Customer Reviews

Dawn

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"Dawn" is the tale of a child vampire and her bond with her human father. It's a wonderful piece of low-budget black-and-white film that comes highly recommended to any true fan of vampire films. It's a movie that is as touching and sweet as it is disturbing and follows the realistic path of George Romero's "Martin in the way it portrays the hardships a modern day vampire would endure. But in my mind it far surpasses that unique work by focusing on the love between parent and child and keeping the protagonists on the run, which builds a lot of tension. The only reason this doesn't get a higher rating is because the acting is universally wooden to the point of distraction.

As the story begins, we meet 10-year-old Dawn; a sweet little girl traveling with her doting father. There are loving insults and tickle torture involved. Absolutely adorable. As the two hit the road, they find a nice lake and the young girl takes what appear to be dentures out of her mouth and runs into the woods while dad waits in the car. An old man strolling by himself hears a whimper and goes to investigate. As he bends down to comfort the harmless child he finds, she smiles up at him, revealing two fangs. "I know what you are." the man flatly states in acceptance. He is in the late stages of terminal cancer and gladly accepts death's peaceful embrace in the arms of it's cutest employee. Now covered in blood, Dawn rejoins her father in his car and the two drive to the nearest public bathroom where she can change out of her crimson-stained clothing and brush the gore out of her teeth. This is an average kill for the pre-teen deathdealer and this opening sequence hooked me immediately. Is it weird that I think fangs are supercute?

While Dawn features some very effective bloodletting, the film is actually rather sweet in tone. That's where it really excels. The child feels genuine guilt over her need to kill, longs to know everything there is to know about her mother (who died giving birth to her), wants to be able to taste a candy bar, and loves her father more than anything. This is not the tale of a monster by any stretch. This story is purely human, vampires or not. There is actually quite a bit of levity as well. My favorite bit had to be Dawn's father asking a goth girl -who insists she's "hardcore vamp"- what her get-up was all about. When a psychic whose past has been touched by the family who is suffering from MDS picks the protagonists' trail, I really thought I knew how the story had to end. After all, these poorly-acted low-budget affairs tend to fall back on predictable formulas often. I'm pleased to say that I was dead wrong. The ending shook me, but aside from a bit of a plot hole that cost it some points it felt genuine. Make no mistake, this is not a film to pass by. Dawn is that rare obscure gem you sit through all that straight-to-video and Sci-Fi Channel garbage hoping to discover before anyone else. Assuming black-and-white doesn't hurt your eyes and Oscar-grade acting isn't a pre-requisite, Dawn is a must-see for fans of the vampiric. That goes double if you are looking for something more realistic and provoking than your typical cape-and-fang affairs.

4 1/2 stars, rounded down because I HATE those scenes in vampire movies where they tell you to "forget the movies".

I really loved "Dawn." The writers/actors did a great job. The way it ended though was a shame. That poor girl. She couldn't help what was happening to her. I actually felt bad for her.
Also, going along with the previous review, the fangs weren't false--they were real. It was the teeth her father had made to put over the fangs so people wouldn't know she was a vampire that were real. Whenever she needed to "feed", she'd remove the fake teeth. Otherwise, she would wear them to fit in and look "normal." (Which is why, when the cop was ordering them out of the car, she reached for her fake teeth but the cop stopped her...and well, then there were the results...)
Oh and by the way, that was pretty good the way she killed that boy's hand in the store because he was teasing her. Can't say he didn't ask for that one!!!!!

:o)

*~Melinda~*

Loved this little low budget film. I can't add more to what other folks have said other than to say that this film screams for a big budget remake. I'd buy advance tickets!

Dawn (Jay Reel, 2003)

Five minutes into this movie, I was pretty sure I wasn't going to like it; the acting is forced, the plot didn't seem to be coming into focus at all, and the script was banal. Ten minutes later, I was slowly coming round to a grudging sort of appreciation; by the time the movie came to its "oh, he's not going to do this!" ending, I was a convert. Dawn is an off-off-indie production, with almost no budget, amateur actors, and even black and white film stock, but it's also got a huge heart.

Dawn (Kacie Young) is a half-human, half-vampire ten-year-old girl. Her father John (Ray Boucher) and she live a nomadic life, for if they settle in one place, the police are sure to come after her. Dawn feeds, as her mother Sarah (Mindy Raymond) did, by finding the infirm-- those who are close to dying anyway-- and offering them a release from their suffering. Eventually, Dawn wants to go and see her mother's grave, which takes her and John back to Laramie, Oklahoma, where Sarah died in childbirth. Unfortunately, her most recent victim was found, and the police have called in a psychic named Carlton Reed (played by director Jay Reel), who happens to live in Laramie-- and whose mother was one of Sarah's victims.

The vampire bit is almost extraneous in this picture, as it's an allegory for the outcast; the movie is really about fitting in in society and what happens to those who have a chronic inability to do so. Once Boucher and Young get over what seems a bout of camera-shyness at the beginning of the movie and start really getting into their roles, Dawn also becomes a tale of familial love, and how far a father will go to protect his daughter, no matter how society sees her. By halfway through the movie, Young seems to be a natural for the camera, and it's her performance that truly lets this movie take off, and gives the climax its emotional resonance.

This is one that you probably haven't seen (as I wrote this, I just cast the forty-third rating vote for it at IMDB). It's well worth hunting down; in the tradition of Clean, Shaven but, in my opinion, a much better movie. *** ½

A firm premise this film has - it's basic concept is inventing and refreshing. These strong points more than make up for the micro-budgeted production, and if corporate filmmakers ever would put this type of originality into their multi-million dollar movies, they'd have a critically successful "product" - Director/writer Reel pulled it off with little money which should teach the market forces a small original vision can out shine anything they create in a major way. Dawn compares to other Texas independent filmmakers of the past, like Andy Anderson (Learning Curve) and Eagel Pennell (Last Night at the Alamo), the comparison being a small independent movie vision that would most likely never get made any other way because corporate filmmakers are too focused on marketing and profits.......

This film (shown in b/w) is about a man who takes his young daughter around the USA's south west in a car - all it seems that they own as he has had to give up a normal life to raise a daughter who has a special need - she's a vampire.

Her late mother was a vampire. But whereas her mum was not viscious, as Dawn matures she seems to be becoming that way - for reasons not explained... she's unable to cope. Her father worries that she'll grow into a monster. I was puzzled, as the late mother seemed normal, so I didn't know why this vampire-child was going through these dramas.

The film has a good story, and is well enough produced, but all the out-takes (in the extras) are in colour, so I wonder why they decided to change it back into b/w. I don't think it added to anything, especially since its set in modern times. I also didn't like the fact that her fangs were false ones that her father gave her before each feeding... he just happened to have been some kind of dental technician who used to make false teeth - which seemed a bit far-fetched.