Intense, gripping, stylish and poignant

This is ultimately a movie about the very bad things that can happen when we don't address our unease, when we just try to brush it off, whether that's to fit in or to preserve our self-image.

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

BEFORE DAWN is a low budget, low rent zombie movie, made and filmed in Yorkshire by husband and wife team Dominic Brunt and Joanne Mitchell. Brunt is best known to viewers of UK TV as the lovable Paddy in the long-running soap EMMERDALE, so watching him battle vicious zombies in this film (which he also wrote and directed) is something of a novelty.Unfortunately the novelty value is just about all this has going for it, because boy, BEFORE DAWN is bad. I actually didn't mind the ultra slow, family drama of the first half, purely because the horror comes subtle and there's a growing sense of unease which works really well. Some nice location photography really adds to the experience and I was left with high hopes for the rest of the production.Sadly the zombie denouement is less than impressive and something you'd expect to see in the likes of shot-on-video trash like ZOMBIE CHRONICLES. Brunt unwisely employs some extreme (and ludicrous) shaky-cam effects for the zombie attack sequences, which are overblown and ridiculous. There's no zombie horde here, no shambling menace, just a story that peters out leading to an anticlimax that makes you think "that's it?". I like Brunt but a dearth of originality makes BEFORE DAWN one of the worst zombie movies out there.

A couple rent a cottage in Yorkshire as an attempt to rekindle their failing marriage. For 45 minutes you are trapped in that cottage with them and nothing happens except for an argument about the great wall of china. This is not character development.When the zombies turn up they bark and snarl like Yorkshire terriers. To make them look jerky they simply removed some frames from the film. This looks terrible. Highlights of the zombie action include a 10 minute long chase scene around a land rover with hilariously amped up action music as though something exciting is happening.This is a poor effort with non-existent pace, illogical reactions and mediocre acting. The ending is laughable too.

Before Dawn is about an estranged couple who go on a vacation to save their troubled relationship, but things goes awry when they find themselves under attack from the walking dead. The first half of this film is literally all mama/papa drama. I kept pulling up the movie on IMDb to make sure it was a horror movie and not a drama. After about 35 minutes of boring relationship drama, we see out first zombie. Once the scene with the zombie is over, it's back to more drama. The last 20 or so minutes of the film start to get a little interesting, but not enough to make up for the hour of boringness! Before Dawn is not really a horror at all, it's a full-blown drama with a couple zombies thrown in for substance. I think if you watched it going in, knowing that it was a drama and not expecting a horror, and then it would probably be pretty good. But since I only watch horror, I found it to be boring. Although the ending was kinda cool and the zombies were the spaz-iest zombies I've ever seen, still not enough to give this movie anything higher than a 4.Please like me on Facebook! You can read more of my reviews and get info on the latest movies in horror: http://www.facebook.com/pages/I-Heart-Horror/338327476286206

OK, I have never written a review before but my husband and i are major movie fans, major zombie fans (inc the walking dead) and major IMDb users and so here goes my review which i aim to be less long winded and more informative!I saw Dominic on some TV shows recently advertising his movie and it left me intrigued, there were only 3 reviews to go on so we downloaded anyway...To sum it up the film is average at best, the beginning is slow and it takes just under an hour before the slightest bit of zombie action! The first hour is about a failing marriage and an attempt to spend some time away together, you're left feeling slightly irritated by the actress (the wife) who's acting isn't great and is unrealistic, its small things, like the way they relate to each other that is unrealistic, esp when she comes back from a run bitten, my husband and i turned to each other and laughed because she got bitten then ran in to woods and looked up at the trees in a euphoric way like 'wow' these trees are beautiful and the next minute she's running back in the house totally distraught and hitting her husband, it just all looked very... fake, yes you'd run back like a nutter but the bit in the forest??! Also if you knew your wife had massive a bite mark and was feeling unwell you wouldn't put her to bed with a glass of water you'd go straight to the hospital! It's just stupid things like that. Attention to detail. Also because of the way the relationship was portrayed when the wife does turn you do not feel sympathetic or emotionally connected to the characters. A lot of it was too predictable too, its a shame because Dominic is a zombie fanatic and i was expecting a lot more.... the only good thing, the special effects are good.