Southern Gothic

2007 "Pray For Dawn."
4.2| 1h44m| NR| en
Details

Hazel Fortune works in a strip club in the small Southern town of Redemption. Haunted by the death of his only daughter, Fortune has become a self-destructive, suicidal alcoholic, until he meets Starla Motes. Hazel's downward spiral is interrupted when is befriended by Starlas daughter, Hope. But when Hope is kidnapped by Enoch Pitt, a ruthless, psychotic preacher on a bloody crusade, Hazel must make the decision to rejoin the living and risk life and limb to save her from a terrible end.

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Also starring Dani Englander

Reviews

Redwarmin This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place
Marketic It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.
Odelecol Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.
Brainsbell The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.
Scarecrow-88 Little, small-budgeted vampire tale has William Forsythe as a preacher hunting vampires who, once bitten by a bloodsucker in the act of killing her, becomes even more ferocious and blood thirsty than those he was hunting. Yul Vazquez is Hazel Fortune, an eventual adversary of Forsythe who has been building a flock that could be dangerous if he isn't stopped. Nicole DuPort and her daughter become girls Vazquez will need to protect as Forsythe's flock becomes a major threat in the city they live.Although listed as "Southern Gothic", this carries more of an urban flavor. Forsythe is a worthy candidate for a vampire leader as he has the nasty streak in him to pull it off. The film spends a lot of time with him biting the hell out of people. One member of flock, a human member, just approaches him to converse and is bitten just for the hell of it, it seems. A nasty shotgun blast to the head ends the film rather anti-climatically. It has fangs, but the story is toothless. Very morose in mood and the tone is always a somber drag. Not particularly exciting; nothing about this makes it distinguishable in the vampire subgenre of horror.
revbighig I started out watching this last night while fiddling around doing other things, but shortly became involved enough to turn out the lights and plunk down on the floor in my serious watching mode. Vazquez was interesting, DuPont fine, and Forsythe was, as usual, a gas. But that pretty much wrapped up the acting. Too many of the others were either mediocre or bad (like that mysterious "good" vampire). And the plot was somewhat incoherent and illogical. I gave it a 5, a middling review, as the fulcrum of the teeter-totter I felt I was on -- "oh, this is okay"/"oh this is not okay", back and forth. Not a total waste of time, but close.
redrum911 DVR'd this one on a whim and was pleasantly surprised that it was intelligent, competent and watchable. But ultimately, this raised my expectations to a point where I was somewhat disappointed.The performances here are strong, if a bit dour. William Forsythe always throws himself into characters and does so here. I thought the character could have been given more to do, but Forsythe provides a compelling performance. Yul Vazquez was also solid in the lead role; I would have liked to have seen these characters written with a bit more fun and humor - a joke here or there - but it's better than the "twilight" and similar dreck coming out. I thought the direction was competent, other than the inability to find a richer, more charismatic tone. The story works on the surface, but the plot meanders and we really don't get very far practically speaking. For example, an interesting vampire character is introduced, disappears, then reappears at the end, to no point.Good cable flick to watch, particularly for folks who are not "purests".
GL84 Trying to get his life back in order, a suicidal bouncer tries to protect the stripper at his club that has become the target of a religious zealot who has become a vampire threatening to unleash Armageddon on mankind through his newfound condition.This could've been a potentially enjoyable and rousing vampire effort is instead a classic wasted opportunity. The main thing on display here is the fact that the religious zealot of a main character is one of the weakest main villains here who is thoroughly unconvincing in the role. Among the bigger issues with that is how he seems intent to mope about the shadows and yammer on in a series of clichéd Biblical quotations and verses concerning the downfall of man or being with his congregation than actually doing anything, and overall there's little here beyond being a vampire to really get anything out of him as a villain. Likewise, his status as a back-woods preacher that barely holds fifty- people in his congregation makes his posturing and world-domination plans way too comical, aided in no small part by his ineffectual human help and lack of vampiric back-up. That also brings up another big issue here in the disjointed plot which is rather chaotic throughout here with the real lack of vampiric activities overall, since there's very few scenes of confrontations between the hunter and his query as the film substitutes this lack of hunting them down for endless scenes of him trying to cope with his life or integrating himself into their family, which are nicely handled for once but lack any action. These scenes hold off the vampire activity so much that there's only a few fleeting moments of action in the whole second half which really slows it down considerably after the great opening right before the finale. These are compounded by the film's good points which signal this could've been something enjoyable, as there's an endless series of great action scenes from the rather intriguing plot that sets itself up quite nicely with the hotel ambush and his initial transformation sequence, the action in the bar and bringing along the quick attacks on the patrons which are rather enjoyable. The finale as well comes off even better with the abduction, a series of fine brawls and the shootouts along the big church confrontation all coming along with having enough vampire violence and great gore to go along with those potentially enjoyable elements. There's enough to see where this could've been great, but instead is a giant wasted opportunity.Rated R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language, Nudity and children-in- jeopardy.

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