“Regulations, my foot. Just wait ’til I put one under Ol’ Bradley’s blanket.”

While ashore in South America, the world’s most idiotic sailor buys a bucket full of poisonous snakes to take aboard the submarine he’s assigned to. The snakes not only begin attacking the crew, but also cause malfunctions that could doom the entire submarine to the ocean’s floor.

“Snakes on a Sub” is a little misleading as the title of this 1974 made-for-television movie is actually Fer-De-Lance. That title is not only the name of the submarine, it’s also a type of snake, hence the reason the sailor decides to bring a bushel of them aboard.

Fer-De-Lance is a potential classic undermined by its complete lack of character. One of the essential ingredients in a decent disaster movie is its characterization. This needn’t be deep, but it should at least be evident, or at least half as compelling as the colourful jumpsuits the international civilian scientists are forced to wear. Nowhere in Fer-De-Lance are we introduced to the sailor who cracks open his wallet to show a picture of his newborn son, or the Captain and the nurse who are sharing a forbidden tryst, or the 10-year-old stowaway who fell asleep onboard while the submarine was docked. Instead the movie proceeds almost as if it were some kind of absurd documentary, with nearly everyone acting efficiently and with military precision. And who wants that?

In place of compelling stereotypes we are treated to near-identical drones and enough nautical jargon to help me get through naval academy. There are only two exceptions to this, and both instances are the best parts of the movie. One of the crew members begins to lose it, while another becomes more of a hardass the more he drinks, and he seems to drink alot. Finally, to be fair, in the end Fer-De-Lance does have one of the most simple yet effective snake kills I have ever seen, and I’m a real sucker for any movie that finishes on a high note.

“My birthday’s coming up. I’ll only be 10, but I feel very old.”

When the opportunity arose to take a crack at reviewing some upcoming releases, I wasn’t entirely sure how to approach a direct-to-DVD movie. I didn’t know whether I was meant to be just as hard on it as I would a theatrical film, or give it a pass based on its obvious financial limitations. Happily, with Dawn I didn’t have to make that decision.

Dawn is a nine-year-old vampire. She travels from town to town with her human father, stopping every once in awhile to feed on the old and dying, for whom she has a natural ability to track down. For her tenth birthday, Dawn wants nothing else but to visit her mother’s final resting place, another vampire who died giving birth to her. Unfortunately, within the same town resides a man with a vendetta and the means to hunt them down.

Dawn’s world is filled with average people, a sight rarely caught on film and whose normalacy underscores the fact that all the main protagonists are weak in some fashion; from Dawn herself to the MS-afflicted vampire hunter to Dawn’s father, who is in way over his head. The only dominant character in the entire movie is the deceased mother, who we only see in flashbacks. By far the best actor in the bunch is little Kacie Young as the title character. Her performance managed to reel me in without my even realizing it, and made the inevitably tragic, and abrupt, finale all the more shocking.

Dawn is a model of shot-on-video restraint. Unlike many other independent endeavours, Dawn doesn’t overstep its financial limitations. Every aspect of the film is crafted to not only remain within it’s no-budget confines, but actually thrive on them. Even though the effects, make-up and gore are on the cheap, they’re used quite sparingly and thoughtfully. The cinematography is direct and to the point, and the use of black-and-white digital photography renders everything flat, emphasizing the mundanity of the world. Even the grotesque routines Dawn and her father have fallen into before and after a kill create a sense of the ordinary in an extraordinary situation, like a quieter version of Near Dark.

There are a few missteps. Some of the actors have the tendency to spit out their lines on occassion, a few of the actors in smaller roles are especially bad and coincidences abound where some minor tightening of the plot would have helped. But overall I was pleasantly surprised by Dawn. Make no mistake, this is a gentle, character-driven movie and should be only watched when in a particular type of mood. While there are a few tense moments, they’re primarily built upon the relationships established and not due to actual scares. With the right mind-set, Dawn is a tale made grim, sweet, and satisfying.

Dawn is available today from Tempe Video.