This is the best independant movie I've seen in nearly a decade. Dawn is proof that great maverick filmmakers do exist and can produce great filmwork outside the coastal machines. It also shows up all the Hollywood "True Gritty" films where overpaid movie and TV actors pretend to be small town dwellers; the casting of real people to represent their communities gives Dawn an unimitatable realism. It is also one of the most thoughtful vampire film ever made.
To classify Dawn as a horror movie would be a mistake, though as a horror movie it's very good. This is a return to the purest elements of the Film Noir while employing a vampire metaphor. The film belongs in the same catagory as Fritz Lang's You Only Live Once and Nicholas Ray's They Live By Night, with an outlaw couple on the run for nothing else than who they are. Haunting black and white photography enforces the bleakness of having to run and hide from the world while always remaining in sight. The viewer is shown an emotional landscape filled with alienation from a life constantly desired, as well as the bonds that can be forged despite how grisley the circumstances can get.
To classify Dawn as a horror movie would be a mistake, though as a horror movie it's very good. This is a return to the purest elements of the Film Noir while employing a vampire metaphor. The film belongs in the same catagory as Fritz Lang's You Only Live Once and Nicholas Ray's They Live By Night, with an outlaw couple on the run for nothing else than who they are. Haunting black and white photography enforces the bleakness of having to run and hide from the world while always remaining in sight. The viewer is shown an emotional landscape filled with alienation from a life constantly desired, as well as the bonds that can be forged despite how grisley the circumstances can get.