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Siblings Chris (Jonas Goslow) and Aurora (Najarra Townsend) have taken
it upon themselves to visit their father (David Coral) and his second wife
Laura (Christine Kellogg-Darrin) in their cabin in the woods for the
weekend - which promises to become a conflict-laden time as it is, since
the relationship of the kids to their dad is strained ever since he left
them and their mother for Laura, and he doesn't exactly approve of what
the kids have made of their lives, neither ... while at the same time he
pretends to be a reformed alcoholic but hides a liquor bottle under his
bed. Everything gets much worse though when a stranger (Daniel Jay
Salmen) bursts into the cabin, first tries to attack them, and when he's
overpowered and all tied up, he tells them about something that's out
there, that killed his girlfriend, and that's now coming after all of
them. Slowly, the family comes to the conclusion there must be some truth
to what the stranger says. Problem is whatever it is is not only not
human, it isn't even solid but some form of evil mindcontrol that preys on
the family's weaknesses, like dad's alcoholism, Chris's fear of guns and
Aurora's love for dogs, and one after the other, whatever-it-is lures the
family out of the house and ... suffice to say the film doesn't end
happily. Dawning is a pretty clever film, clever
inasmuch as it strips its own concept - a family, threatened by evil -
down to the bones and does not waste any time with stupid explanations
concerning the cause of the threat - which of course helps the film's
atmosphere immensely, since this way the story's emphasis is firmly put on
the situation at hand rather than distracted by people talking everything
to death. Thsi goes hand-in-hand with Gregg Holtgrewe's direction that
leaves much in the dark, literally, in order to not distract the viewer'S
attention. All that said, Dawning has its flaws as well:
Basically, the whole torn family subplot sounds a little too much like
something out of a soap opera to work 100%. This aspect of the film should
have been treated with a little more subtlety, and should probably have
been given a bit less room in the movie. But that said, the cast is
uniformly pretty competent in bringing their roles across at least. What
we're ultimately left with is a pretty decent movie - with room for
improvement.
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