''Dawn Breaks Behind the Eyes'' () is a 2021 German

mystery Mystery, The Mystery, Mysteries or The Mysteries may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional characters *Mystery, a cat character in ''Emily the Strange'' Films * ''Mystery'' (2012 film), a 2012 Chinese drama film * ''Mystery'' ( ...

horror film directed by Kevin Kopacka and starring Anna Platen,

Jeff Wilbusch Jeff Wilbusch (born Iftach Wilbuschewitz, 14 November 1987) is an Israeli-German actor. Early life and education Wilbusch was born on 14 November 1987 in Haifa, Israel. He grew up in the Hasidic Jewish Satmar community of Mea Shearim, Jerusale ...

, Luisa Taraz and Frederik von Lüttichau. It pays homage to European

Gothic Horror Gothic fiction, sometimes called Gothic horror in the 20th century, is a loose literary aesthetic of fear and haunting. The name is a reference to Gothic architecture of the European Middle Ages, which was characteristic of the settings of ea ...

and psychedelic films of the 1960s and

1970s File:1970s decade montage.jpg, Clockwise from top left: U.S. President Richard Nixon doing the V for Victory sign after his resignation from office following the Watergate scandal in 1974; The United States was still involved in the Vietnam War ...

. It premiered at FrightFest 2021 in London.

Synopsis

Dieter and Margot Menliff, in an unhappy marriage, visit an old castle that Margot has just inherited. When they arrive, Dieter explores the basement, while Margot examines the rest of the castle. Dieter sees something in the cellar that causes him to drop his keys and flee. Margot has a vision in a dusty mirror. Halfway through the film, a second couple, Eva Ziehnagel and Gregor Grause, is introduced.

Cast

* Anna Platen as Eva Ziehnagel *

as Gregor Grause * Frederik von Lüttichau as Dieter Menliff & Klaus Moltke * Luisa Taraz as Margot Menliff & Lilith Tarenbach

Production

The film was written in 2017 and shot in May 2018 over the course of 23 days at the castle Herrenhaus Vogelsang in Lalendorf,

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. The film was completely self financed by the director. The director noted that the first cut of the movie ran over 140 minutes, whereas the final cut has a running time of 74 minutes.

Release

The film had its theatrical world premiere at FrightFest in

London, England London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a major s ...

on 28 August 2021. It was additionally shown at numerous festivals including Panic Fest in the United States,

Sydney Film Festival The Sydney Film Festival is an annual competitive film festival held in Sydney, Australia, usually over 12 days in June. A number of awards are given, the top one being the Sydney Film Prize. the festival's director is Nashen Moodley. Histo ...

in Australia, HARD:LINE Film Festival in Germany,

Chattanooga Film Festival The Chattanooga Film Festival (CFF) is an annual film festival that takes place in Chattanooga, Tennessee. It was chosen in 2019, 2020 and 2021 as one of the "30 Best Genre Film Fests in the World" by ''MovieMaker''. History The Chattanooga Film ...

in the United States, the Calgary Underground Film Festival in Canada, and the Buenos Aires Rojo Sangre film festival in

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

, where it won the awards for Best

Feature film A feature film or feature-length film is a narrative film (motion picture or "movie") with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole presentation in a commercial entertainment program. The term ''feature film'' originall ...

and Best

Cinematography Cinematography (from ancient Greek κίνημα, ''kìnema'' "movement" and γράφειν, ''gràphein'' "to write") is the art of motion picture (and more recently, electronic video camera) photography. Cinematographers use a lens to foc ...

. During its festival run the film won 12 awards, including 6 wins for Best Feature Film. It was released theatrically and on VOD in the United States on 24 June 2022, courtesy of

Dark Sky Films MPI Media Group is an American producer, distributor and licensor of theatrical film and home entertainment. MPI's subsidiaries include MPI Pictures, MPI Home Video, Gorgon Video, and the horror film distributor Dark Sky Films. The company is lo ...

and got released on the streaming platform Shudder on January 9, 2023.

Critical response

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film currently has an approval rating of 100% based on reviews from 19 critics, with an average rating of 7.5/10. Meagan Navarro of Bloody Disgusting called it a "sumptuous visual feast" and a "gorgeous, ethereal movie full of surprising twists that deftly shift genres". Erik Piepenburg of

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

wrote, "I enjoyed being visually dazzled by the film’s throupling of Eurosleaze gore, sexual psychodramatics (the castration scene is a doozy) and pastiche design. Fans of Mario Bava’s Gothic melodramas will be in heaven." Phuong Le of

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

gave the film 3 out of 5 stars, noting that "Dawn Breaks Behind the Eyes will be an acquired taste, but for fans of the genre, it has the potential of becoming a cult favourite." Mel Valentin of

Screen Anarchy Screen Anarchy, previously known as Twitch Film or Twitch, is a Canadian English-language website featuring news and reviews of mainly international, independent and cult films. The website was founded in 2004 by Todd Brown. In addition to films, ...

wrote, "Dawn Breaks Behind the Eyes (...) is an elegantly directed, impressively realized, ultra-stylish homage to ‘60s and ‘70s Euro-Gothic horror". He characterizes the conflict between Dieter and Margot as one of patriarchy and feminism, while explaining that Eva and Gregor represent the same conflict in a less violent form. Valentin commends the "series of retina-burning images and impressively staged set pieces" created by Kopacka and Dolgner. Despite noting that a "limited budget" leading to a short runtime causes some of the style and ideas to "slip into near incoherence or unintelligibility", Valentin hopes that Kopacka will direct his next film "sooner rather than later." Sharai Bohannon of Dread Central commented extensively on the chaotic, hallucinogenic nature of the film, writing, "more of an experience than a film, Dawn Breaks Behind the Eyes is so beautiful, chaotic, and bizarre that you can’t but tip your hat to it." Kat Hughes of The Hollywood News wrote that Dawn Breaks Behind the Eyes is "a technical masterpiece made even richer by a compelling narrative." Both Bohannon and Hughes praised the film's sound design.

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, tt8518302 German horror films German independent films 2021 horror films 2021 films 2021 independent films