It feels mean to rag on a film like this, it really does. These kinds of lower budget films are such a nice way for talent to break out, film-makers to experiment, heck just for people with heart to cut their teeth. So this review makes me a bit sad, but here goes
Damned by Dawn has its heart in the right place, interesting set-up and some committed actors, it gets going nicely and builds with a certain gusto to the crunch point from which all hell ought to break loose. But when crunch time hits, the film bottles it and ends up being a significant let down. The story has pretty young thing Claire (Renee Wilner) taking her boyfriend Paul (Danny Alder) back to see her folks, at the same time that her elderly Irish grandma is passing away. Her grandmother talks of the Banshee that carries away the souls of the dead, and how it must not be interfered with when the time comes. So have a guess what happens
The main pluses her are a set of game actors, everyone gets involved, some get fairly physical and there's a sense that people are giving the material their all. Renee Wilner is a suitably harried, scared but determined heroine, Danny Alder is solid and sympathetic as Paul, Tarny Eva pleasant as her attractive younger sister and Mark Alan Taylor and Peter Stratford hitting the right notes of ordinary people thrust into terror and doing their resourceful darndest to keep afloat whilst bad things go down. The big problem is that not enough bad things go down, or at least not enough is shown, and the spookiness unleashed is a goodly ways from being spooky. Well I say that, the Banshee herself is a fine creation, bloodshot eyes, wreathed in spectral aura with a classy piercing shriek, as ring leader of the things unleashed on the cast she does great. But the ghouls awakened are mostly represented by CGI and are generally insipid. CGI is rarely the least bit frightening and only has good effect when either rendered by expensive talent or used for truly bizarre creations, neither of which are present here. This is just a few ghosts, some of which fly, and a few other general visual effects. Really, extras in greasepaint, or just in cloaks would have been much better and taken this film up a point in my estimation. The other big downer is that the film is unconscionably tame for its subgenre, there are a paltry couple of grisly gags, only one of which is decent. Without spookiness or visceral goods, this one gets dull despite its effortless pace, heck it doesn't even adequately show what happens to some of the cast. Put these problems together and for me they overpowered the pluses. There's little more to say, well the film has a nice location and some fun fog shrouded visuals. It may make for an OK watch on late night television, perhaps even an inebriated rental for the undemanding. But I sadly can't recommend it, quite a shame.
