. It would have been better if they had come up with a more old-school approach and used a couple of actors in costume/makeup.

Perhaps the film wanted to discern between the different threats – A fallen family member makes a return to the house and wreaks havoc and brings with him a whole host of cockroaches (they always creep me out), and late in the film Claire is confronted by her dead gran, on her way to also becoming a Banshee. Both of these scenes are much more effective than any CGI floaty thing.

Verdict: Damned by Dawn has a great “ghost story” atmosphere, and a spooky premise, and it’s refreshing to watch a supernatural horror movie devoid of vamps, werewolves and zombies. However the film falls down hard when it pushes beyond it’s means and delivers CGI creatures which wouldn’t be scary on Scooby Doo.

5 out of 10 (MikeOutWest)

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