Dawning is Rooted in Paranoia, Secrets, and Foreboding
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Dawning starts with an overdone premise: a group of people attacked in a cabin in the woods. However, it tries to be a bit different by focusing on psychological and cerebral horror.
Written by James “Crypticpsych” Lasome
July 3, 2011
Movie Trailer
Image Gallery
Release: June 28, 2011 (US DVD)
Directed by: Gregg Holtgrewe
Written by: Gregg Holtgrewe and Matthew Wilkins
Starring:
Jonas Goslow as Chris
Najarra Townsend as Aurora
Danny Salmen as The Man
David Coral as Richard
Christine Kellogg-Darrin as Laura
Brother and sister Chris and Aurora (Jonas Goslow and Najarra Townsend) are heading out to see their stepparents Richard and Laura (David Coral and Christine Kellogg-Darrin) in their cabin in the Minnesota wilderness. While they’re all seemingly happy to see each other, there’s palpable sense of unease and unspoken awkwardness between them in all their scenes. Still, they try to make the most of it, roasting marshmallows over a fire. Suddenly, Aurora’s dog runs off into the woods only to later be found injured and bleeding from an unknown force. While the group tries to figure out what happened to the animal, a strange man with blood on his hands (Danny Salmen) barrels into their cabin and holds them hostage, claiming they’ll all die if they leave. Is he just a crazy person? Or is there really something out in the woods that threatens to drive them all into insanity and death?
One of the things that can absolutely kill a movie is apathy. Dawning is a perfect example of this problem. The movie admittedly tries to be a little different from the standard “cabin in the woods killer” movie trope by making its killer more of an “unknown force” and focusing on the interplay of its actors. However, it falters by being initially slow-moving, having some uninspired performances, and never explaining its villain well enough.
The second half of Dawning is much better than the first. By this point “The Man” has arrived in the cabin and legitimate fear, tension, and paranoia are overtaking the group. Meanwhile, “The Force” has begun to make its presence known without ever being shown, thereby creating a sense of “it could be anywhere”. However, the “force” is only part of how the movie creates an atmosphere of creepiness. In addition, our cast of characters reacts to their situation by turning on each other, and the family breakdown and revelation of secrets causes much discomfort. As the situation deteriorates, the father’s past mistakes, the son’s distrust of his stepmother and more make it far more challenging for the people to deal with “The Man” and “The Force”, making the film overall that much more intense.
“The Force” would be even more effective if it were explained
better. In some ways, it seems to be able cause people to be more
aggressive and violent. After all, “The Man” claims he killed his
girlfriend because it had taken her, but it’s never fully clear
if he
did that of his own volition. Chris and Richard also tend to be angrier
and more hot-tempered, raising the question of whether “The Force”
lowers peoples’ inhibitions and releases their true feelings, an idea
also never fully established. There’s even a scene in which Richard
thinks he hears his wife make a remark about his alcoholism that she
vehemently denies, raising the question of whether “The Force” can
alter people’s perceptions and mimic sights and sounds, as in Pontypool
or The Ruins. If any of this were more clearly shown, the
creature would’ve probably worked far better than it already did.
The biggest problem with Dawning is the apathy that its first 20 minutes to half-hour creates. While Najarra Townsend’s “Aurora” is a pretty decent performance, the characters of Aurora and Chris themselves are never compelling enough early on, nor are Richard and Laura. The viewer just doesn’t get invested watching them reconnect after years apart. The characters also don’t seem to make much sense, comparably with the rest of the movie. For a short while it appears that Aurora and Chris are a couple, not stepsiblings. Richard and Laura are oddly sinister and awkward around their stepchildren in the beginning, raising the possibility that they might be the villains. While it is easier to get engaged as the film goes on, the lack of a connection initially dooms the overall experience.
Overall, Dawning is admirable for its attempt to put a new spin on the “cabin-in-the-woods” archetype. However, while its unseen villain is interesting and its character conflicts are engaging, the film never recovers from a slow start and a lack of clarity in the nature of said villain. Gregg Holtgrewe definitely shows potential here… he just needs to work on his storytelling abilities a bit more.
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