Germany has a firm root in the horror genre, giving the world The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and Nosferatu from the earliest decades of cinema’s existence. While its Southern neighbor Italy was arguably more prolific in the 1960s and 1970s, Germany has regularly put out iconic horror films over the decades. Mark of The Devil from 1970 shocked the world with its brutal honesty about religious corruption, and movies like Nekromantic from the 1980s caused major controversy, inciting government bans (back before the internet was unleashing real-world trauma-inducing media horrors on the world). With Dawn Breaks Behind The Eyes, we’re likely in for something special as a true blend of German and Italian sensibilities look to offer a dreamscape of nightmarish proportions.

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Italian horror, sometimes called Giallo (pronounced Ja-lo) films, comprises a unique subgenre for horror aficionados. Often highly stylized, the movies lean more into a visceral sense of dread and macabre atmosphere that sometimes follows more dream logic than traditional narrative screenwriting. With the official storyline, “A couple spend eternity in a castle until their reality starts to shift, as the unknown moves into their lives,” the film will likely feature many genre staples.

Dawn Breaks Behind The Eyes is directed by Kevin Kopacka, a relative newcomer in cinema. His feature debut was a 2020 film called Hager, which may or may not have taken some inspiration from 2018’s Mandy. This Nicholas Cage vehicle explored a similar concept on the effects of a mysterious new drug that transports its user into such a heightened state. These are wonderful plot devices for filmmakers who aspire to push the boundaries of atmospheric cinema that rely more on an audience’s baseline emotions and feelings rather than plot or pacing.

Let’s examine how this has been accomplished in the past and the challenges modern filmmakers face when creating more dreamlike forms of cinema.

Damaging Digital Clarity

     Dark Sky Films

While media technicians and engineers aspire toward picture-perfect clarity, reaching unprecedented heights in the modern era with televisions and digital projection so crystal clear, it’s shocking to witness, this has unfortunately been to the detriment of most forms of cinema. To such a degree that Tom Cruise had to make a special public service announcement educating the public about video interpolation from the set of Top Gun 2, telling the world to turn off their TV’s motion smoothing effect. This is often a default setting on modern televisions that ruin the intended twenty-four frames per second progression of any given film.

This unfortunate and misguided move on the part of TV manufacturers strips films of an extremely important and delicate quality that can turn a fascinating dreamlike experience into a clinical examination of actors playing make-believe on a film set. Sometimes referred to as the “soap opera effect,” it is one example of how artists struggle with media technology to achieve a thirty-five-millimeter film effect in the modern era.

When watching the trailer for Dawn Breaks Behind The Eye, you see a very talented cinematographer achieve a level of atmosphere that is extremely challenging for independent filmmakers. While some post-processing can certainly help add noise and grain, there are practical steps at work, including specific types of camera lenses, fog generators, and lighting that can help the fight against digital clarity to create a cinematic atmosphere.

Capturing Dreams

Chris Gore, the founder of Film Threat, recently cited cinema as the closest medium we have to capturing dreams. The outspoken cinephile has gained a significant following online with his brutally honest views on the modern trappings of the mainstream film industry. His informed view of cinema is a valuable tool for filmmakers who aspire to make their own artistic mark on the industry. Giallo films represent a huge inventory of dreamlike cinema for horror fans who reach a certain depth of consumption before finding themselves deep in the waters of Italian cinema. Dario Argento, often regarded as the Italian Alfred Hitchcock, may reign supreme in the halls of Giallo cinema with classics like Suspiria, Tenebre, and Deep Red. Before Argento, Mario Bava churned out iconic horror classics like Black Sunday, A Bay of Blood, and Lisa and the Devil. Bava’s son Lamberto continued in his father’s footsteps providing Italy’s unforgettable Demons films.

Other influences on Dawn Breaks Behind The Eyes may come from Lucio Fulci, another legendary icon of Italian horror with titles like Zombie, From Beyond, and The House by the Cemetery. Apart from the 2018 Suspira remake, which was considered a box office disappointment, American film studios are unlikely to take the risks we see in these often shocking and blood-drenched art house productions. Germany’s tribute to the genre will hopefully inspire more courageous filmmakers to bring their nightmares to life using Italy’s tried and true techniques.

Dark Sky Films’ Dawn Breaks Behind The Eyes arrives on Digital starting June 24, 2022.