Damned By Dawn Review

• 6th Mar 2011

Talked up at last year’s FrightFest, this low budget Australian horror from first time director Brett Anstey, is worryingly close to plagiarising Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead trilogy. Even though it is touted as being as close to Evil Dead 4 as possible, it is – when all said and done – nowhere near as much fun as it should or could have been.

The story revolves around a young woman named Claire who receives a mysterious gift from her ailing grandmother. Believing it is time to visit her grandmother one last time, Claire decides to take her boyfriend along to her family’s country home. Soon Claire’s grandmother begins to ramble on about the legend of a banshee, whom she believes is coming to collect her soul that night. It quickly becomes apparent that the old dear is correct and the banshee comes to collect more then just the grandmother, as she awakens an army of the undead. But who will survive?

Threadbare is the flavour of the day with this direct-to-DVD feature. Having seen numerous cheaply produced horrors, you anticipate what to expect such as bad acting -seemingly of student film quality – along with small-budget effects. The problem is that the film comes so close to being a rip-off of the far superior Evil Dead, that very little enjoyment can be had from something so lacklustre. This is a film is not utterly trite and devoid of anything resembling imagination as it does contain one original quirk about it, which is the banshee itself, but after the fourth or fifth wail it becomes tiring and inherently annoying.

The film fails to live up to even the lowest of expectations and while the filmmakers probably had nothing but good intentions, it becomes more miss than hit. The repetitive use of CGI fog effects quickly becomes infuriating, especially when the action takes place and very little can be made out. It is as though the filmmakers panicked and wanted to make the film seem more expensive than its more humble no-budget roots would allow.

The main element this film is sorely lacking in, is that hyperactive and ever so slightly deranged inspiration. As it stands, it is utterly pedestrian. The moments where there should be gore-filled frivolity are so few and far between, that you start to wonder, what is the point of this?

A veritable cavalcade of horror clichés from the last 30 years seem to be present and correct; everything from the standard spooky woods, through to falling over and losing a torch before the inevitable scare. Lest I forget, the impending doom from the fog and hiding from danger in a small cupboard. All of which have been done to death in so many other average horror films, which have been long forgotten.

This is where the main problem lies, it takes itself so absolutely seriously that it sucks every ounce of enjoyment from the film. When compared to Antsey’s previous short, Atomic Spitballs (a highly recommended b-Movie pastiche) this feels like a step backwards.

It is so sorely lacking in energy, that even making it through the minuscule 81 minute running time feels laborious and draining. I wanted to wail like a banshee after sitting through it. Which is a shame as this seems destined to be forgotten all too soon.

However, the extras on the disc include a rather interesting and informative documentary on the film’s making – which is actually more pleasurable to sit through than the feature. There’s a marginally amusing commentary track (oh, if only some of that humour was injected into the feature itself…) and a suspense-free trailer rounds off the package.

Damned by Dawn is released on DVD 7th March.

Dominic O’Brien