Damned by Dawn

During a violent thunderstorm, a family is awoken by piercing shrieks which summon the dead to rise again. Their lives explode in a blood soaked fury as they battle malevolent spirits, whilst fighting to save their souls from eternal torment with... the Banshee.

The problem with this film is that the crew did not know their limitations. The acting is great, the directing is great, the cinematography is pretty decent... it is all in all a very enjoyable, watchable film.

But where it fails is that the film reaches for just a bit farther than it can grasp. Had they scaled it back just one notch, they would have hit the mark and all would be right in the world. But by trying to go the extra mile, they have exposed their shortcomings.

This movie is about a couple, Claire and Paul, who go to visit her relatives outback (it's an Australian movie) somewhere. In the course of their visit, the grandmother, who is very old and ill, tells Claire that she doesn't have much time remaining and entrusts her with a valuable urn. Claire doesn't want to hear such talk but the grandmother continues and tells her we all gotta go sometime (this is true folks) -but that she wasn't worried because "the lady of sorrows" -she who bawls for the dead (actually, they more poetically used "wails" but being a wise-ass I couldn't resist) -would oversee her final journey. As well, she tells Claire that no one should harm the bawling lady (there I go again) or interfere. At this point you can guess what happens: one of them unwittingly did something to the bawling woman and unhappy consequences follow.

This movie, in my ever so humble opinion, is overall not a bad movie. The creepiest part unfortunately happens in the first quarter or so of it. So what went wrong after that? "Flying skeletons". Say what???. You heard me, folks. Someone had the bright idea of injecting FLYING SKELETONS in this thing. The effect of this was to make the movie seem a little silly, a little retro, and a little cheap, and therefore to negate or offset a lot of the genuine creepiness it began with. Folks (I think you will agree with me), there is no way in the world flying skeletons are going to freak anyone out; not in this day and age. These days, this is something that you would put in a horror comedy which this was not intended to be.

Notwithstanding the above, this is generally not a bad movie. It just lost it's way to further real supernatural creepiness in the early go with the introduction of the skeletons and became more of a "monster" or "creature" movie, of sorts, even though they were supposed to be ghosts. So while much was lost if you wanted to be supernaturally creeped out, there was still creature horror and suspense. And in additional defense of what was not a bad effort, let me say that there are some movies that are today considered cult horror classics that had skeletons in them that looked no better than these, but at least they had the good sense not to make them airborne. Love, Boloxxxi.

Starts well, but stumbles later on.

Basically, I more or less concur with those reviewers who said that in so many words. It begins like one of those old atmospheric Hammer Horrors or perhaps something from the BBC Ghost Story series. The premise of a young woman taking her boyfriend to visit the folks out in the countryside and all the foggy effects starts full of promise. The farm has a chilly, isolated feeling that is just perfect. The comic touches of the father and his slovenly manners (stirring a cup of coffee with his finger! Great, and guaranteed to include a cringe here and there)

The problem is that once we have got going, nothing much makes a lot of sense. Why the family is thus cursed is never resolved and what happened decades ago when Nan was a little girl is so vague. If some rationale had been established as to what was happening it would have probably been a whole lot more effective.

Then the ghosts arrive. They are not really that scary, as everyone else has said, more like the undead pirate crew from "Pirates of the Caribbean" than a bona fide horror movie. When they scuttle behind the cast members, it has all the spine tingling effects of pantomime "He's behind you!"

I won't give away the ending, fear not. However, since it made absolutely no sense to me I'm hardly qualified to in any case. Shame really, this started out with such promise.

Claire (Renee Willner) travels with boyfriend Paul (Danny Alder) to meet her family—father Bill (Peter Stratford), sister Jen (Taryn Eva) and nana (Dawn Klingberg), who is knocking at death's door—at their remote country farmhouse. While there, a banshee appears, screams a lot (it's what they do) and brings the dead back to life. Why? I can't really say: very little about this film makes sense to me.

Directed by Brett Anstey, Damned by Dawn has clearly been inspired by The Evil Dead, with many elements that will be familiar to fans of Sam Raimi's cult classic: there's a similar foggy woodland setting, reanimated corpses that talk (one of which even has the audacity to say 'join us'), and roaming POV shots. Even some of the music sounds like it has been lifted from The Evil Dead's soundtrack.

Unfortunately, this Aussie horror is nowhere near as effective as Raimi's film, suffering from a confusing plot that delivers very few genuine scares, and really bad CGI in the form of post-production fog and cruddy skeletal wraiths that sweep through the air after their victims. A smattering of gore adds a bit of fun to proceedings, but on the whole this is a disappointing effort.

I saw Damned by Dawn on DVD and thought it was a fun horror film and shows what can be achieved by a group of film makers with a great deal of get up and go.

Some of the other user reviews here are mean in my opinion. This is clearly a labor of love by a group of film makers who really don't deserve a beat up for wanting to make films like their Hammer House of Horror heroes - which they achieve wonderfully here with all the spooky atmosphere you'd expect.

I think Indie film makers in particular will enjoy watching what has been achieved. Watch the behind the scenes, it's fantastic and shows what a fun time making the film must have been.

8 out of 10