Haunted house hijinks inhibit the harmonious happiness of cohabitation heightened by harnessed hellacious harmful hatred inherently heated in all the hullabaloo.

Dawn Breaks Behind the Eyes is a foreign film from Germany presented with English subtitles. It starts with a couple, Margot and Dieter, inspecting an old castle Margot inherited to see how much they can sell it for. Things get creepy when they decide to spend the night there. They start hearing strange voices and seeing things that aren’t there. Soon after they start acting erratically both violent and sexual in nature. Minor disagreements ensue escalating quickly.

Luisa Taraz plays Margot. She questions the status of their marriage and whether or not selling the castle is a good idea. She’s good at capturing the anguish her character is facing. With little to no words, I felt her pain by the emotion on her face.

Frederik von Lüttichau plays Dieter. He struggles with his masculinity because he can’t provide for his wife and must rely on her family fortune to get by. He also does well at conveying emotion through facial expressions. As his frustration accumulates he gets darker in a believable fashion. It feels like a natural dark descent as he gets progressively worse.

Director Kevin Kopacka uses his environment to give a sense of both scope and isolation. It’s beautifully shot, showcasing the impressive countryside and castle. The elegant architecture of the building is on full display adding to the atmosphere. I like the framing of certain scenes using light and shadows to provide a looming sense of dread. The gore gets extremely graphic but the practical effects are fantastically done.

Written by Lili Villányi & Kevin Kopacka, the script does a great job of subverting expectations. Each outcome I predicted was incorrect in the beginning. That being said, however, the second act is where things get problematic. The plot shifts focus and meanders through several plot points but not all of them are followed through in the finale. Things get ambiguous when some said plot points go into rather bizarre territory without warning that goes well into the absurd. This raises questions left unresolved. What starts as a simple premise gets over-complicated with existential themes that feel like two different films in one. It’s like the screenwriters couldn’t decide which idea to settle on so they went with both. This could have worked if it didn’t feel so random. There aren’t any precursors or foreshadowing to lead to the intended outcome.

Overall, what could have been a simple haunted house story with themes of matrimonial struggles turns into an unusual existential plot with little to no explanation. I’m all for respecting the audience to come to their conclusions but there aren’t any conclusive ideas to contemplate. With nothing to go on, it makes it so difficult to do that. The end result felt underwhelming and confusing but I do recommend it to cinephiles who love experimental films left open to interpretation. I love foreign films because they approach filmmaking differently from the Hollywood standards so they always make for interesting viewings. The problem with Dawn Breaks Behind the Eyes is that it puts style over substance. And remember, are existential themes good for a film if it makes one question why said themes exist in the film in the first place?

6 out of 10