Soho Horror Film Fest 2025 Coverage
Dead by Dawn review
A stylish giallo homage.
Festival movie reviews will not contain spoilers.
Dead by Dawn
Directed by Dawid Torrone
Written by Dawid Torrone
Starring Sylwia Boron, Paulina Zwierz, Monika Frajcyk, Piotr Nerlewski, Lukasz Szczepanowski, Adam Machalia and Pascal Fischer
Dead by Dawn Review
Unlike most features at this year’s Soho Horror Film Fest…Dead by Dawn was only accompanied by one short film. It came with a brief introduction from the director. Prom Party Massacre is exactly what it sounds like. With music. It’s a musical short about a massacre that occurs at a post prom party. Context clues probably gave that away before you read it. It adheres to slasher movie tropes delivering a quick fix for fans of the genre. The music wasn’t the best you’ve ever heard but there is a full slasher narrative complete with a whodunnit payoff in the end. There’s even a 50s greaser like character that pops up at one point. An underrated staple of the slasher genre.
A slasher short was a fine fit for Dead by Dawn…which, itself, is a slasher movie. People can quibble over the classification but a masked killer stalking and murdering a group of young people in a remote location…that’s a slasher movie. Unlike the fast paced Prom Party Massacre, Dead by Dawn operates much more slowly. It aims for style and the spilling of substances more than the quick thrill. If you think I’ve just described a giallo film…I probably have.
A group of actors head to the abandoned Heissenhoff theater to rehearse a play. A man wearing a mask that looks like it’s made out of eyeballs is, fittingly, watching their every move. When they begin to be picked off one by one…the survivors must band together to try and survive the night.
That is as slasher a plot as slasher plots get. Dead by Dawn ties everything into the occult and it ends with a bloody ritual…but it’s mostly a slasher movie. It’s a pretty effective one at times too. Stylish is the best word I can use to describe it. Slow stalking with bloody flourishes is the name of this game. Which, when done well, is quite fun. Dead by Dawn does those parts well.
There are, however, some issues that pop up. The setting is a great one. It offers plenty of space for some beautifully shot scenes. We never get a good understanding of the layout of the place though. The characters are colorful enough to distinguish from one another. We never delve very deep into any of them though. It’s an odd recurring theme for a movie that takes itself seriously enough to provide some of the most interesting shots you’ll find in the genre. Things (and people) look great at first glance…but they end up feeling hallow and empty when all is said and done.
Dead by Dawn does have a worthwhile destination if you stick with it. Things get pretty dark in the end…a fitting way to close out the atmospheric tale that precedes it. The movie begins with an exorcist being hanged on a stage…and it ends with some of that occult ritual I mentioned before. In between, we have the slasher movie. Characters we don’t know all that well run for their lives and those lives are snuffed out before too long. It doesn’t take them long to realize something is wrong…which is refreshing. The story even throws in a character who has visions that may be able to help them…leaning into a supernatural take that the ending will double down on.
Dead by Dawn is divided into several chapters but those markers feel fairly arbitrary. Another style choice that doesn’t actually end up meaning much of anything. Still, the giallo style pacing is capped with bloody finishes…and that’s what fans of the subgenre will be looking for. The best giallo films create a hypnotic atmosphere. Despite some shortchanging of characters and setting…Dead by Dawn accomplishes that.
Scare Value
Dead by Dawn is the kind of movie you will probably only watch once…but you’ll enjoy it while you do. While you won’t regret the meal…there isn’t enough meat on the bone to draw you back for a second serving. This is a stylish movie that knows when to hold for the suspense and when to pour on the blood. I wish we had more connection to the characters…or understood the layout of the building they’re stuck in…but I can’t deny how effective some of the film’s choices are. Throw in a memorable ending and you have yourself a dark ride worth taking. Once.
