It's an annual tradition, one or two weeks prior to the start of the Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival, the organizers announce their full film program, and I start researching and selecting the titles I absolutely want to see. Every year, there's always ONE title that immediately stands out as a must-see... "Dead by Dawn" seemed like a perfect match, although this was purely based on the delicious-looking film poster (prominently featuring someone wearing a mask made out of eyeballs), and the brief description stating it would be a Giallo from Poland with a plot inspired by Michèle Saovi ("Stagefright") and Dario Argento ("Opera").
Well, here's to another massive disillusion... Instead of a fun throwback Giallo/slasher gem, "Dead by Dawn" is a dull, senseless, and overly pretentious piece of chaotic fan-boy amateur film. Writer/director Dawid Torrone had the luxury of working with a decent budget and the perfect location of an abandoned theater in the middle of nowhere but failed to do something magical with it. Admittedly, there are a handful of extremely gore kills, but that's not enough. The plot remains vague throughout the entire running time, none of the characters are likeable, and the amount of irritating and purely useless in-between padding footage is intolerable.
Most of the characters are aspiring stage performers, lured to the infamous Heissenhoff Theater to shine - supposedly - in a prestigious new play, but there's a sinister figure dwelling around who has different plans. There is so much potential present here, but Torrone constantly interrupts the pacing himself, by implementing a pointless narrative structure (existing of six "chapters"), and hectically edited rehearsing sequences. The "homages" to Argento and other true masters of colorful Giallo-cinema are downright embarrassing. The plot reveals practically nothing about the killer and what his/her motivations might be, and the "grand finale" is hopelessly derivative. Terrible film, of which I hope it'll be forgotten very soon.
