‘Dawn Breaks Behind The Eyes’ Review – A Nightmare Of Fetish And Perversion

Dawn Breaks Behind the Eyes (2021)

Directed By: Kevin Kopacka

Starring: Anna Platen, Jeff Wilbusch, Frederik von Luttichau

Plot Summary: Margo, who comes from a noble family, inherited a castle that she inspects with her ill-tempered husband Dieter. When they arrive at the run-down keep, their relationship is put to a test as their sanity slowly deteriorates. This opens up a new world. As time and space begin to shift around them, a reality that only exists within the walls of the eerie building is exposed — a reality full of warmth and excess. Things aren’t as they seem in this genre-bending film, that shifts between different story layers in unpredictable ways. It is a love letter to European cinema of the sixties and seventies that will leave viewers guessing what will happen next.

Dawn Breaks Behind The Eyes made a huge splash last year on the film festival circuit, not to mention it currently (as of this review) holds a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Needless to say, the festival buzz and the incredible looking throwback poster piqued my interest. Clocking in at a breezy 73 minutes, Kevin Kopacka’s latest feature film does so much with its modest screen time and budget. From the hazy, fog drenched macabre mise-en-scène to the purposefully awkward dialogue and acting, Kopacka completely nails the uncanny valley feeling of ‘70s and ‘80s Euro horror.

In the first act, it is very easy to utterly forget that you are watching a modern film as you get lost in its black velvet grip. Most filmmakers can at least give you the visual sense that you are watching an older film. It’s fairly easy in fact: just fade the film’s colors or add some scratches and artifacts. Yet, most filmmakers that only do this never achieve anything more than a hollow imitation. However, it’s clear that even outside of it looking the part, Kopacka understands what makes these weird old Euro-genre cinema so unique and successfully reverse engineers it, the result being Dawn Breaks Behind the Eyes.

From the outset, I would say the movie will certainly alienate a huge portion of horror fans. That is, unless like me, you adore trashy Euro-horror and arthouse exploitation. What is so brilliant about the film is, whilst it pays homage to a very specific look and feel within the genre, it never falls back on comfortable cliches. Taking this a step further, the latter part of the film perfectly taps into the psychedelic movies of the swinging ‘60s. A movie like Mario Bava’s underrated masterpiece Four Dolls for an August Moon comes to mind.

The movie is a challenging watch in that the filmmakers never give you answers wrapped up in an easy-to-digest package. Hell, I watched it twice and I still don’t think I fully understand aspects of the narrative. Some could make the claim that this is style-over-substance. Although I certainly understand this knee-jerk reaction, the movie does have a lot to say about gender, power and how one wields that within the filmmaking industry. It also has a healthy dose of sleaze and sex like any good Euro-horror outing would. Having said that, you cannot talk about this movie and not talk about how it looks.

Not only is this a good-looking movie, this might just be the most stunning recent horror film I’ve seen in a long time. The atmosphere is best described as equal parts beautiful and haunting. This is all thanks to whip smart direction, wonderful sets, striking lighting, and extremely well thought out blocking and composition. Though this is a horror film, it’s really hard to pin it down to one genre. In fact, doing so almost feels reductive. It’s more of a psycho-thriller that erotically boils over into a nightmare of fetish and perversion.

Dawn Breaks Behind The Eyes is currently available on Digital Platforms through Dark Sky Films. 

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTYBwqSbclE]