A CURSE IS UNLEASHED in Dead Before Dawn!
A group of college friends — some of whom play football and wear cheer leader outfits for a high school, because that isn’t confusing — accidentally break an evil urn in an occult gift shop. As the dust settles they inadvertently create a horrible curse — is there any other kind — UPON THEMSELVES!
As a result of the malediction, everyone they make eye contact with will kill themselves and then become “Zemons” — a combination of Zombie Demons — and the high school college kids only have 24 hours to reverse the curse! With the fate of the entire world resting on their shoulders, our heroes race through the night armed with a slew of homemade weapons, avoiding eye contact and hickeys, and filling their shopping list of items needed to reverse their curse. Will they be able to reverse the curse and save the day, or will all of humanity be Dead Before Dawn?
Dead Before Dawn is not a serious zombie film.
If you come away from DBD thinking, “You know, as serious films of the zombie genre go … that sucked!” I read reviews that essentially said this, and those people MISSED THE POINT.
Spoof – A humorous imitation of something, typically a film or a particular genre of film, in which its characteristic features are exaggerated for comic effect.
Dead Before Dawn is similar to Z Nation — they’re intentionally trying to be goofy and make fun of comedy zombie films (see “parody“). For me this was an unexpected film and looked like what films of this sort should be — fun to make. It made me feel like I was watching Fido for the first time again.
Give this blood-soaked adventure horror–comedy a watch — it’s an unexpected fun zombie-demon flick from Canada, great for a laid-back kick-back chuckle with friends.
Written by Tim Doiron and directed by April Mullen, it stars a bunch of folks I’m not familiar with and presume are Canadian along with Christopher Lloyd — who I will always think of as Emmett “Doc” Brown. 88 minutes long, this is the first ever live-action, 100% Canadian feature film to be shot in Stereoscopic 3-D. Filmed in 20 days in and around the Niagara Falls region of Canada in 2011, it features occasional adult humor and it achieves being a fun film without revealing adult body parts frequently found in zombie films.
I rate Dead Before Dawn — drum roll please — Green Ooze! Maybe moderately green, but definitely green — good job Canucks!
Oh, and if you get really opinionated about Outpost, you can debate as to whether or not the Nazis are zombies, phase-shifting zombies, or humans transformed into ghosts. Regardless, in this humble Highland bagpiper’s z-film opinion, this flick kicks ass!