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Cast: Renee Willner, Bridget Neval, Dawn Klingberg, Danny Alder, Taryn Eva, Mark Taylor, Peter Stratford
When young Claire (Renee Willner) ignores her dying grandmother's warning not to meddle with the power of the banshee who shuttles souls to the afterlife, the angry spirit unleashes a terrible cry that causes the dead to rise from their graves and walk the earth. Can Claire save herself before the marauding corpses condemn her body and soul to hell?
I was looking forward to checking this one out since the quote on the box-art claimed it was like the "Evil Dead 4", I can tell you it contained the same time of fun horror in it but what I found was a much more serious horror film than I expected which I was glad to see. The story is about Claire O'Neill who travels with her boyfriend Paul back to the old family estate where she grew up to visit her dying grandmother. At first everything else normal but when her grandmother begins telling her a disturbing tale of a banshee who will come for her when she dies things begin to get a little strange. That night Claire awakens to frightening screams. Before they know it the family is being attacked by the banshee herself and a legion of walking dead that her scream has awakened. When the grandmother is taken a search party goes out to find her but one by one they meet their end in some gruesome ways. The film does at times have the playfulness of the "Evil Dead" but I thought it stood well on it's own as a creepy little supernatural horror flick with good special effects, some good gore and a cast that does an excellent job in carrying the film inbetween the action and gore. The film had a very creepy atmosphere and at times some nice tension and suspense, this is a horror film that is sure to keep you at the edge of your seat the entire time. "Damned by Dawn" is one of the more enjoyable horror films I have seen in some time and it is nice to see one with an R rating because after all that is what true fans really want.
A highly entertaining scare-fest that is sure to please all fans of the genre. Finally someone got it right, this is the feature film debut for Director, Brett Anstey, but something tells me it will not be his last. He certainly has an eye for creating a fast-paced, creepy horror film. The DVD and Blu-ray both come with Special Features that include:
Audio Commentary
Making-Of Featurette
Trailer
Released by Image Entertainment
**** Out Of *****