SpuffyWeb
Sadly Over-hyped
CrawlerChunky
In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.
Doomtomylo
a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.
Hadrina
The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful
bbickley13-921-58664
Dead Before Dawn turned out to be a good Zombie film. The movie tries to be real cute pointing out how stupid some horror plots can be by coming up with a real stupid one. Although technically a good Zombie movie does not need an explanation to why Zombies exist, especially if you have a good gang of characters in the movie which this one does. I noticed a Former Power Ranger playing the best friend of the main character. Christopher Lloyd is in the picture for a small while giving a decent comedic performance. I guest the best part of the movie is that it gave us the Zemon, a half Demon half Zombie hybrid. I doubt it's going to be a contender for the next big horror movie monster, but it was a funny idea. Dead before Dawn is nothing to write home to your mother about but it was a fun 90mins for me. I almost wish I lived in Canada so I could have seen it in 3D.
suite92
Casper has a traumatic experience as a child at his grandfather's curio shop. He still has nightmares during college. A particular vessel drops, his father catches it, and his father is transformed for the worse by it.Casper is more than a bit on the wimpish side. He agrees to mind the curio shop "Occult Barn" for his grandfather while the grandfather receives a lifetime award. His friends drop by, and he lets them handle the vessel; this is something his grandfather explicitly forbid. One of his friends drops the vessel and it breaks.The lights go out. The group makes up a curse, in great detail, then say they are done with the curse's rules. The lights come back on. The group agree to meet later to test it out.So, if someone in the group looks directly into someone else's eyes after 10 pm, the targets kills themselves, then return as a mixture of demon and zombie, or zemon. Unless they reverse the curse before dawn, the group itself will be cursed.That evening, the number of mysterious deaths mount, but many of the 'dead' do not stay dead. The group re-assembles, realises that they are in deep trouble, then arm themselves. They go back to the Occult Barn, and tell Horus about the incident and the curse. Unfortunately, they look Horus in the eyes, and he kills himself.Will the group be able to use Horus' book to reverse the curse? Will anybody in town be left as a normal human? -----Scores-----Cinematography: 5/10 Better than VHS quality, but not by much. The SFX vary from mediocre to poor.Sound: 6/10 I could hear the actors' voices and the incidental music, some of which was appropriate for a zombie comedy.Acting: 3/10 Weak. The three is mostly for Christopher Lloyd's short performance.Screenplay: 2/10 Boring, not funny, not engaging. The central idea of the curse was beyond stupid.
gavin6942
A bunch of college kids accidentally unleash an evil curse that causes people to kill themselves and turn into Zombie Demons, also known as Zemons! Apparently this received mixed and negatives reviews from the critics, even the regular horror folks (Dread Central and Bloody Disgusting). I have to say I liked it more than they did, and while it may not have had much originality, it had some good jokes -- did no one appreciate the "Wicker Man" joke? And, of course, just having Christopher Lloyd in such a prominent role makes this worth watching, in my opinion. He was great, probably the best comedy role he has had in many years.
last_in_line
I saw the trailer for this and it looked like a decent movie. The review at UHM says that this movie is an example of a movie whose trailer is better than the movie itself. The trailer did it's job for me. I watched the movie. The movie itself wasn't that great.This movie is what a horror movie would be like if Nickelodeon made horror movies. Not that the language and content are squeaky clean or anything but the overall tone is quite silly which makes it hard to take the movie seriously.There were a couple of chuckle moments for me in the dialogue department but the idea of the movie falls flat. The zombie demons, or "zemons" as they call them, aren't trying to kill anyone which pretty much tells you all you need to know.Parts of the movie seem like they were written as sketch comedy show segments. Although entertaining, it just made this movie not for me.I give this movie a 4 out of 10 due to the few chuckles I had and Christopher Lloyd. If you're looking for a horror comedy on par with Shawn of the Dead, look elsewhere.