CAST: Brandon Routh, Sam Huntington, Anita Briem, Peter Stormare, Taye Diggs, Brian Steele, Kurt Angle, Marco St. John,Courtney Shay Young, Gabrielle Chapin; DIRECTOR: Kevin Munroe; WRITERS: Thomas Dean Donnelly, Joshua Oppenheimer; GENRE: Horror, Suspense/Thriller; RUNNING TIME: 107 min.
Technical Assessment: 2.5
Moral Assessment: 1.5
CINEMA Rating: For viewers age 18 and above.
The paranormal investigation job of Dylan Dog (Brandon Routh) takes a back seat after the death of his girlfriend at the hands of a vampire clan. He does not accept related cases like the mysterious death of a rich importer which appears to be murdered by a warewolf. However, when his friend Marcus Adams (Sam Huntington) becomes the next victim, Dylan does not have second thought of going back to the business of penetrating the world of vampires, warewolf, and zombies. The mysterious people behind these creatures turn out to be Dylan's friends with whom he maintains relationships for old time sake. In the course of his investigation for the case of the rich importer whose daughter becomes his close allies together with his dead friend Marcus who is now a zombie, he discovers that the key to stopping the deadly creatures is an artifact burried with one of the vampire in the crypt. Dylan got this artifact sooner, but of course, his "friends" would not like it and they want to make sure they have the artifact in their possesions.
The film Dylan Dog: Dead of Night is a combined comedy and suspense thriller. Whilst there is a central character, it does not help to put subplots together to establish a strongly-focused story. The role of Elizabeth which is like a wall flower has no impact at all despite the surprising revelation of her connection to the villains at the end of the film. The antagonists are not as remarkable so viewers could hardly hate them. Nevertheless, Dylan Dog: Dead of Night as an italian comic adaption is entertaining, primarily as an effect of the tandem of Dylan and Marcus. The humor brought by the character of Marcus is effectively carried by Huntington. Routh, on the other hand, hardly acts on this film like an eternal good looking zombie. He survived all the fights and hard beats of the beasts yet preserves the good looks as if nothing touches his face. The gory scenes of dead corpses and worms are not necessarily in bad taste but the director has the tendency to prolong and overdo. The make-up and overall production design are fine but there are more to desire with regards to lighting and compositions. The special effects are a bit of a hard sell too. Overall, the film falls average in the technical aspect.
The film shows how friendship is valued and that a friend is willing to sacrifice in order to seek justice for a lost friend and be motivated to take on bigger responsibility of ensuring victory of good over evil. However, if Filipino myths has manananggals, kapre, tyanaks, the European culture has vampires, zombies and human warewolves. This European supernatural forms is the context of the film Dylan Dog: Dead of Night and it shows that they do exist and live among the living like normal people. The film naturalizes zombies culture. It shows dead corpses and body parts as commodities which is contrary to the respect that Filipinos give to bodies of departed love ones.
