Watching “Dead Before Dawn” try to be funny is like going in to a third rate haunted house in the sticks on Halloween. It’s nice you’re trying really hard, but you really aren’t doing what you intend to. “Dead Before Dawn” tries to be many things, and one of them is a comedy. While it did elicit genuine laughs from me sporadically it manages to miss more than it hits. In fact by the end, the joke went on almost way too long. I was pretty relieved it ended or else I was afraid I’d begin to hate it.
You assume two very talented, and occasionally brilliant, actors would have amazing chemistry on-screen, but you’d be wrong. The chemistry between Steve Carrell and Steve Buscemi is so forced and terrible, that the screenplay has to literally start when they’re both young boys, and emphasize how lonely they are and how they became friends. This is to make it painfully clear to the audience that they’re best of friends since the performances from both men can’t really sell it to the audience.
Director F. Sudol is someone who is a one man creative force. After directing, animating, and voicing three popular animated horror films, F. Sudol abandoned his former style in favor of computer animation. Even though Sudol completely quit the former animated style for telling his stories, “Gnome in the Haunted Castle” still very much feels like an F. Sudol production. The music feels much like the type we’ve come to expect from his past films, there is the presence of zombies, and Mr. Sudol voices the characters himself. This time though, “Gnome in the Haunted Castle” acts as a gateway horror film for the young audiences who appreciate ambition and effort.
Dame Darcy is a renowned underground entertainer, artist and practicing witch, and for all of her potential readers, she’s released “Handbook for Hot Witches” for the 12 and older age bracket. Released through “Henry Holt and Company,” author and illustrator Dame Darcy provides her young female readers with an illustrated guide to almost everything they could want to know about witchcraft, wicca, and mysticism.
For folks currently switching over to Blu-Ray this Christmas, there is also the option for traditional DVD releases, and this year available for all of the Potter fans is the Year 3 Ultimate Edition of Alfonso Cuaron’s “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” one of the few very entertaining installments of the Harry Potter series that has a truly dark and grim tone to it appealing toward adults and children alike.