Damned by Dawn (2009)

[Sam@Cult Labs]

“SICK OF WAITING FOR ‘EVIL DEAD 4’? CHECK OUT ‘DAMNED BY DAWN’” – QUIET EARTH.

A huge crowd-pleaser at the Film4 FrightFest in 2010, the film the festival’s organisers called “the coolest, scariest movie from Australia since ‘Undead’”, Damned By Dawn comes to DVD on 7th March 2011 courtesy of Momentum Pictures and is guaranteed to delight horror movie fans with a yearning for the type of inventive and entertaining horror-comedy shenanigans not seen since Sam Raimi’s ‘Evil Dead’ trilogy.

The debut feature from writer-director Brett Anstey (Atomic Spitballs), Damned By Dawn earned itself a ‘Three Skulls’ (out of four) review in horror movie bible Fangoria, where it was praised as “serious fun…” with the further proviso, “And you can’t knock a film with flying skeletons.”

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.

“A remarkably effective piece of visual spookery, both atmospheric and blood-splattered, with an evocative script, and ghostly FX” (Undead Backbrain), Damned By Dawn is about as entertaining as independent horrors movies get, combining shocks, gore and sly wit in equal measure.

Damned By Dawn (cert. 15) will be released on DVD (£15.99) by Momentum Pictures on 7th March 2011. Special Features include: audio commentary by director and crew; making of featurette; trailer; optional English subtitles for the hard of hearing.

[pedromonkey]

if a little known site like Quietearth.us gets on the cover then it must be worth a watch, been following QE for years, great little site...

[nekromantik]

this looks like it could be fun.
edit: reviews are quite bad though.

[wayfarer]

It looks ok, although the flying Grim Reaper things, in the promo images, look a little odd. As I liked Dark Floors which also had some outlandish ghosts, I might like it

[mazon2709]

This movie is awful, I'd heard all the hype about it being the next Evil Dead. It isn't, to even think it comes close is utter nonsense. Avoid

[Sam@Cult Labs]

The movie got me thinking about why horror movie monsters tend to be selected from a very small toy box.

HOWL OF THE BANSHEE

[blu]

Originally Posted by mazon2709

This movie is awful, I'd heard all the hype about it being the next Evil Dead. It isn't, to even think it comes close is utter nonsense. Avoid

Agreed. This movie is fails on all levels. That they tried to make it sound like it was an acceptable substitute for Evil Dead 4 is absurd. This movie isn't even worth renting.

[Sam@Cult Labs]

DAMNED BY DAWN IS OUT NOW

Check out the new clip from on the CULT LABS BLOG

[wayfarer]

Mike's Review of the movie as posted on Flash-Bang: Damned By Dawn

I have to agree. It was an effective chiller that could have been so much better had it used more defined CG. The scene of the dead flying down the road, turning to a kind of necrotic sludge on the windscreen of a car was a well thought out scene badly realised, for example. The movie came across as if the filmmakers had great ideas and a good cast but no money to do it justice. A great shame, and a pity more investors couldn't have been found because I believe that had there been more money (and perhaps time) spent on the digital effects, it would have turned out as a bit of a classic.

[Gold6082]

I have to say I was looking forward to my viewing of this.


Unfortunately the tagline was misleading,the film in my personal opinion was too slow paced,and for the most part took a struggle to sit through.


Thesaving grace for me would of been 2 of the actors (dawn klinberg) for one whop were previously in Prisoner Cell Block H!,however the terrible script even shot holes in that notion.