Horror Favourites – Kevin Kopacka

The gothic, genre-bending thriller Dawn Breaks Behind the Eyes is out on digital platforms from Dark Sky Films and we had a chance to talk to filmmaker Kevin Kopacka about his favorite horror films.

Margo, who comes from a noble family, inherited a castle that she inspects with her ill-tempered husband Dieter. When they arrive at the run-down keep, their relationship is put to a test as their sanity slowly deteriorates. This opens up a new world. As time and space begin to shift around them, a reality that only exists within the walls of the eerie building is exposed – a reality full of warmth and excess.

Things aren’t as they seem in this genre-bending film, that shifts between different story layers in unpredictable ways. It is a love letter to European cinema of the sixties and seventies that will leave viewers guessing what will happen next.

Below Kevin Kopacka talks about his favorite horror film:

“My favorite horror film of all time is Cemetery Man (aka DellaMorte DellAmore).I first watched it when I was 15, expecting something in the vein of Braindead or Return of the Living Dead and was really surprised by how abstract and poetic this film was.

It was written by Tiziano Sclavi and I later discovered his amazing comic series “Dylan Dog” on which this film is loosely based on. I became such a big fan of the comic that I even wrote and directed an unofficial series pilot inspired by it.

Like the comics this film manages to pull off the near impossible feat of balancing gore, sex and comedy with elements of arthouse, sensuality and profound themes on life and death.

Director Michele Soavi (who also directed the brilliant Aquarius and La Chiesa) once again does an incredible job of creating a unique atmosphere that is established from the very first shot of the movie.

Rupert Everett – who was the actual inspiration for the comic character Dylan Dog – perfectly portrays the melancholic chain smoking undertaker of the Buffalore cemetery and Anna Falchi shines in a seductive and mysterious dual role.

Sadly marking the end of an era for Italian horror, Cemetery Man is a one of a kind movie that I always love to revisit.”

Dawn Breaks Behind the Eyes is out on digital platforms now.