Dead by Dawn (2008)

Note: I’ve tried to write the plot synopsis for this movie without spoilers and I just can’t.  So be warned that this will contain spoilers and if you don’t dig that skip the first paragraph below.

A group of High School students head off to the lake for a weekend of partying only to end up being killed off by the spirit of a dead girl who was killed by some of them.  See the story is that there was a girl who accused her boyfriend of raping her.  He kills himself rather than go to jail, and his brother decides to drug and rape her as revenge.  She wakes up and he, along with his friends is forced to kill her.  Later when they head off to party at the lake his girlfriend invites the now dead girl’s sister along.  He knows who she is, but she doesn’t know him.  Well the spirit of her dead sister decides to take a little bit of revenge and starts to kill off everyone in sight (except for her sister of course).  Who lives and who dies?  I’m not sure that I really cared by the end.    

One of the coolest things about the site is the opportunity that it affords me to check out some nifty independent films.  The downside is that I also have to sit thru some less than stellar movies.  Dead by Dawn sort of fits in between those two categories, doing some things really well and others not so much.  First up is the story.  Not only is it not really that original but there were just a couple of plot holes that I couldn’t get over.  How is it that anyone couldn’t recognize the brother of the man who was accused of raping your sister?  I suppose that is possible, but it just seemed like such a stretch and an awful way of setting up the entire movie.  Also the movie doesn’t do itself any favors by jumping the plot around in time using a confusing hodgepodge of dreams and psychic visions.  I found myself lost more than once with how the story was leaping around.  One other thing that had me yelling at the T.V. is when a “tree” was blocking the road.  The damn thing is maybe 6 inches wide at it’s thickest and could have been tossed off to the side easily.  I did like the idea of the ghost possessing certain people and using them to kill off her victims.  Also there is a neat bit with bloody footprints that I was a nice creepy touch.  And while the story is confusing because of the dreams and visions the overall story about the ghost getting her revenge from beyond the grave like this was interesting.

Technically the movie also a mixed bag.  The audio is really bad in a few of the scenes with background noise and dialogue that is difficult to hear.  Also this movie suffers from the curse of the modern independent horror film, really generic rock music.  Personally I would have rather they used some public domain classical music to set the tone for the movie.  But this is just my personal taste I suppose.  What I loved about the movie is the camera work.  The movie is shot on digital and looks incredible.  They do an excellent job capturing the beauty of the natural surroundings, which really helps set up how isolated they are.  The interiors shots are also well light and look great. 

Bottom line is that there is talent behind this movie and with a bit better laid out plot I would have liked it much more.  As it is I think it is a mediocre movie.  Though if you are a big fan of ghost stories you might like it more than I did.  For more information check them out at http://www.newbloodentertainment.biz/

2 out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer

© Copyright 2009 John Shatzer