Dawna the Dead Review

Distributor: Film Trauma Edition Details: Standard DVD Movie Specs: Genres: Feature Film, Horror Also known as: Dawna of the Dead Run Time: 71 minutes Rated: XXX Release Year: 2010 Director: Laume Conroy Written by: Laume Conroy Cast: Zoe Matthews (as Zoe Mathews), Aiden Starr, Gwen Fox (as Gwen Foxxx), Roxy, Ginger Cash, Drake Pharaoh, Justin Case, Ben Dover, Michael Hunt, Joseph Mama, Chupa Pito, Philip Baker (as Phil Baker), Joe Miles, Alexxx Le Dez, Katt Morrison, Laume Conroy Release Specs: Audio: English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Subtitles: none Video: Widescreen, 1.78:1 (anamorphic) Video Format: NTSC Format: DVD Regional Code (for DVD/Blu-ray): 0 (All) Number of discs: 1

Dawna the Dead is an attempt at a horror porn movie, which manages to fail on every level. The minimal plot has Dawna (Zoe Matthews) and her friend Anne (Aiden Starr) going to Eveningside Cemetery where Dawna's boyfriend is buried to use a spirit board to talk to him and apparently throw a party. Eveningside Cemetery is apparently the 6th gate, of 9, to the Kingdom of Hell and the dead return to life.

The plot in Dawna the Dead is minimal, even for an adult movie. A brief bit of text in the beginning gives us the part about the gates. A brief plotted portion in the beginning set why Dawna and Anne are going to the cemetery. Another brief potion explains additional arrivals. That is all the plot that exists in the movie. For a horror movie, having essentially no plot works against the movie. For the most part after the brief opening the movie becomes an all sex movie. Most of the “horror” takes place off screen with a scream.

The sex is a waste too. The zombies, for the most part, wear cheap masks and gloves with tattered clothes. Having cheap zombies having sex with people is not a turn on. The sex scenes are poorly done, we are given the impression that the zombies are raping the women, which doesn't make for an erotic scene. On top of that, with the exception of some stock screams, for the most part the women appear to be enjoying themselves. Also, throwing in some fake blood effects into the scenes is an additional eroticism killer.

The technical aspects of the movie are rather bad as well. The majority of the movie is shot on a small soundstage. Dim lighting is used to attempt to hide that, but doesn't work as it is obvious that there isn't much to the set. In addition the same set location is used repeatedly through the movie. The dim lighting makes it hard to see at times. To compensate, the cast is often overlit as well making for a glare coming off of flesh.

Sadly, there really isn't much to enjoy with this movie. The plot is essentially non-existent. With the exception of one brief moment, the horror is completely missing. The sex scenes are not at all erotic. And the technical aspects are lacking.

Dawna the Dead is a hard film to rate the presentation of as it has been intentionally marred to look old, so one has to assume that it looks the way that it was intended to. The film is presented in anamorphic widescreen and the picture has “grain” and “print damage.” It looks like Dawna the Dead was shot on video so all of these “defects” were added in post production. The film is presented with a Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround track which works fine for the material being presented. As with the video, the audio track has been intentionally marred to seem old with “pops” and “crackles” present. Several extras are included on the release. There is an interview with Zoe Matthews and Aiden Starr, which is a roughly three minute fluff piece. There is a roughly five and one-half minute theatrical premiere featurette with interviews with some of the cast and outgoing viewers. There is a roughly seven minute behind the scenes and blooper reel. The original trailer for the movie is included. There is a photo and art gallery with production stills, an advertising gallery, and photos of the premiere screening. While all these extras sound good, most honestly end up being unnecessary fluff that seem to try to sell one on how great the movie is but at least they tried.

Dawna the Dead tries to be a feature horror movie and an all sex movie all at the same time and ends up failing at both. I am not sure who the intended audience is for the movie as it seems to fall flat in all areas.

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