Movie Review: Dawning (2009)

By Travis G.

Director: Gregg Holtgrewe

Director Gregg Holtgrewe manages to scrape up some more funds to remake one of his previous films in Breaking Glass Pictures' release of Dawning. Two siblings head out to the woods in Minnesota to visit their dad and their step mom. Right from the beginning the films sets ups that that not everything is rosey and chipper with this family. It doesn’t take long for family tensions mount. If that wasn’t bad enough they realize something more sinister is at work outside the house that makes the families personal demons look like poofy poodles.

Buy Dawning [Blu-Ray] or DVD

My name is Travis, and I’m a Horror fan. Like most Horror fans, I’m very set in my ways. I know what kind of horror films I like and I know what kind of horror films I don’t like. There are things I expect in my horror films however with that being said, I’m still very open. For me a psychological thriller are not a favorable thing. While there is an exception to every case most psychological thrillers to me are boring blab fests that set up a bunch of unexplained events that are all wrapped up by some stinky ending that tries to be all thought provoking, leaving me to realize that I clearly should of watched something else.

In this case, I unfortunately was right. Even at a mere 81 minutes this film is way to long. An hour into this film I was more than done ,This wasn’t a nice slow burn like THE HOUSE OF THE DEVIL (which I very much enjoyed by the way) where even though you don’t know what’s really happening but you’re forced to watch. I will admit not showing what is happening is much more scary than showing what’s happening. After an hour not one death so far (except for a dog) and absolutely nothing to keep me interested.

With this being an Independent film it isn’t expected to have great acting ,there is some forced dialogue but none of this bothers me. If you’re going this way with the story, have a big ending that rewards the viewer and not an abrupt ending that leaves you with more questions than before like “Why did I just watch this film?”

As for the “shocking and disturbing end” it never came. However with that being said even though I didn’t like this, The Dawning has won awards at various film festivals and tends to more liked rather than disliked among critics. The big thing with this film is that you’re either going to like it or hate it, with no middle ground.