2022’s Dawn has a running time of 78 minutes.  Eric Roberts is in the film but unfortunately, his nameless character is killed off at the four minute mark.  It’s a bit of a pointless cameo, even by Eric Roberts’s standards.  If you’re going to get Eric Roberts in your film, do something more than just have him pathetically beg for his life.  Is it worth watching a 78-minute Eric Roberts film if you already know that Roberts is going to be in at least 74 of those minutes?

Eric Roberts’s character is killed by Dawn (Jackie Moore), a serial killer who drives around and pretends to be an Uber driver and who makes her victim play various games before killing them.  Dawn is a celebrity on the Dark Web.  It’s always funny to me how movies like this pretty much use the Dark Web as their go-to plot device.  If someone needs a motivation …. hey, Dark Web!  If a plot twist doesn’t make any sense, just say it’s somehow connected to the Dark Web or a Russian troll farm.  It’s not difficult.  Since the entire film is pretty much just Dawn tormenting a couple (played by Sarah French and Jared Cohn), it’s important that Dawn be such a charismatic and witty killer that we’re willing to put up with antisocial actions.  Unfortunately, as played by Moore, she’s just annoying.

Roberts is not the only celebrity to make an appearance as Dawn.  In one of the film’s few effective moments, Nicholas Brendon shows up as a man at a gas station who is a huge fan of Dawn’s and who wants her to murder him.  Later, Michael Pare shows up as a cop who pulls over the car.  How many times has Pare played a cop in movies like this?  He always seems to be pulling someone over.

Anyway, it didn’t take me long to get bored with this, despite the fact that both French and Cohn gave better performances than the film deserved.  There’s only so much that can be explained away by saying, “Dark Web.”

Previous Eric Roberts Films That We Have Reviewed:

1. Star 80 (1983)
2. Runaway Train (1985)
3. Best of the Best (1989)
4. Blood Red (1989)
5. The Ambulance (1990)
6. The Lost Capone (1990)
7. Best of the Best II (1993)
8. Love, Cheat, & Steal (1993)
9. Voyage (1993)
10. Love Is A Gun (1994)
11. Sensation (1994)
12. Dark Angel (1996)
13. Doctor Who (1996)
14. Most Wanted (1997)
15. Mercy Streets (2000)
16. Raptor (2001)
17. Rough Air: Danger on Flight 534 (2001)
18. Strange Frequency (2001)
19. Wolves of Wall Street (2002)
20. Border Blues (2004)
21. Mr. Brightside (2004)
22. Six: The Mark Unleased (2004)
23. We Belong Together (2005)
24. Hey You (2006)
25. Depth Charge (2008)
26. Amazing Racer (2009)
27. In The Blink of an Eye (2009)
28. Bed & Breakfast (2010)
29. Enemies Among Us (2010)
30. The Expendables (2010) 
31. Sharktopus (2010)
32. Beyond The Trophy (2012)
33. The Dead Want Women (2012)
34. Deadline (2012)
35. The Mark (2012)
36. Miss Atomic Bomb (2012)
37. Assault on Wall Street (2013)
38. Bonnie And Clyde: Justified (2013)
39. Lovelace (2013)
40. The Mark: Redemption (2013)
41. The Perfect Summer (2013)
42. Self-Storage (2013)
43. A Talking Cat!?! (2013)
44. This Is Our Time (2013)
45. Bigfoot vs DB Cooper (2014)
46. Doc Holliday’s Revenge (2014)
47. Inherent Vice (2014)
48. Road to the Open (2014)
49. Rumors of War (2014)
50. Amityville Death House (2015)
51. Deadly Sanctuary (2015)
52. A Fatal Obsession (2015)
53. Las Vegas Story (2015)
54. Stalked By My Doctor (2015)
55. Enemy Within (2016)
56. Hunting Season (2016)
57. Joker’s Poltergeist (2016)
58. Prayer Never Fails (2016)
59. Stalked By My Doctor: The Return (2016)
60. The Wrong Roommate (2016)
61. Dark Image (2017)
62. Black Wake (2018)
63. Frank and Ava (2018)
64. Stalked By My Doctor: Patient’s Revenge (2018)
65. Clinton Island (2019)
66. Monster Island (2019)
67. The Reliant (2019)
68. The Savant (2019)
69. Seven Deadly Sins (2019)
70. Stalked By My Doctor: A Sleepwalker’s Nightmare (2019)
71. The Wrong Mommy (2019)
72. Exodus of a Prodigal Son (2020)
73. Free Lunch Express (2020)
74. Her Deadly Groom (2020)
75. Top Gunner (2020)
76. Deadly Nightshade (2021)
77. The Elevator (2021)
78. Just What The Doctor Ordered (2021)
79. Killer Advice (2021)
80. Megaboa (2021)
81. Night Night (2021)
82. The Poltergeist Diaries (2021)
83. The Rebels of PT-218 (2021)
84. A Town Called Parable (2021)
85. Bleach (2022)
86. My Dinner With Eric (2022)
87. 69 Parts (2022)
88. D.C. Down (2023)
89. Aftermath (2024)
90. Bad Substitute (2024)
91. Devil’s Knight (2024)
92. The Wrong Life Coach (2024)
93. When It Rains In L.A. (2025