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Halloween Day By Day: Dylan Dog: Dead of Night (2011)


Comics have come a long way in regards to being an acceptable form of entertainment- as has horror.  Which is why I was glad to find a horror comic movie... and Italian one no less.

Dylan Dog is a private investigator... one who used to be the investigator of choice for the undead.

Until an incident turned him into a pariah in the undead community.

But now... a long dormant evil is waking up... and Dylan's in the thick of things again...

The concept of a Private Investigator who's clients were the undead really caught my attention.  The fact that it was based on an Italian comic really made me take notice.  It's a cool idea that I had to check out.

The story itself was quite well done.  It was well paced, and developed the world in such a way that drew you into it, and moved you along with little bumpiness.  It had a nice modern sort of detective noir tone and feel to it that I quite liked.

The characters were great as well.  Dylan Dog, Marcus, Elizabeth, Wolfgang, and Vargas are all well crafted, and developed nicely.  They were interesting, and as believable/realistic as vampires and werewolves could be in terms of personalities.  They were all very engaging characters that helped make the story all the more fleshed out, and entertaining.

I don't think this would've been the case if the acting hadn't be as good as it was.  Brandon Routh was great as Dylan Dog.  He brought a real depth of emotion to the character while also having some fun with the stoic, hard nosed PI persona. Anita Briem as Elizabeth was fantastic as well, making her character likable and important to the plot.  Watching Sam Huntington as Marcus was a joy- he really brought a  nice bit of levity to the character and the story, while not being too over the top or silly.  I also enjoyed Taye Diggs as Vargas- he infused his character with a wonderful suave arrogance and sinister charm that you couldn't deny.

I can't say much about the camera work as I was so charmed by the story and characters, I didn't pay any particular attention to it- which says something about the movie as a whole.

I would definitely recommend giving this movie at least one viewing, though I admit I will probably watch it again in the near future since it's simply a fun movie.  If I can find an English translation of the comic, I would love to collect it.  I'm putting "Dylan Dog: Dead of Night" in "The Good".

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