‘Demons at Dawn’ Review
Stars: Dani Thompson, Amber Doig-Thorne, Bill Victor Arucan, Stacy Johnson, John Altman, Andy Gatenby, William ‘Bill’ Connor, Chris Sanders, Crystal J. Huang, Ben Silver, Hans Hernke, Michael Della Pia | Written by Chris Sanders | Directed by Randy Kent
Based on the artwork that accompanied the original crowdfunding campaign for this film, I was expecting something of an Italian horror inspired British-lensed horror… After all the title referenced one of the most famous Italian horrors of the 80s and the artwork gave me House by the Cemetery vibes – it also looked a LOT like the old VHS artwork for Sorority House Massacre… All of which got me very excited to see what Demons at Dawn had in store.
I shouldn’t have got so excited.
Demons at Dawn opens with what turns out to be a wraparound segment that is totally unrelated to the main portion of the film. That “prologue” sees criminal Jed (Michael Della Pia) taken out of prison by ChaoFeng (Crystal J. Huang) after botching his last job. ChaoFeng takes him to meet the rest of the “crew” to face the consequences of his failure. During the meeting the story of Mickey Santini (Ben Silver) is recalled to all in attendance, and it’s THAT story that makes up the majority of the film.
Though it’s not much of a story… Mickey is blackmailed into taking one last job and is sent to a remote country estate in the heart of the English countryside to carry out a hit. During his mission, he uncovers an elite Satanic cult that uses human sacrifice to summon demons. Well, I say summon demons but our satanic cult ARE the demons, they transform willy-nilly through the wonderful use of rubber masks and bad CGI!
OK, OK, I can forgive bad effects – especially when there are other gore effects in the film that are pretty good. What I can’t forgive is a film that actually has ZERO story beyond the simple plot of “man goes to a location, gets attacked by Satanists.” That is all there is to Demons at Dawn, there’s no substance to proceedings at all, no real motivation for our protagonist or the villain he faces. The bad guys are bad guys, that’s it, and the fact they turn into demons is actually of little consequence!
I mentioned in the intro how this film’s original artwork reminded me of Italian horror of the 80s but it’s more than that. Said artwork, back in the day, would entice people to rent what they expect to be a creepy supernatural horror, and then folks would watch the film and be utterly disappointed. And that’s Demons at Dawn in a nutshell, it’s utterly disappointing.
Demons at Dawn will be available on digital platforms on October 28th 2022.
