Generally, I try to avoid reviewing on movies that have been covered recently by other bloggers I read. But in the case of Dawn Breaks Behind The Eyes, I just had to echo some of Film Miasma’s sentiments. Cuz ugh.

Just. Ugh.

To be fair, I normally take some perverse, impish delight in awful movies. Self-aware awfulness along the lines of Manos: The Hands Of Fate or Sharknado is always welcome here in Castle Blogferatu.

However, the less self-aware a movie is in its awfulness, the better. Y’know, movies like I Eat Your Skin or Mesa Of Lost Women or, I dunno, I’m Thinking Of Ending Things.

Just. Ugh.

And that, true believers, brings us to Dawn Breaks Behind The Eyes. First off, do not trust the synopsis on Tubi: “After inheriting a run-down castle, a dispirited woman and her ill-tempered husband decide to spend the night as time and reality shift around them.”

No. That isn’t even close to what happens. Would ’twere. That might have developed into something at least marginally interesting. Not new or anything, but interesting.

Reelgood’s is more accurate: “A couple spend eternity in a castle until their reality starts to shift, as the unknown moves into their lives.”

Okay, it should be “spends eternity.” Moving on. And they don’t since eternity is, y’know, eternal. Moving on. And if you’re spending eternity in a castle, your reality started shifting long ago. Moving on.

Turns out that Eva (Anna Platen) and Gregor (Jeff Wilbusch) are, in fact, spirits trapped in this castle (i.e. big damn house). It’s quickly established that Eva has the artistic eye and is the brains of the outfit. That doesn’t say as much as one might think.

I don’t want to delve any further into the trainwreck intricacies of the plot in deference to those of you what ain’t seen it yet. I will say that the two main male characters are insufferable pricks. Of the two main female characters, Lilith (Luisa Taraz) is, well she’s fine. Ersatz final girl Anna Platen is more or less the strongest feature in the whole shebang. That doesn’t say as much as one might think.

Oh, and there’s a big ol’ party complete with a big ol’ acid trip. I’m not sure what Kopacka was going for here, but I’m confident he didn’t hit the mark. Mainly it comes off as a tedious attempt at a bad Gaspar Noé impersonation. All of this comes to a head, of sorts, with a predictable plot twist that may or may not be a plot twist complete with an ambiguous resolution.

Me, I’m all for ambiguity, but letting your plot fizzle out like a damp sparkler isn’t the same thing. The end of, say, The Swimmer (which I loathe, but still), that’s ambiguity. The ending of Dawn Breaks Behind The Eyes (which sounds like a line from Romantic like Byron, but I can’t find it as a quote anywhere), that’s just indecision.

Here’s a couple of quotes which, taken together, reflect how all-over-the-place this movie is:

“Dawn Breaks Behind the Eyes may not have as much to say as you might hope, but what it does it recites with an enthralling elegance” (Richard Whittaker, The Austin Chronicle). No, it didn’t have as much to say as I hoped, nor anything else for that matter. And I missed the “enthralling elengance.” Whittaker also throws around names like Rollin and Bava, but I’m just not tracing the lineage.

“Cult status beckons for Euro horror homage” (Phuong Le, The Guradian). No. It doesn’t. Le goes on, like Whittaker, to tout the 70s Euro horrorness of Dawn. Again, I’m just not seeing it, certainly not in the same vein as, say, Berberian Sound Studio. Le also tosses in “giallo,” and wowzers is this not anywhere close (well, except for maybe the title with it’s Let’s Scare Jessica To Death font).

I will draw one connection 70s connection, but it’s American and closer to folk horror, and that’s George Barry’s 1977 Death Bed: The Bed That Eats. If Dawn Breaks Behind The Eyes has any thread back to the 70s, it’s the spirits trapped in the dwelling place of each movie, and the spirits’ occasional interactions with and observation about their haunts. That’s it, and it’s a reach.

And so, we here in the Castle have to side with Film Miasma on this one.

SKULLS- 1.5