Movie Review: Dylan Dog: Dead of Night

As I've worked my way through horror films over the years, one of the more interesting areas I've come across are the Italian horror films (called Giallo (Italian for yellow) films.  My personal favourites of this sub-genre of film are Phenomena, Zombi 2, and Danger Diabolik.  Although only the first two were horror, the third is based off an Italian comic book, just like today's movie, Dylan Dog: Dead of Night.


The movie is a cross genre between the classic film noir detective story and a monster movie.  Dylan Dog (played by Brandon Routh) is a retired investigator who specialized in monster-based crimes (specifically vampires and werewolves).  The film uses a standard narration structure and takes place in New Orleans, Louisiana.


Like all noir detectives, Dylan has a past involving a beautiful girl who died on his watch, and some sins of his own.


For me, the best part of the film however as the comedy elements of Dylans friend Marcus (played by Being Human's Sam Huntington), who (mild spoiler) after being killed early in the film is returned as a zombie.  Unlike most zombies in film however, Marcus is still self-aware, and his denial/acceptance of his new un-dead situation made for many of the best parts of the movie.


Overall it was a lot of fun, a little silly, and did a good job of staying within the lines of horror and noir, and with the comedy elements my kid liked it, and the villain being played by Taye Diggs meant that my wife was also a fan.

Movie Review: Danger Diabolik

I love how sometimes things just line up to bring awesomeness directly into my life. Case in point; a few weeks back I was reading Supergods by Grant Morrison (a really great book about the history of super-hero comic books and their effect on the culture) when I came across a reference to a comic book movie I had never heard of called Danger Diabolik.

The reference in the book named the director as Mario Bava, who had directed a 1961 horror film I really enjoyed called Back Sunday which mixed some really disturbing imagery with a pretty creepy concept and reminded me that I should really be looking at Italian Horror someday soon.

Anyway, as I had heard of the director and now the film, it was time to research whether or not I could get my hands on the movie when my good friend Ron mentioned he owned the movie on DVD and would be happy to bring it over.

Having just seen the movie a couple days ago here is my unbiased and critical opinion...

Danger Diabolik is awesome.

Yup, that's what all my research into spy films, comic book films and Italian films has got me - the movie is incredibly cheesy - I mean, honestly I can't even begin to describe how utterly ridiculous and at the same time totally awesome this movie is to me.

The main character, Diabolik is a criminal, stealing unbelievable amounts of money and specializing in the ridiculous. The film is filled with action sequences, explosions and some of the most incredible I-can't-believe-I-just-saw-that moments I've come across in a long time.

If you can get a hold of this movie, see it. If not, I'm sorry.

Thanks Ron!