Skunkyrate
Gripping story with well-crafted characters
Merolliv
I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.
AshUnow
This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.
bowmanblue
One factor for any good horror movie is that is must be atmospheric. However, the makers of Damned by Dawn take the word 'atmospheric' to mean 'foggy.' The film is about a young couple who return to their family home in the foggiest part of Australia to see a dying relative. However, a banshee pops out of the fog and causes brutal havoc.Now, I read some of the other reviews before I watched this and, I have to say, they kind of lower your expectations. But, for the first third of the movie, I had to wonder whether they were talking about the same film. I thought it was actually quite good. It had a nice (foggy) set-up and some potential.Then came the CGI. Not only are CGI baddies imposed on us, but also, if the cast happen to be running through a non-foggy area, CGI fog is added (and it's really bad CGI fog too!).The one dimensional characters just about manage to act their parts and the banshee's screaming is pretty creepy, plus there's some good gore (when you can see it through the fog), but, overall, I found myself eventually agreeing with the other reviews.It may not be the worst film ever made (not while Michael Bay's Transformers franchise is still on a roll), but it's definitely not the best. Unless it happens to be on and you feel like a so-so horror flick, don't bother paying to watch this.
John Warner
i like to add that i was responsible for 98% of the 3D modeling and was technical adviser for Visual effects for Damned by Dawn. and i am glad to see some good reviews about my CGI workAs some of you may know I have had a few problems with the director of Damned by Dawn as to what work I did for the film, and has said he would have Removed any Record of me working on the Damned by Dawn Movie. 3D Models Made by me are as followed... ZOMBIES – 10 in total- the replica of the house, a Forest DIGITAL TREES and a CAVE with technical assistance with 3D programs – like 3D Studio MAX and Poser 7 which also included ENVIRONMENTS EFFECTS , VISUAL FOG, as well as TITLE EFFECTS. I would also like to add that I have done 3D work which included technical assistance over many years and a number of films that were done by various members of the Amazing Kypto Brothers with little or no recognition or thanks ….I am Presenting this LINK of my work done for Damned by Dawn as Proof of work done by me for the movie. Visit my Digital Horizons CG-FX on FacebookSearch = DIGITAL-HORIZONS-CG-FXJOHN WARNER Director of Digital Horizons: CG-FXadded footnote. I have yet to be payed for my work on this movie.
poe426
DAMNED BY DAWN is an excellent example of what imaginative filmmakers using high-tech equipment can accomplish over a 3-year period. (That may sound like a knock, but it's not: it's taken me the better part of a year to get my own VHS epic, THE LIVING DEAD, up and running.) As were classics like EQUINOX, DARK STAR and THE EVIL DEAD, DAMNED BY DAWN is an ambitious undertaking, undertaken by ambitious... undertakers... I applaud the sheer imagination that went into this one (and star Renee Willner ain't too hard on the eyes, either). The novelty of the Banshee as monster shouldn't be lost on the no-budget American filmmakers who continue to turn the earth in the embarrassingly unimaginative "slasher" graveyard. DAMNED BY DAWN is an impressive effort all around.
Boloxxxi
This movie is about a couple, Claire and Paul, who go to visit her relatives outback (it's an Australian movie) somewhere. In the course of their visit, the grandmother, who is very old and ill, tells Claire that she doesn't have much time remaining and entrusts her with a valuable urn. Claire doesn't want to hear such talk but the grandmother continues and tells her we all gotta go sometime (this is true folks) -but that she wasn't worried because "the lady of sorrows" -she who bawls for the dead (actually, they more poetically used "wails" but being a wise-ass I couldn't resist) -would oversee her final journey. As well, she tells Claire that no one should harm the bawling lady (there I go again) or interfere. At this point you can guess what happens: one of them unwittingly did something to the bawling woman and unhappy consequences follow.This movie, in my ever so humble opinion, is overall not a bad movie. The creepiest part unfortunately happens in the first quarter or so of it. So what went wrong after that? "Flying skeletons". Say what???. You heard me, folks. Someone had the bright idea of injecting FLYING SKELETONS in this thing. The effect of this was to make the movie seem a little silly, a little retro, and a little cheap, and therefore to negate or offset a lot of the genuine creepiness it began with. Folks (I think you will agree with me), there is no way in the world flying skeletons are going to freak anyone out; not in this day and age. These days, this is something that you would put in a horror comedy which this was not intended to be.Notwithstanding the above, this is generally not a bad movie. It just lost it's way to further real supernatural creepiness in the early go with the introduction of the skeletons and became more of a "monster" or "creature" movie, of sorts, even though they were supposed to be ghosts. So while much was lost if you wanted to be supernaturally creeped out, there was still creature horror and suspense. And in additional defense of what was not a bad effort, let me say that there are some movies that are today considered cult horror classics that had skeletons in them that looked no better than these, but at least they had the good sense not to make them airborne. Love, Boloxxxi.
