One of the great joys of attending a film festival, especially one as themed as the H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival in Portland, Oregon, are the type of films that the curators/festival directors decide to screen. There is nothing more fun than to see independent shorts or feature length movies that shamelessly reference anything related to Lovecraft’s work; “Await the Dawn” does this twice! One of the main characters is named Howard Phillips and he works at the Miskatonic lab. The other great thing about this film is outrageous use of gore. This movie doesn’t care how campy it may come across as because it’s too busy have fun. It’s “From Beyond” meets “Evil Dead”. What more could you want?
“Await the Dawn” is a plot and action driven movie. That’s not to say that there isn’t some story and character development. The story follows Jane, a struggling drug addict, who is going on a road trip with her family before entering rehab. There are scenes where Jane blames her mother Annie, played by Dee Wallace, for making her go to rehab and there are scenes where Jane’s brother tries to romantically reconnect with Jane’s best friend after a brief fling. But these are just filler as we wait to see a demonic nine year old terrorize everyone and everything.
As I mentioned, there are moments of ooey gooey gore. There are also dead bodies, possession, scientific gadgets, and a creepy demonic looking elder god. Hannah Stasser is great as Maggie, the demon girl. She plays the role with such zeal and she appears to having so much fun. Josh Server is equally entertaining as Howard, Maggie’s primary nemesis. His performance may be the most even throughout the film; not too campy but not too serious. If you have the opportunity, you should give this movie a try.
