Dylan Dog: Dead of Night (2010)

This movie is based off of a comic that I’ve never read.  The main character is named Dylan Dog and he used to be an investigator for the things that go bump in the night.  Basically vampires, werewolves, zombies, and other supernatural creatures are real and they need an impartial party to keep the peace.  When the movie opens up though we see that Dylan wants nothing to do with them.  We find out later in the movie why, but I won’t spoil that here.  He is drawn back into the world of the undead when a murder happens right in his office and soon finds himself on the trail of a mythical item that could give whomever holds it immeasurable power.  The fight over the item is in fact the cause of all the bloodshed and violence.  He has to track it down and make sure that it never is used.

I actually kind of liked this one.  Sure that isn’t a ringing endorsement of the movie, but it is how I feel.  The story has a been there done that sort of feeling to it and while the comic may be innovative and different the translation to film isn’t.  Other then the addition of the zombies the vampires vs. werewolf thing has been done to death.  That said my favorite parts of the movie have to do with the zombies and how they attempt to pass as regular people in society.  These scenes are by far the most fun.  Plus the best creature in the movie is a zombie that is rampaging thru the city of New Orleans beating down anything that gets in it’s way.  Also I thought the pacing of the movie was pretty good.  We get to some action, have the characters involved quickly and then get to a resolution.  It is a nice tight story that cleans up all the lose ends before the credits roll.  So while the story isn’t anything new, it does get to the good stuff right away and is never boring.  I do want to give Dylan Dog: Dead of Night credit for that.

So since we have all kinds of supernatural creatures running around we have to mention the special effects.  They range from great, to okay, to sort of bad.  The good or really great creatures are the zombies.  This includes the one very large zombie that runs around looking for the powerful item.  It looks like something out of a Resident Evil video game or at least how I always thought they should look on screen.  Plus the “regular” zombies, including those in the support group (another funny bit) look good.  Then we have the vampires that are pretty standard looking with pointy teeth and yellow eyes.  Nothing special about them at all.  But what blew my mind are the werewolves.  And really we only see one that is fully transformed.  If you guys have ever seen Teen Wolf then you have a pretty good idea of what you are getting with Dylan Dog.  I kept expecting him to take the basketball to the hoop…

I’ve noticed that the fans of the comic are trashing this movie pretty good.  Not sure why.  I mean it isn’t a great flick, but for a comedic take on a genre movie I don’t think it was terrible.  Dylan Dog: Dead of Night falls into that category of worth watching once and then forgetting about.  I’d say give it a rental and see what you think.

2 ½ out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer

© Copyright 2011 John Shatzer