How often do you get to read, watch or listen to something on this blog that makes you feel all warm and fuzzy? For the sake of our emotional well-being, I have to break up the mayhem every once in awhile and bring you something unbearably sweet. Please enjoy this ode to brotherhood and compassion, as only the The Horror Blog can bring it to you.

And, hey. Take care of one another out there.

“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.

Via the always delightful Film Junk comes news of yet another campaign to bring director Fred Dekker’s Night of the Creeps and The Monster Squad to DVD. The person behind the drive to have the movies released has taken a page from Ain’t It Cool News book and created ads detailing where to write the owners of the properties through actual letters as opposed to email.

For the sake of your sanity, I will post the contact info below as the ads themselves are ginormous.

For Monster Squad:

Mr. Sumner M. Redstone
Viacom
1515 Broadway
New York, NY 10036

For Night of the Creeps:

Mr. Michael Lynton
Mr. Bob Osher
Sony Pictures Entertainment
10202 West Washingtopn Blvd.
Culver City, CA 90232

To be honest, I hope that the companies involved eventually lose interest and grant the rights to Anchor Bay, who has been chomping at the bit to get their hands on these movies and would probably do them right.

The big news today is the possible casting of Johnny Depp in the latest stab at a cinematic adaptation of Richard Matheson’s I Am Legend. The following rumours are just a small sample of those flying around the internet.

1) The only role Depp could possibly play in the film, since it revolves around the last normal man alive, is as one of the vampires, particularly Ben Cortman, the lead character’s nemesis.

2) The Ben Cortman character has been written out of the script, and the vampires will be savage, inarticulate creatures. Depp will be playing a fellow survivor named Philip.

3) Johnny Depp will be replacing Will Smith as the lead.

Alright, that last one was mine. Seriously, wouldn’t Depp, who has a penchant for expressing isolation and madness, be about a thousand times better than Smith as the lead character, Neville? Does Smith even have that much clout in the industry anymore? And hasn’t Depp’s star risen enough to be cast as the lead as opposed to being relegated to second banana.

It seems as if everyone is applauding the decision to make Depp the villain of the piece. While I think he’d be great in the part, it seems like a waste of time if he isn’t playing off someone equally strong. And if the second rumour is true, then what’s the point of the film at all, unless Depp’s character is replacing the female character from the book.

Finally, isn’t it about time that someone did a straight adaptation of I Am Legend? I hadn’t read it until last year because of my aversion for all things vampiric and I now realize my mistake. I’m not against tinkering with the source material to suit the needs of film, but I Am Legend is practically fool-proof. It’s short, it wouldn’t cost a lot to make, and it’s one of the best horror stories ever committed to print, with an ending that stays with you for days. Not that this new try won’t succeed, but why are we three tries in and it still seems like they’re not even attempting to stick to the book?

I’ve been sick the past couple days, but I woke up this morning feeling better and with a profound need to dance like I have ass in my pants. Quite possibly the funkiest damn soundtrack for a horror movie, the entire Blacula album can be found over at Dust to Dust.

My fever may have broke last night, but I’ve still got the fever, if you know what I mean. As an added bonus, here’s discotheque fave Soul Dracula (among others), which I originally picked up from the much-missed Dr. Mysterian. I strongly suggest you check his site anyway, if only for a brief history of vampires and their connection with the dancefloor.

You’ve got to get up to get down.