Dawn Breaks Behind The Eyes
Dawn Breaks Behind The Eyes
Dawn Breaks Behind The Eyes (Fractured Visions) 2021
Part skewed love/hate story, part homage to the gory horror cinema of the 1970’s, director Kevin Kopacka’s ‘Dawn Breaks Behind The Eyes’ is a quirky play-within-a-play that delivers the shivers and takes you into a trippy realm you’re sure you didn’t sign up for.
A professional couple, the frosty, sharp-tongued Dieter (Frederik von Luttichau) and dreamy Margot (Luisa Taraz) arrive at a large, run-down mansion Margot has inherited, and which polarizes opinion from the start. Margot wants to move into this shabby pile immediately; Dieter’s first thought is how much money they could get for it. The antagonistic couple barely exchange a civil word as they wander through the house, Dieter mentally calculating the value by the square metre, Margot recalling an unlikely happy childhood there spent. It isn’t long before phantom figures are glimpsed in passing, the cellar is revealed to hold a dark secret and the couple’s unhappy marriage reaches crisis point. The discovery of a locked chest yields up a variety of memorabilia and a bullwhip, taken up enthusiastically by Dieter. The bloody and highly original conclusion of this part will be hard to forget, especially by gentlemen in the audience.
Studio lights go on, the film crew are revealed, the actors are congratulated on their performances, and what follows is a trippy, orgiastic wrap party. Director Gregor (Jeff Wilbusch) and script girl Eva (Anna Platen) are an interesting reflection of Dieter and Margot in this first remove from the central story, although the fast-moving action of this part doesn’t let them develop the characters to the same extent as the two actors. Next morning, the party may be over, but the horror isn’t. In scenes reminiscent of the kind of excesses realised in the erotic British horrors of the 1970’s, strange, dark spirits possess the company and wreak havoc in the crumbling house.
Dawn Breaks Behind the Eyes is a must for horror fans, especially those with a love for vintage shivers and traditional, gory story telling.
Out theatrically 2nd December, coming to Home Ent. February 2023.
Scenester
4/12/22
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dO7tM-_NFzw&feature=youtu.be
