Lulu (Drew Lindsey Mitchell) just wants to go to a Halloween party with her boyfriend Shane (Bobby Slaski), instead the two get in a fight and she leaves into a hurry, still wearing her Red Riding Hood costume, and gets into the wrong cab ...

Dylan (Kelcey Watson) just wants to blow his brains out in his cabin in the woods when he gets distracted by pleas for help and finds a bloodied up Lulu on his doorstep and lets her in. Soon enough, two men, Neil (Bo Burroughs) and Chad (Timothy Muskatell), and a woman, Snack (Jamie Bernadette), knock on his door and ask Dylan to release Lulu to him, but he's quick to realize there's something fishy about their request, and since he's still holding onto the gun from his aborted suicide, they're quick to back off - but put the house under siege. From Lulu, Dylan learns that the three have been sexually abusing her, and of course would do anything to get her back. Now inside the cabin they'll be safe for a while of course, but not forever, and Dylan's ammonition for his gun's only very limited. And all they have to fall back upon is the journal of Dylan's deceased daughter (Skylar Dominique) detailing how to booby-trap a house in case of a zombie apocalypse. This is of course better than nothing - but not much better, since their opponents are a ruthless bunch ...

True, Dead by Dawn doesn't re-invent the wheel, and in its premise it's reminiscent of a whole bunch of backwoods and home invasion thrillers from predominantly the 1970s - but the film does what it does extremely well: It creates maximum tension rather early and then never lets loose, it doesn't shy away from violence, its villains are properly ruthless - but it's also well-crafted, carefully structured to really build up to a finale rather than just numb the viewer with an onslaught of brutality, and it features interesting characters and character arcs. And of course a strong ensemble cast also helps in making this a really cool genre movie.

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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