SUNRISE (2024)

Name: SUNRISE (2024)
Item: SUNRISE (2024)
Author: Lillie Jaenchen

"Vampires vs. Racists"

Content: -4 Intentional blasphemy, evil, gross immorality, and/or worldview problems. (To be avoided)

Entertainment Quality:

	None	Light	Moderate	Heavy
Language
Violence
Sex
Nudity

Credits →

What You Need To Know:

SUNRISE is a gruesome thriller set in a small town in the Pacific Northwest where the sole Asian-American family is terrorized by the white men who have all the power in town. The family tales in a brooding drifter they find sleeping in their barn and soon discover he was turned into a vampire by a forest demon in the surrounding wilderness. Already with a vendetta against the town’s racists for killing his African-American wife years before, the vampire starts killing the men harassing his Asian-American hosts.

With a hopelessly disorganized script, SUNRISE has little or nothing of artistic or entertainment value. The movie vacillates erratically between a horror film about a vampire who preys on livestock, a drama about the lifestyle of immigrants in the Northwest, and a hard-boiled revenge thriller, neglecting to explore any of these stories on a deeper level. SUNRISE is also plagued with foul language, blood and gore, and ugly xenophobia (although the latter is condemned in the story). SUNRISE is about a vampire seeking revenge, not a Yeti, but it is abominable and totally unacceptable.

Content:

(PaPa, OO, B, LLL, VVV, S, A, D, M):

Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements:

Strong pagan, occult worldview about a vampire who was given immortality by a forest demon condones revenge by the vampire against the people who killed his African-American wife years before, with little or no moral direction or guidance, though it negatively depicts racism and xenophobia (the villains harass Asian and black Americans in the story);

Foul Language:

At least 54 obscenities (including at least 35 “f” words) and one light profanity;

Violence:

Severe bloody, gory violence, including several murders with knives, and one murder by strangulation, multiple scenes of fist-fighting, vampire graphically eats a dead animal and drinks animal blood in multiple scenes, a man with a severe abdominal wound is shown with his intestines hanging out, an image of a human sacrifice, a man kills himself and another man by lighting them both on fire;

Sex:

A crude verbal reference to adultery;

Nudity:

No nudity;

Alcohol Use:

Multiple scenes of hard liquor use;

Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse:

Cigarette smoking, but no drugs; and,

Miscellaneous Immorality:

Severe racism toward Asian Americans, African Americans and others, including name-calling, but implicitly and directly rebuked.

More Detail:

SUNRISE is a gruesome thriller set in a small town in the Pacific Northwest where the sole Asian-American family is terrorized by the white men who have the power in town. The family takes in a brooding drifter they find sleeping in their barn, and soon discover he was turned into a vampire by a forest demon in the surrounding wilderness. Already with a vendetta against the town’s racists for killing his African-American wife years before, the vampire starts killing the white men harassing his hosts.

With a hopelessly disorganized script, SUNRISE has little or nothing of artistic or entertainment value. Also, the movie vacillates erratically between a horror film about a vampire who preys on livestock, a drama about the lifestyle of immigrants in the Northwest, and a hard-boiled revenge thriller, neglecting to explore any of these stories on a deeper level. The only scenes that hold the viewer’s attention are the early monologues of the antagonist. As the antagonist, Guy Pearce delivers perhaps the only watchable performance, but even he loses the interest of the audience, as the constant and frankly absurd depictions of extreme racism become gratuitous rather than poignant.

SUNRISE is also plagued by foul language, blood and gore, and ugly xenophobia (although the latter is condemned in the story). Often, supernatural movies have a Christian or moral theme that guides the characters to stand up for the light against the diabolical forces at play. Not so here, as the demonic protagonist commits multiple murders in pursuit of revenge. At no point is any higher truth or moral message introduced to redeem the character or the story. SUNRISE is about a vampire seeking revenge, but it is abominable and totally unacceptable.