KnotMissPriceless Why so much hype?

Listonixio Fresh and Exciting

BoardChiri Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

Curapedi I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

Russell62 Starts well, but stumbles later on. Basically, I more or less concur with those reviewers who said that in so many words. It begins like one of those old atmospheric Hammer Horrors or perhaps something from the BBC Ghost Story series. The premise of a young woman taking her boyfriend to visit the folks out in the countryside and all the foggy effects starts full of promise. The farm has a chilly, isolated feeling that is just perfect. The comic touches of the father and his slovenly manners (stirring a cup of coffee with his finger! Great, and guaranteed to include a cringe here and there)The problem is that once we have got going, nothing much makes a lot of sense. Why the family is thus cursed is never resolved and what happened decades ago when Nan was a little girl is so vague. If some rationale had been established as to what was happening it would have probably been a whole lot more effective.Then the ghosts arrive. They are not really that scary, as everyone else has said, more like the undead pirate crew from "Pirates of the Caribbean" than a bona fide horror movie. When they scuttle behind the cast members, it has all the spine tingling effects of pantomime "He's behind you!"I won't give away the ending, fear not. However, since it made absolutely no sense to me I'm hardly qualified to in any case. Shame really, this started out with such promise.

eirecat There are three things I really love in life: a few whiskey sours, a good low-budget horror movie, and being lazy. I notate this because watching Damned By Dawn deprived me of two of these three on a rare evening off and I'm pretty steamed. I had the whiskey sours, but Damned By Dawn was so unforgivably not a "good" low-budget horror movie that it made me so angry I had to stop being lazy long enough to go through the whole process of registering to this site so I could write a vitriolic review.Maybe "angry" isn't the right word, though. I think it actually comes much closer to "annoyed". This is through and through an annoying movie. Don't get me wrong, there are some very prominent good things about the movie. The actors all seem to be having a good time and deliver enjoyable performances, and the atmosphere of the setting is delightfully sinister. But smearing strawberry icing over a road-apple does not a cupcake make, and the good parts of the movie just made me all the more irritated that the glaring faults were bad enough to overpower them.Between laughable undead effects (made all the more glaring by the genuinely good effects work elsewhere), an incomprehensible ending (Seriously. I will give 100 internet nerd points to whoever can tell me what the HELL happened. The Banshee's wound closes up...for some reason...a baby cries...the Banshee pukes up some blood...???...profit?), and the niggling voice in the back of my head screaming "Why? WHY is a movie about Banshee set in Australia!?!", it would be enough to turn me off this movie. But then there's the unfortunate fact that it's also so cliché ridden and logically unsound that I honestly wouldn't be surprised if someone told me it was actually supposed to be a parody.First of all, Nana (Dawn Klingberg), if you know that a scary ghost lady is going to come and scream bloody murder outside the house on the night of your death, *and* it's very important for the good of your eternal soul that said blood-soaked screaming nightmare woman not be interrupted...it might be a good idea to tell more than one person about it. And if you can only tell the one, you might want to be a *little* bit less vague and cryptic. Oh, the dead will come back to life and murder everyone in shrieking distance (which, it turns out, is quite a ways) if you aren't cremated and put in a special urn? That seems like some important info right there. Might not want to play your canasta cards so close to your vest on that one. And, while Claire (Renee Willner) starts out as a likable enough protagonist, she eventually falls drastically into what's essentially a whimpering mannequin as she watches curled up against a far wall while three of the people closest to her are brutally murdered. Claire, honey, I know you're not Van Helsing or anything but for the love of god, if my undead boyfriend was bludgeoning my father to death, I sure as Sidhe would at least try to do a little more then whine about it.Enjoy visual mood effects? Give this movie a once-over with liberal use of the fast forward button. Enjoy movies where you *don't* root for the heroine's head to explode via Banshee wail just so the interminable thing is over? I'd suggest giving Damned By Dawn a pass.

JenniferBaxter I saw Damned by Dawn on DVD and thought it was a fun horror film and shows what can be achieved by a group of film makers with a great deal of get up and go.Some of the other user reviews here are mean in my opinion. This is clearly a labor of love by a group of film makers who really don't deserve a beat up for wanting to make films like their Hammer House of Horror heroes - which they achieve wonderfully here with all the spooky atmosphere you'd expect.I think Indie film makers in particular will enjoy watching what has been achieved. Watch the behind the scenes, it's fantastic and shows what a fun time making the film must have been. 8 out of 10

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.