The Darkest Hours Before Dawn

Encompassing various subgenres of horror storytelling, Lori Bowen's The Darkest Hours Before Dawn delves into those places where some fear to tread...and with good reason.

Encompassing various subgenres of horror storytelling, Lori Bowen's The Darkest Hours Before Dawn delves into those places where some fear to tread...and with good reason.

Lori Bowen is an award-winning horror filmmaker from Sarasota, Florida. Though she took a few film classes in high school and one semester of college, she’s autodidact, having taught herself how to write, direct, produce, shoot, and edit her films when a traditional film school proved too expensive. Lori’s loved the horror genre since she first saw Cujo at the tender age of six, but it was the mixture of Wes Craven’s A Nightmare on Elm Street and its strong heroine, Lucio Fulci’s The Gates of Hell with its strong imagery, and George A. Romero’s Dead Cycle with all the freakin’ zombies, all seen when she was around eight years old, that made her want to make horror movies. All of her films thus far have been made on a shoestring with thanks to her immensely talented and extremely generous friends. 2011 saw a shift for Lori’s work as she created her first SAG signatory film and her fifth narrative short, the award-winning JustUs which starred Sage Hall (director / star of the short horror film Candy) and Travis Garner. The short also featured the voice of legendary Scream Queen Brinke Stevens. In 2012, Lori made the award-winning short Stella Buio, starring another legendary Scream Queen, Linnea Quigley. In the film, Quigley plays Stella Buio, a medium brought in by a grieving widow to reunite her family with her dear departed husband and gives them more than they’d bargained for. The film is an homage to the 70s/80s Italian horror films like Lucio Fulci’s The Beyond, Dario Argento’s Suspiria, and Mario Bava’s Black Sabbath.