Before Dawn (2012)

Sorry to say it but this film should have been called Before Yawn. We love zombie films at the farm but sadly this offering made us feel like we were part of the un-dead by the time the credits rolled.

We follow troubled husband and wife Alex (Dominic Brunt) and Meg (Joanne Mitchell) who are heading off to the Yorkshire Dales to help rekindle the passion in their marriage. The opening credits are aerial shots of the Dales, no doubt a nod to the soap that has served Dominic Brunt and Joanne Mitchell so well over the years.

To be honest we didn’t seem to gel with the characters at all. Meg seems like a heartless career woman who doesn’t seem to care about anything but her phone and gym instructor whereas Alex is, well, a bit pathetic really.

As the pair try to talk out their issues there are typical night time jumpy scenes as the audience is teased as to when the zombies are going to appear.

When they do however, you wish they’d just go back to where they came from and not for the usual reasons. Of course, there have been a variety of interpretations over the years as to what might happen if we were turned into zombies, but these incarnations are more laughable than fearsome.

Based loosely, we reckon, on the rage zombies from 28 Days Later, these ones do more screaming than scaring and the screaming goes on for so long you can’t help but feel for the poor extras playing them as you just know their throats are going to smart a bit for a few days after filming.

We won’t give too much away as, regardless of what we say, you might still watch it. But the typical story of someone gets bitten, the other one has to care for them, and then has the dilemma of whether they should kill them or not, is played out in much the same way that every other zombie story like this is played out.

There’s also the question of where the zombies actually came from and this is dealt with unsatisfactorily by phone calls back home to ‘check on the kids’ and messages on Meg’s mobile phone. While this might be a fairly original idea, it doesn’t really do much to move the story on other than that you know the shit’s hit the fan everywhere, as it does with any zombie based Armageddon.

We hate writing bad reviews as it’s clear that effort and hard work was put into this film. But, zombie stories are a protected genre and only the best will do for the majority of zombie fans. Sadly, and we’re sorry, Before Dawn just doesn’t cut it.