Main cast: Caitlyn Fletcher (Jamie), Josh Server (Howard Phillips), Hannah Strasser (Maggie), Gregg Christie (Stephen), Dee Wallace (Annie), Jonathan Stoddard (Neal), Gabrielle Stone (Lana), Chris Levine (Ron), Lovlee Carroll (Emma), Courtney Gains (Dr Hewitt), and Vernon Wells (Zed)
Director: Pablo Macho Maysonet IV
As someone always on the look for cosmic horror flicks, I have heard of how Await the Dawn won 11 awards in the MMXX Foreman Empire Productions International Film Festival 2020. Okay, I’ve never heard of that film festival, but no matter, nothing some online search-fu can’t fix… wait, their Facebook has 855 followers. Okay, nobody actively uses Facebook these days, so how about their website.
*PLEASE NOTE, THE MORE CATEGORIES YOU SUBMIT YOUR FILM INTO, THE MORE YOU WILL STANDOUT. MULTIPLE WINS IN MULTIPLE CATEGORIES ARE POSSIBLE*
Well. That sounds like an elite, prestigious award alright.
On a more serious note, I can’t imagine why someone would give this movie so many awards because it’s just so… underwhelming.
Don’t be fooled by some of the more recognizable names on the credits. Only Dee Wallace has a considerable role here. Vernon Wells has a cameo, his character showing up basically to be killed off and let Mr Wells collect his check, and Bruce Davison’s role is an even smaller blink or you’ll miss him appearance. Courtney Gains’s character doesn’t stay long as well. The main cast comprises mostly barely-a-name types, in other words.
In this one, scientist Howard Phillips from Miskatonic University—that’s director and screenwriter Pablo Macho Maysonet IV letting his inner fanboy fly—is on the run from the menacing monster in little girl form, Maggie, with a mysterious device in his possession. You see, his research led him to use the device to take a peek into the afterlife, only to let that thing eventually known as Maggie to come into our world inside. Maggie wants that device, naturally.
Meanwhile, Annie and her husband Stephen bring their family on a road trip. You see, Jamie is a recovering junkie still experiencing severe withdrawals, and the family for some reason believe that bringing the sullen young lady and her psychiatrist Dr Hewitt out and about will be a great idea. After all, we all know that being stuck together for hours in a confined space will definitely bring people closer together! Jamie blames her mother for driving away her junkie father and marrying her stepfather Stephen, her brother Neal thinks she’s just being dramatic and he also can’t stand his ex, Jamie’s good friend Lana, and oh, these two are keeping their history from Jamie just because. See? Putting all of these together in a cramped RV will bring them all together as a family!
As you can guess, Howard shows up with a gun to order them to drive him as far as possible from town, because really, when you want to make a quick getaway, what better to do it than in an RV. Maggie shows up, and Howard claims that his device can keep her away from them. All they need to do is to stay put in the RV until dawn, as Maggie is allergic to sunlight somehow. Sounds simple, yes, but let’s not underestimate how hard it is for stupid people to stay put in one place for a few hours, even at the threat of death and worse.
Oh my god, are these people stupid indeed, shudder. Oh, they just saw some kid rip a man’s head out? Who cares, let’s start screaming at one another about family issues instead! None of the characters are likable. Jamie is a narcissistic imbecile that blames her mother for somehow not being a miracle worker that could erase away her father’s severe addiction issues that tore the marriage apart; apparently, if you ask Jamie, mommy didn’t try hard enough, and you know she is waiting to use that an excuse for her own failings too. Everything is mom’s fault! Neal is a dumb jerk, Lana is just whiny and dies before she gets any semblance of a personality aside of being an ex-girlfriend that shows up in some scenes, and Annie is too busy wailing, complaining, and acting like a confused goldfish to be likable or sympathetic.
Here, I have to make a special mention of Gregg Christie. Did someone force him at gunpoint to be in this movie, or was he high throughout filming? I ask this because his character exhibits zero believable human reaction. Stephen under-reacts to such a degree—when he sees a child rip off someone’s head, his reaction is more like “Oops, I made a wrong turn, so I’ll just walk back out now!” than anything anyone sane would do in his situation. When everyone is screaming at one another due to heated emotions, he is just there, looking like he’s just bored and maybe a little confused, like he’s doing his best impersonation of Joe Biden in a press conference. Stephen seems to have swallowed all the pills Jamie is not allowed to touch, it really seems like.
Oh, and Maggie is more of an irritating precocious child than a scary villain, mostly because the young lady playing her speaks in this unnaturally stilted manner that makes her resemble more of a git trying too hard to be Hermione Granger instead of a cosmic horror out of destroy everything.
I wish I can like Howard Phillips, but the movie changes the rules so much that this poor fellow comes off like a clueless dolt that deserves to be put down in an act of mercy. Early on, Howard will lay down what is called the rules that the villain will follow. Maggie can’t come near when the device is switched on, mostly. Then, all of a sudden, Maggie can somehow possess various people and turn them into people cosplaying Deadite on a limited budget, so she doesn’t have to come near at all. If that’s the case, why doesn’t she turn the physically strongest human to seize the device, or better still, just possess Howard and have him hand over the device to her? The rules in this movie keep changing as things go on and on, that at one point when Howard says that he has no clue at all about what is happening, I feel like it’s just the director-cum-screenwriter channeling his own creative issues onto the script.
There are a few scenes that have practical effects, but the bulk of this movie is made up of morons screaming at one another or doing the dumbest things possible to escalate their dire situation. The whole thing is an interminable bore of a movie that gets into high gear now and then only to grate on my nerves. It may be called Await the Dawn, but I feel that watching this painful flick is more of an await the end experience.
