Dawn Breaks Behind the Eyes

Dawn Breaks Behind the Eyes is a film as mysterious and enchanting as it's title (and the gorgeous poster) suggests.

Exploring one relationship throughout parallel realities, it's definitely a film that needs multiple viewings, due to it's puzzle box nature. But it's a gorgeous and atmospheric film I can't wait to explore again and again.

While this film already perfects the art of the Euro horror homage, it transcends all that in the second half and becomes a profound and intelligent meditation on eternity, relationships, being trapped & forgiveness.

A rewatch is a must since I definitely missed a lot from my first viewing, but can't wait to watch this one again!

Bravo!

Story-wise, it starts with a couple driving towards an old castle at night. The husband is an imposing one, the wife forbearing. The place which the wife is supposed to inherit, the richer of the two, has been left in a derelict form. It is a place, not simply housing unknown horror, but a locus to test their character i.e., habit, disposition, and morals.

The rest shall be left for the viewer to find out.

The movie has a multilayered narrative. It expects a lot of competence from the viewer's side to make sense.

The cinematography is magical. A love letter, indeed.

The sound editing is fantastic. And performance? To quote from the movie "You were born for this role".

The film students and nerds "of the higher order" will certainly be busy breaking it down piece by piece and then pulling it together again to see what becomes of it. But the average viewer with expectations of good old thrills and jump scares are not going to be able to enjoy it to the end.

It is a movie that not only pays homage to the horror cinema of the late 60s and early 70s but attempts a critique with the purpose of turning movies of the yore inside out. Does it succeed? By large, Yes.

But the more important question is this: as an average viewer do you really want to witness this success?

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.

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.