Dylan Dog: Dead of Night

Dylan Dog: Dead of Night is a 2011 American action horror-comedy film based on Tiziano Sclavi's Italian comic book Dylan Dog, starring Brandon Routh as the antagonisted eponymous and self-aware detective who investigates cases involving the vampires, zombies, and werewolves of New Orleans.

Directed by Kevin Munroe and written by Thomas Dean Donnelly and Joshua Oppenheimer, the film co-stars Sam Huntington, Anita Briem, Peter Stormare, and Taye Diggs. The film was released by Omni/Freestyle Releasing in the United States on April 29, 2011. The film received negative reviews from critics, and was a box-office bomb after grossing just $5.8 million on a $20 million budget.

Plot
In New Orleans, Dylan Dog, a paranormal detective, recounts his past experiences helping people with supernatural cases until his wife was killed by vampires. He currently works on regular cases with his partner, Marcus Deckler.

When Elizabeth Ryan finds her father dead and is attacked by a strange creature, she seeks Dylan's help. Initially reluctant, Dylan changes his mind after Marcus is killed by the same creature. He begins investigating and identifies the killer as an eighteen- to nineteen-year-old werewolf from the Cysnos clan. Dylan suspects Gabriel's daughter, Mara, and visits Gabriel, an old friend. Gabriel's son, Wolfgang, attacks Dylan but is defeated.

Dylan discovers Mara's body in a warehouse and encounters a vampire. Elizabeth reveals her father's missing artifact, linking it to the vampire attacks. Dylan and Elizabeth are later attacked by vampires demanding "The Heart." They escape and continue their investigation.

At the morgue, Dylan finds Marcus turned into a zombie. Dylan takes Marcus and Elizabeth to a black market for body parts, where they learn that vampires, led by Vargas, seek "The Heart." Dylan confronts Vargas at a nightclub but gets no answers.

Dylan consults his vampire friend, Borelli, who reveals that "The Heart" is the "Heart of Belial," a relic containing the blood of an ancient monster. Dylan retrieves the relic from a vampire elder's tomb but is captured by Vargas. Vargas admits to killing Dylan's wife and takes the Heart before trapping Dylan and Marcus in a crypt.

After escaping, Dylan and Marcus pursue Vargas, who plans to turn Elizabeth into a vampire with Belial's blood. Dylan realizes Elizabeth is the true enemy and wants revenge for her father's death. He confronts her at the Corpus House and battles Belial, who possesses Vargas. Elizabeth is attacked by Wolfgang and his werewolf allies, ultimately killing her. Belial dies, leaving Vargas unconscious.

Dylan entrusts the Heart to Wolfgang and decides to revive his paranormal detective agency, partnering with Marcus once again.

Production
Screenwriters Thomas Dean Donnelly and Joshua Oppenheimer initially set the film up at Dimension Films in 1998. Oppenheimer lobbied for Breck Eisner to direct, having already produced his student short film Recon. The film was produced by independent film companies Platinum Studios and Hyde Park Entertainment, distributed by Freestyle Releasing, and directed by Kevin Munroe. It starred Brandon Routh, Sam Huntington, Anita Briem, Peter Stormare, and Taye Diggs. This was the second time Routh and Huntington co-starred in a film together, the previous film being Superman Returns (2006).

Release
Dylan Dog: Dead of Night was released in the United States and Canada on April 29, 2011. The film was released in Italy on March 16, 2011. The world premiere took place on March 15.

Box office
Dylan Dog: Dead of Night grossed $1.2 million in the United States and Canada, and $4.6 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $5.8 million, against a $20 million production budget.

Critical response
On review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 7% based on 43 reviews, with an average rating of 3.43/10. The website's critics consensus called the film "an uninspired, feebly-acted horror/comedy that produces little scares and laughs." On Metacritic, the film holds a weighted average score of 31 out of 100, based on 10 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".

Luca Raffaelli of la Repubblica, said "it's a good B-movie inspired by a great top-league European comic", and pointed out that the character of Brandon Routh "is hollow" while the original comic character "uses the horror to talk about modern society's problems". Roberto Castrogiovanni (www.Movieplayer.it) tries not to compare the movie to the original comic, but states that "not everything is perfect", and the biggest problem is "the original plot and the development of the screenplay": the plot is predictable, dialogues contain the usual stereotypes, and the main character is just the usual American action-man. Federica Aliano (www.Film.it) heavily criticized the movie, saying "it's far worse than any bad expectation", and highlighted the big difference with the original comic: "the mature feeling of Tiziano Sclavi's masterpiece could never be achieved by using splatter and beautiful images, but by using psychological introspection and by projecting into reality the nightmares and fears of characters and readers". Federico Gironi (Coming Soon Television) refers to the film without comparing it to the original comic, and notes many similarities with Underworld, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and True Blood, which make the film "like baby food, good for an extremely young target [audience] without a deep critical edge", although the director "avoids disappointing the audience and gets a couple of good gags [in]".

The film was also negatively received by Marco Lucio Papaleo (www.Everyeye.it), who gave it an overall score of 5 out of 10: "Technically Dylan Dog: Dead of Night is not bad, and sometimes even interesting. But it is not Dylan Dog. And even if all the names were changed, it would just be a nice movie, but actually [one] already seen and useless."