Dead Before Dawn 3D

After accidentally unleashing a strange curse, a group of friends find their small college town overrun by a swarm of vicious, demon-possessed zombies and must try to fend off the creatures before the true nature of the curse reveals itself threatening all of humanity.

This was a surprising amount of fun and really had a lot of great points about it. One of the best points of this one is that it manages to introduce a rather novel concept here for not only getting the group set up but also unleashing the curse. The opening here going around offering a fine introduction to their plight while in college offering up the trouble with their classes and assignments while also looking to continue engaging in clandestine romantic engagements serves as a great way to get to know who they are. This works well enough as a lighter teen-comedy to then introduce the horror in the form of the possession angle by featuring the curse causing everyone around them to commit suicide before becoming among the horde of ravenous undead. Also, it changes around several big cues in their behavior according to this new concept of fueling their ranks which makes for a pretty fun time throughout as this manages a few pretty original and rather inventive concepts. These not only give the film a rather nice amount of action throughout but also give some rather impressive comedic chops here that are wholly welcome in this so it's got a rather funny air about it at times. Even without the comedy, though, there's enough action here to be truly enjoyable and still maintains that kind of silly tone to where the jokes and physical humor can work with the more serious themes which is well handled with the ability to keep the creatures as threats throughout so they're still something to be feared instead of a joke that doesn't warrant the kind of extreme behavior they undergo in trying to keep themselves out of harm's way. These are generally quite fun with the first scenes involving the group discovering the curse has taken place with encounters involving the friends at the football game, the realization that the mother has been caught up in everything, and a confrontation while trying to escape in a motorhome out of the city. Given that these manage to mix together a kind of comedic failing-upwards slacker mentality consistent with the tone and rest of the action featured but also keep them still keeps things interesting as the quest-like storyline structure to find a curse makes everything feel tense throughout, these all go a long way to make the film effective. For all the fun it has, there are still some problems with this one. The main drawback to the film is the fact that it features the utterly annoying trope of having the finale make everything completely useless and renders the film a complete wash. It had already done fine with the original ending presented here, yet the fact that it adds on another makes for quite a frustrating ending since it comes off as a total cliché on its own right before the fact that it tacks on needless bits on the running time. Also, some of the jokes and attempts at re-writing the zombie rule book that it presents here do cause this to come off as a little amateurish when it really shouldn't be, not offering enough to make the changes worthwhile, and getting in select humor that might not appeal to all. These here aren't up to knock off the positives so it makes for a rather fun time all around.

Rated R: Graphic Violence and Graphic Language.

"Everything we said at the shop is actually happening! Whoever we make eye contact with is gonna kill themselves, then come back as zemons and kill us...via hickeys" Casper Galloway (Bostick) is a teenager who is very shy and jumpy due to what happened to him as a kid. When his grandfather (Lloyd) asks him to watch his store he is very afraid. After a group of kids from school show up Casper tries to kick them out until an urn breaks, thinking the warnings are a joke they begin to come up with ideas of what a curse would be. Then they realize its not a joke at all. This is a very very funny movie, but it is mainly stupid humor. I really liked it and laughed a lot but I don't think everyone will find it as funny as I did. For example the plot of the movie involves being killed by getting a hickey from a half zombie-half demon. The writing is funny and the acting is good for a movie like this. There really isn't much else to say about this other then if you like movies with humor like Anchorman and Shaun Of The Dead then you will like this as well. Overall, very funny but not for everyone...also hearing Christopher Lloyd say "Great Scott" was amazing. I give it a B.

A bunch of college kids accidentally unleash an evil curse that causes people to kill themselves and turn into Zombie Demons, also known as Zemons! Apparently this received mixed and negatives reviews from the critics, even the regular horror folks (Dread Central and Bloody Disgusting). I have to say I liked it more than they did, and while it may not have had much originality, it had some good jokes -- did no one appreciate the "Wicker Man" joke? And, of course, just having Christopher Lloyd in such a prominent role makes this worth watching, in my opinion. He was great, probably the best comedy role he has had in many years.

This movie is very silly, which is not a compliment. Silly in the context of comedy is great for a zany slapstick spoof, but this movie is apparently trying (and mostly failing) to be a more restrained tongue-in-cheek sendup. The intended tone is evidently more Zombieland than Scary Movie, but the execution is more Scooby Doo than either. The goofiness of the presentation, together with some too-convenient script shortcuts, quickly becomes tedious. Even the great Christopher Lloyd gives a gratingly cartoonish performance. I also can't imagine what about this movie would warrant seeing its lackluster action and effects in 3D.

Dead Before Dawn turned out to be a good Zombie film. The movie tries to be real cute pointing out how stupid some horror plots can be by coming up with a real stupid one. Although technically a good Zombie movie does not need an explanation to why Zombies exist, especially if you have a good gang of characters in the movie which this one does. I noticed a Former Power Ranger playing the best friend of the main character. Christopher Lloyd is in the picture for a small while giving a decent comedic performance. I guest the best part of the movie is that it gave us the Zemon, a half Demon half Zombie hybrid. I doubt it's going to be a contender for the next big horror movie monster, but it was a funny idea. Dead before Dawn is nothing to write home to your mother about but it was a fun 90mins for me. I almost wish I lived in Canada so I could have seen it in 3D.