03-009 The Dawn

03-009
The Dawn

“The Amityville Horror” is inarguably the most famous investigation of the Warrens. However in The Conjuring Universe, we only saw the Warrens appeared merely in the Amityville house at the first 10 minutes in The Conjuring 2. The rest of the movie jumped to London.

In the previous post, I discussed the possibility of plugging different Amityville movies into The Conjuring Universe. And we found that James Wan has actually left a port for us to plug those movies in. However, this leaves a problem.

Amityville Horror fans will know. Ever since the first Amityville movie, The Amityville Horror, premiered in 1979, we now have almost three dozens of different Amityville sequels and prequels in the market. And things started to go wrong just after the first few movies and has now gone very wrong especially in recent decade. The question is, which Amityville movies we should plug them in so that we can enrich The Conjuring Universe rather than spoil it?

The Dawn (2019)

The first movie I would like to include is an indie horror movie called The Dawn. It is very new, just released shortly before the pandemic. However, the movie is not really popular. It is almost unheard and not even has its own Wikipedia page in English language. It has a page in Italian, though.

What is the movie about? Is it really an Amityville movie? It does not even have the word “Amityville” in its name.

Yes, it is definitely an Amityville movie or else I would not mention it. As it is almost unheard, I am going to spoil every part of the movie here so that you will know what it is about and how it can fit into the Amityville Horror saga. However, if you wanted to watch the movie first, please stop reading any further. The movie is available on YouTube. I put a link here: 

Warning: Heavy Spoilers ahead.

The movie took place in year 1922 in Pennsylvania countryside. A First World War veteran, being traumatized by the violence he had experienced during the war, became insane and in one night, he suddenly killed all but one of his family members. His daughter Rose was the only survivor. She was then sent to a convent by the police and being raised by the nuns.

Story starts from year 1922

Story jumped to 10 years later and Rose has already grown up. She now became a novice and about to take her perpetual vow to become a nun. However, somethings kept stopping her. She was continuously feeling cold and having nightmares. But she did not understand the reason behind until one day, she killed her confessor during a confession.

A young mysterious priest Jeremiah arrived the convent and revealed her the truth. The killings done by his father was not because of mental illnesses but possession. And the possession did not end after the killings. The demon actually followed Rose to the convent. Ever since she has arrived the convent, she showed signs of possession and was always tied to her bed. All the previous scenes in the movie were only her illusions.

Scenes are so beautiful

With the strength from the demon, Rose managed to untie herself from the bed, killing the people around, and through Jeremiah out of the window. She then set up a fire, burnt down the convent and killed herself.

On the train to Long Island

In the finale, we saw Jeremiah, mysteriously still alive, taking a train to Amityville. He was later revealed as the priest who brought the Indian curse to 112 Ocean Avenue, Amityville, Long Island. The house was chosen by the demon behind and revealed by one of the Rose’s drawings to Jeremiah. And this is how this movie connected to the Amityville Horror saga.

The movie explains everything at the end

At the very end of the movie, we saw the movie title changed from The Dawn to The Amityville Dawn.

Spoilers end.

The Dawn serves as a prequel to the 1979 The Amityville Horror. It somehow tried to explain the origins of all the problems in Amityville. But does this movie fits with The Conjuring Universe?

The answer is actually yes. But we need to add a bit of salt into it. The Dawn, and also most of the other Amityville movies, point to the Indian burial ground underneath the house as the source of all evils. There is no mentioning of Valak, of course. In order to fit those Amityville movies in, we need to assume that Valak was only one of the demons in the house that joined the party from Romania. Valak then followed the Warrens to London while the other demons stayed in that house, causing further troubles after the Warrens has left.

In the next post, I will look into other Amityville movies and see how they can fit into the storyline.

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