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Dawn
Directed By Jay Reed
Released: 2003
Starring: Ray Boucher, Kacie Young, Mindy Raymond, Jay Reel
Running Time: 99 minutes
DVD Released By Tempe Video 2006
Dental school dropout, John (played by Ray Boucher) and his vampire
daughter, Dawn (Kacie Young), travel from state to state so that she may
feed on human blood. Dawn is different from the vampires of mythology in
that she can stand daylight, is not immortal, and doesn’t possess a bevy
of supernatural powers. For ten years, a psychic named Carlton Reed
(played by Jay Reed) has followed the pair ever since his mother was
killed by a vampiric creature. Now, John, Dawn, and Carlton are all drawn
to the same town at the same time. It is here, in Laverne, Oklahoma, where
John will reveal the secret of Dawn’s mother’s fate as well as confront
the man who has been searching for him and his daughter so relentlessly
for a decade.
It isn’t very often that I come across an indie horror film that is as
purposeful as Dawn.
Writer/director/editor/actor Jay Reed is definitely no slouch in his debut
feature length film. Dawn
is an excellently plotted film with good pacing, talented camerawork,
decent lighting, and professional sound. Direction and dialogue are
passable with only a few problems (discussed below). The cheapness of the
production is only revealed in two moments. The first comes when John
contemplates suicide with a less-than-convincing prop shotgun (think
pellet gun) and the second is a shot fired later in the film with a
half-assed digital muzzle flash as the result. True, not bad for an indie
film but these instances are pretty blatant.
The cast is made up of non-professionals and newcomers but everyone puts
their best into this film which is clearly an important project to Reed
and company. I really enjoyed the director’s portrayal of Carlton Reed, a
man haunted by the mystery he’s trying to solve. Kacie Young does a fine
job with her performance as Dawn, the young reluctant vampire. It will be
interesting to see if this young lady sticks with acting and where she
goes with it. Ray Boucher is quite good as Dawn’s father, John, and the
pair has a good father/daughter chemistry that is quite sweet. Maybe a
little too sweet.
Okay, now the bad news. While Dawn’s
storyline puts some original twists into
the vampire film genre, it has some eye-rollingly contrived and
unnecessary dialogue. It seems the writer has no faith in the actors’
abilities. Instead, many characters speak very obvious thoughts out loud
and it slows things down. My other criticism is that the script is laden
with schmaltzy sentiment and hokey melodrama. I was squirming in my seat
as my heartstrings were tugged and then ripped out entirely by this
immeasurably corny film. Dawn’s character is indeed well written but the
scenes where she interacts with other children are extremely silly and
hard to sit through.
In order to avoid denying the talent behind this film, I say that
Dawn is quite
the well made vampire flick but those viewers with a low tolerance for
sappy melodramatics should steer clear of this one. The film leans much
closer to drama than horror as it wears its big bleeding heart on its
sleeve. A few comic moments help smooth things over (making fun of goth
chicks!) but overall I came away from this movie feeling somewhat
embarrassed. When I started to pray for the death of perfectly innocent
characters (those two chess-playing numbskulls in particular), I knew
something was wrong. Vampire film lovers will get a kick out of the twists
that Dawn
throws at you but many horror fans will be driven away by the sentimental
schmaltz attack.
DVD Specs:
The Dawn
DVD looks excellent in its full screen presentation. The black and white
DV is extremely clear and the Dolby 2.0 stereo audio is very good. This
indie flick gets the treatment it deserves from the folks at Tempe. There
are trailers for other Tempe Video releases, a gag reel, and an audio
commentary track.
Links:
For more info, check out
Tempe Video.
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