Just Before Dawn

Just Before Dawn is a gem of a slasher flick, unfortunately not too many of you guys can see it because it was released in the wake of Friday the 13th and considered one of it's rip-offs. The only version I've seen of JBD is on Paragon VHS, supposedly it is available on a compilation DVD, but I've never seen it. Anyways I digress... More like the Hills Have Eyes than Friday the 13th, this film stands on its own due to it's atmospheric look and style and it's commitment to building it's characters. The film is effectively creepy throughout, never wholly revealing the killer to you, instead masking the killer or killers, through shadows and camera work. The film score is quite haunting and unlike other slasher films it doesn't spike up every time someone moves, it just builds along with the suspense and flows with the story. The film was recently re-made, loosely, as Wrong Turn. If you can find Just Before Dawn I highly recommend watching it, with the lights out.

JBD has something that a lot of other horror films lack. I knew that the first time I saw it. It stands above many others. It's funny to think this when it's scenario here is nothing knew. The film even has better actors for this type of flick, none better than Gregg Henry, and it's great to see him play a good guy. The actress playing his girlfriend, looks like a female version of him. Are they related? Again, despite the warning of an old buzzard (horror icon, George Kennedy, who else) not to venture into these dangerous woods, of course they pay no heed. Henry and co proceed in their R.V. into this elevated terrain, below quite a drop, (kind of has you thinking of RV with Robin Williams). The killer family (cliched) are of course deformed, some of them giants, very much Wrong Turnish 1. As they trek out into the mountains, the movie takes it time to pick off it's victims (I like movies that work this way) they are picked off gradually. JBD, an unhurried frightener flick, maintains much suspense, throughout, which it never loses, some of it truly claustrophobic. This horror is one of those few, I've actually found truly and effectively scary. Some moments, truly jangle the senses. Violence is restrained here too. Although JBD with a lot of instances and happenings which are cliché'd, what it has great suspense, which a lot of other films lack this much in volume, it's story structured with a master disciplined touch. It has a less is more thing going for it. The unrelated ten minute opening too is one of grand suspense, in a movie that pushes all the right buttons. There is a warning, on the cover that the last ten minutes of the movie may be intense or disturbing. What an over exaggeration, you'll see what I'm talking about, when you see that image.

Liebermans' entry in the original slasher craze is definitely more well made and intelligent than some. In fact, in making it he wasn't so much inspired by "Friday the 13th" as he was "Deliverance". He and his crew make this a powerfully atmospheric outing, utilizing the real Oregon woods to great effect, and turn it into a fun survival-of-the-fittest yarn, even developing the two main characters in interesting ways.

Five young adults venture into the Oregonian mountains to do some camping and check out the local land that one of them has supposedly inherited. Before long they begin to be victimized by a stealthy, heavyset psychopath.

Slasher movie fanatics who watch this sort of thing for gore and/or nudity will be quite disappointed with Liebermans' film, as it's clear he has a different agenda going on. That's not to say, of course, that the women aren't attractive, or that there isn't some effective nastiness to be enjoyed. But what the director really wants to convey is the need to have a respect for nature - because it CAN kick your ass if you're not prepared. He begins with an intense opening set piece and generates some truly unnerving suspense; this is the kind of film that can have a viewer literally on the edge of their seat. It's also stylishly done; take note of one scene transition in particular. Brad Fiedel, who a few years later gained his fame with his theme for "The Terminator", supplies a music score that is chilling in its subtlety. (The whistling is a really nice touch.)

The better than usual cast features some very familiar actors: Gregg Henry, Ralph Seymour, Jamie Rose, Mike Kellin, Chris Lemmon (Jacks' son), and George Kennedy as the veteran forest ranger who's aware that the area is fraught with danger. The gorgeous Deborah Benson, who really should have been able to enjoy a much more visible career, is a standout as the female lead who starts out as a rather tentative character, starts to cut loose, and ultimately finds her inner strength. John Hunsaker is extremely creepy as the killer.

There's one well executed plot twist along the way, and at the end an innovative and memorable way of dispatching our villain. The pacing is deliberate, the camera-work and cinematography excellent, and the scenery beautiful, in what has to be one of the more unheralded horror films of its time. It comes highly recommended.

Eight out of 10.

Silver Falls State Park, Oregon, is the magnificent location where "Just Before Dawn" was filmed. Waterfalls, rock formations, and a lush green forest were used to great advantage. The photography is absolutely stunning for this type of low budget, backwoods, slasher, and adds immeasurably. Acting is totally acceptable, and while the two inbred "knuckle draggers" never speak, there is a menacing tone that permeates the movie. Do not mistakenly believe that this is just another attempt to tag an inferior film onto a single name actor like George Kennedy. This is extremely well made and highly recommended. I'll even go so far as to say, one of the best of it's type, and proves that you don't need buckets of blood to make a great horror film. - MERK

The kids-in-the-woods genre isn't a hard one to rise to the top in, yet this film succeeds on its own. A genuinely well-made horror movie with several truly original, creepy images (the man coming out the waterfall!) and an excellent hand-to-hand combat finale. Shot on a genuine shoestring, this film betters by miles any of the studio-financed atrocities that came in the wake of the first Friday. I found the acting and dialogue convincing, at least for horror movie standards. And the photography is grainy and low-fi in an ominous way, without looking unprofessional. This is one of the best horror films of the 1980's, seriously underrated.