Taglines: No pulse? No problem.
“Dead of Night” is based on the world’s best-selling horror comic series, “Dylan Dog,” created by Tiziano Sclavi and published by Italy’s Sergio Bonelli Editore. The comic book series has sold over 56 million units in 17 languages since its debut in 1986.
Brandon Routh (“Superman Returns”) stars as reluctant paranormal investigator Dylan Dog, who finds himself in a “turf war” between and among the undead, and Sam Huntington who co-stars as Marcus, Dylan’s wise-cracking trusted assistant. Also co-starring are Taye Diggs (TV’s “Private Practice”) as Vargas, head of the Vampire family, Anita Briem (“Journey to the Center of the Earth”) as Elizabeth, another potential in the long line of Dylan conquests and Peter Stormare (“Constantine”), as Wolfgang, the head of the werewolf family.
Storyline
In New Orleans, Dylan Dog (Brandon Routh), an ace detective whose specialty is paranormal cases, narrates how he helped people with their cases until his wife, Cassandra, was killed by vampires. Since then he has been doing regular cases with his “Partner”, Marcus Deckler (Sam Huntington).
One night, when teenager Elizabeth Ryan (Anita Briem) calls her father, without getting an answer, she goes to her father’s room and finds him dead on the floor. She is then surprised, and almost attacked, by a strange, hairy, creature.
The next day, Dylan is imformed, by Marcus, that Elizabeth asked for (and later hires) him. When Dylan interrogates her, she explains that he is the only one that can help her and shows to him a card (that is his old detective card) that says “No pulse?, No problem”. Dylan sees it, stands up and goes out, stating that he doesn’t “do that” any more, followed by Marcus.
That night Marcus is attacked and killed by an unknown creature (who Dylan thinks is the same creature that killed Elizabeth’s father). Dylan decides to officially help Elizabeth with her case. He takes his old, but helpful, case and rides to Elizabeth’s house. After taking and analyzing a hair sample, he tells Elizabeth that the creature that killed her father is a female, eighteen-nineteen year old, werewolf, who is a member of the Cysnos werewolf family.
Dylan visits the Cysnos family leader, Gabriel Cysnos (Peter Stormare), who has a past related to Dylan’s activities, and realizes that Gabriel’s nineteen year old daughter Mara might be his main suspect, an idea that Gabriel hates. After he is told off by Gabriel, Dylan is attacked by Gabriel’s older son Wolfgang (Kurt Angle) who is then knocked unconsious by Dylan (who was using a silver gauntlet).
Dylan then goes to the morgue (which is run by zombies) to see Marcus’s wound and discovers that Marcus has been turned into a zombie (and he also has a missing arm) Marcus is shocked and surprised but he accepts his condition. When they go for a new arm, Dylan talks with the owner and is imformed that the vampires, led by Vargas (Taye Diggs), are after an artifact known as “The heart”. Dylan then goes to the Corpus House, a nightclub owned by Vargas. He talks to Vargas, who denies being involved with the murders and tells Dylan to go while he still lets him to do so.
Dylan then visits his old vampire friend, Borelli (Marco St. John). Borelli tells Dylan that the artifact known as “The heart” is called “The heart of Belial”, a cross-like relic that holds the blood of Belial, an old and very powerful vampire who cannot be killed unless his/her master is destroyed. After he finds the heart in the tumb of vampire elder known as Sclavi, Dylan goes after Vargas who has taken Elizabeth to the Corpus House. Vargas reveals to Elizabeth that he intends to turn her into a vampire and inject the blood of Belial into her. Dylan enters the Corpus House and finds that both Vargas and Elizabeth are gone.
On his way to find Elizabeth and Vargas, Dylan realises that Elizabeth is the real enemy and wants to turn Vargas into Belial as a revenge for her father’s murder. She tells him that the reason is not revenge, instead she says that they are the “good guys” and the undead (vampires, werewolfs, zombies, etc) must pay. Dylan says that she is wrong and that she is the monster. She injects the blood into Vargas’s body and escapes, but before she can do so she is attacked by Marcus who is knocked down by her.
Dylan fights off Belial (who is slowly taking over Vargas’s body) while Wolfgang (who was called by Dylan before the battle) and his werewolf allies attack Elizabeth. They manage to subdue and kill Elizabeth, and at the same time Belial dies in front of Dylan leaving Vargas’s unconcious body. Dylan gives the heart to Wolfgang, the only one that Dylan can trust to protect it, and goes with Marcus. Finally, Dylan decides to revive his paranormal detective agency. using copies of the same card that Elizabeth gave him earlier, calling Marcus “partner”; something that Marcus had wanted for a long time.
About the Production
The film was produced by independent film companies Platinum Studios and Hyde Park Films, distributed by Freestyle Releasing, and directed by Kevin Munroe. It starred Brandon Routh, Sam Huntington, Anita Briem, Peter Stormare, Kurt Angle, and Taye Diggs. This was the second time Routh and Huntington will co-star in a film together, the previous film being Superman Returns.
The film grossed $4 million worldwide ($1.2 million domestically) on a $20 million production budget. The film currently holds a 6% “rotten” rating on review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes with a consensus stating: “An uninspired, feebly-acted horror/comedy that produces little scares and laughs.”
Luca Raffaelli of la Repubblica, after watching the film said “it’s a good B-movie inspired by a great top-league European comic”, and pointed out that the character of Brandon Routh “is hollow” while the original comic character “uses the horror to talk about modern society’s problems”.
Roberto Castrogiovanni (www.Movieplayer.it) tries not to compare the movie to the original comic, but states that “not everything is perfect”, and the biggest problem is “the original plot and the development of the screenplay”: the plot is predictable, dialogues contain the usual stereotypes, and the main character is just the usual American action-man.
Federica Aliano heavily criticized the movie, saying “it’s far worse than any bad expectation” and highlighted the big difference with the original comic: “the mature feeling of Tiziano Sclavi’s masterpiece could never be achieved by using splatter and beautiful images, but by using psychological introspection and by projecting into reality the nightmares and fears of characters and readers”.
Federico Gironi (Coming Soon Television) refers to the film without comparing it to the original comic, and notices many similarities with Underworld, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and True Blood, which make the film “like baby food, good for an extremely young target [audience] without a deep critical edge”, although the director “avoids disappointing the audience and gets a couple of good gags [in]”.
Negative reception also comes from Marco Lucio Papaleo, who gives it an overall score of 5 out of 10. “Technically Dylan Dog: Dead of Night is not bad, and sometimes even interesting. But it is not Dylan Dog. And even if all the names were changed, it would just be a nice movie, but actually [one] already seen and useless”.
Dylan Dog: Dead of Night
Directed by: Kevin Munroe
Starring: Brandon Routh, Anita Briem, Peter Stormare, Taye Diggs, Sam Huntington, Brian Steele, Laura Spencer
Screenplay by: Thomas Dean Donnelly, Joshua Oppenheimer, Tiziano Sclavi
Production Design by; Raymond Pumilia
Cinematography by: Geoffrey Hall
Film Editing by: Paul Hirsch
Costume Design by: Caroline Eselin
Set Decoration by: Michelle Marchand
Art Direction by: Raymond Pumilia
Music by: Klaus Badelt
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for sequences of creature violence and action, language including some sexual references, and some drug material.
Studio: Freestyle Releasing
Release Date: April 29, 2011
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