Direction: Kevin Kopacka
Country: Germany
With a retro European style from the ’60s, Dawn Breaks Behind the Eyes is a witty play of shadows, an unscary yet darkly funny experience, which occasionally stumbles across its tonal tightrope of comedy and horror. It’s not implausible to describe it as a cheerfully energetic horror film that, alternating silly and intriguing elements at the outset, ultimately comes away as a shamelessly entertaining mess.
Co-written and directed by Austrian-Sri Lankan Kevin Kopacka, the film follows the disappointed Margot (Luisa Taraz) and her critical husband Dieter (Frederik von Lüttichau working with the director for the second time). Soon after their arrival at the abandoned old castle she inherited from her wealthy family, they sense ghostly presences and experience strange episodes charged with voluptuousness. A different reality unfolds in the second part of the film, taking us to a psychedelic collective trip involving a film crew.
Stylishly prurient and slightly anarchic, this little genre film is easy to watch, but lacks new blood and real scares, stuttering in its outrageous dreaminess. By giving the film a running time of 74 minutes, Kopacka is never at risk of making us exhausted, but not all the scenes hit the right notes in spite of the constant attention to detail. Nevertheless, the film demonstrates passion for mood and style while aiming more for the eyes than for the mind.
