Dawn Breaks Behind the Eyes

If you've read the review that preceded mine you probably noticed all of the positive ones made a point of not spoiling anything or being too specific on what they like outside of the way the movie looked. It's mostly compared to 60's Euro Horror and called amazing. I mostly assume those reviews are from people involved with the film trying to steer the viewers perception in the direction they want prior to seeing the film. It is, visually, very well done. But everything else? This is an incoherent mess with no real plot, story or pacing that allow you to follow what is happening. There is a major shift about half way through that makes no sense at all and certainly does not help anything you've seen up until this point. The synopsis about time shifting around is very misleading as this is never really shown, nor is a change of setting, nor is anything else even vaguely supernatural. Unless you are looking for non-linear, no story art I would avoid this one.

Dawn Breaks Behind the Eyes tells the story of a disruptive couple in a '60s gothic setting.

Margot (Luisa Taraz) has inherited a castle, which is visited with her curmudgeonly husband Dieter (played superbly by Frederik von Lüttichau).

The first half skillfully delivers a psychogram of this toxic relationship, amid the surreal castle where space and time seem to have their own rules.

But it is in the second half that the film takes an unexpected new direction - and everything that happened before is reinterpreted once again.

Visually stunning with a great soundtrack and very clever screenplay, this is definitely a film that needs to be watched a second time to fully grasp all the different layers hidden in the story.

Whether you love the movie (like I did) or hate it (as some surely will) - one can't help but admire Dawn Breaks Behind the Eyes for it's brazen attempt at narrative structure that succeeds in averting expectations again and again.

The film deals with the idea of being trapped in interesting ways.

Whereas the characters are quite literally trapped in space and time, wether in the castle as a whole, or locked into a room, the theme goes much deeper than that.

Similar to people unknowingly being stuck in a painting or in an endlessly repeating movie forced to live through their mistakes, these characters are stuck in patterns and bad relationships, hoping for their partners to change instead of taking responsibility and changing themselves by ending the relationships and thus breaking the cycle.

The director does this by exploring a relationship from different angles and realities, first offering a glimpse into the fictional creation of this relationship before diving into the meaning behind it all and how it relates to their reality. Fascinating stuff!

Casual viewers might find the story nonsensical or confusing, but those who are willing to explore it's endless puzzles will be deeply rewarded.

There is an interesting turn here that reminded me of another (not exactly) horror movie. I won't reveal movie's title in order for keeping my review spoiler-free. When i watched this particular turn of events, i hoped this was going to be good. It's not. It's not bad either though. A horror fan might appreciate some things here, there are some creepy scenes, nice 70's aesthetic and cinematography. There are mysteries too. It's an open to interpretation movie, but you will find some hints here and there. This movie's concept/main theme is similar to DARK's, i mean the great German Tv show. At least, i think so.

Unfortunately, there are negatives too. I didn't like the acting here, it was weird. I think that this was intentionally weird, like other movie's aspects. They wanted to create a hallucination for the viewer. I get that, it was a risky move, i respect that but i didn't like it. It felt more amateurish than artistic. If you want to create a bizarre experience for the viewer, a certain amount of talent is needed. Director and writers here are not talentless but not talented enough to achieve something so difficult.

I see reviews here calling this movie multilayered and an homage to classic Euro-horror. I call it boring. It's not scary, nothing happens. It wants you to think you're watching one movie, then in the middle it shifts to something very different. Neither are very interesting. Maybe the movie is more interesting to Germans and Europeans, or maybe people enthralled with the movies this one is based on, than to this American. This seems to be horror for failed art students. Even looking at the reviews with spoilers, no one seems to explain what this movie is about or what the point is. Some of the characters are on drugs, maybe the viewer should be as well. If I understand the moral of this story, the TV show Lost (2004) did it better.