Reviewed by Kevin Scott, MoreHorror.com
Dead Before Dawn (2012)
Directed by: April Mullen
Written by: Tim Doiron
Cast: Devon Bostick (Casper Galloway), Martha MacIsaac (Charlotte Baker), Christopher Lloyd (Horace Galloway), Brittany Allen (Lucy Winthrop), Brandon Jay McLaren (Dazzle Darlington), Kyle Schmid (Patrick Bishop), Tim Doiron (Seth Munday)
Curiosity got the best of me for this one. After seeing it on the shelves in DVD form, I noticed that it was streaming on Netflix. “Awesome!” I thought. I can check it out without further monetary commitment, and if I like it, I can buy the DVD copy. I guess it’s kind of like calling it back after a hook up, except no one gets their feelings hurt. Even better. What I really noticed about “Dead Before Dawn” was Devon Bostick. He’s a really familiar face at my house as the completely douchy older brother in the “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” films. These are some of the few family films that the parents can find hysterically funny too. They saved us from watching “Flicka” for the fiftieth time. So right away, I feel like I owe Devin Bostick a solid by being as objective as possible when watching a film where he is nothing like the character that I’ve seen him play the most. He’s not completely out of his comfort zone, he’s been in a zombie film before. You may have heard of it, “Survival of the Dead”. That was a film that I desperately wanted to like, but had to come to the realization that it’s the Superman IV of the “Dead” series. “Dead Before Dawn” is way less serious, and played for laughs more so than social commentary, so it’s apples and oranges.
Casper is the awkward college student with dreams of hooking up with the nice popular girl Charlotte. He has the usual platonic girlfriend that refreshingly doesn’t carry a torch for him, but has her own thing going on with a teacher’s assistant, that also surprisingly is not a narc for everyone else. He also has the crazy stereotypical friend created by the Robert Downey Jr. character in “Back to School”. He is being raised his mother alone, as most adolescent horror heroes are, but has a crazy grandpa, played be Christopher Lloyd doing an impression of Christopher Lloyd. I’m always glad to see him anyway.
Casper’s granddad runs an occult shop that harbors a vase with the ashes of an evil spirit. If the vase is broken, the spirit is released, and an unholy curse is let loose. While filling in for Gramps, Capser shows it off to his friends, the nice hot girl, and her tool boyfriend. After years of residing on a really high and rickety shelf, the vase gets broken, and the curse is unleashed. No one takes it seriously, and improvs the rules if the curse was real. Turns out that they unwittingly set the actual rules. If they make eye contact with anyone. That person kills themselves, and comes back as a zemon (half zombie and half demon). Every time the term “zemon” was used, it made me think of a refreshing alcoholic beverage alternative to beer. They also have to stop it before dawn or they are damned forever.
This is not going to quench the horror sophisticate’s thirst, but as a yuck fest zombie comedy, it works. Speaking of Devon Bostick, I let my kids watch this one with me, and they had fun. I did too, and only had to explain a few bad words.