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.

Very scary backwoods slasher is much better than others, such as "The Prey" and some of the later "Friday the 13th" sequels. The story has to do with five teenager campers running afoul of a pair of psychotic, machete-wielding hillbilly twins. One by one they are dispatched by the murderous giants (who giggle as they slaughter their prey). This has some great photography of the Oregon wilderness, a creepy musical score, and some of the best shocks ever put into a horror/slasher film. I really enjoy the scene where Daniel and Megan are menaced by one of the killers. A classic that deserves a video re-release. I actually stumbled across this one for four bucks at a resale shop in Northern Michigan.

As a jaded fan of 80's horror, I'm shocked that this movie actually lived up to the hype. Most "hidden gems" leave me disappointed when finally seen, but this one actually delivered. The movie is relatively light on gore, but the stalking and killing scenes are surprisingly suspenseful because you actually care about most of these characters. The acting is probably the best your going to get from any slasher movie, and cliched/obnoxious character traits are mostly avoided. The directing and cinematography are also above the standard slasher, and make great use of the forest location and lighting.

I see many of the negative reviews of this movie are based on an old dvd viewing. The fact that I watched a new uncut blu-ray version in 2018, might give me a different perspective.

This starts very well, giving us a good idea or the horrors to come and even though the film seems to settle into what seems to be becoming the usual tale of five naive kids going into the hills to get picked off one by one, things turn out a bit more creepy. Extremely well shot with constantly wonderful views of the Oregon woods, waters and mountains this begins, quite early on, to look a bit more like Deliverance than the average slasher. I can understand why fans consider the film gets better on subsequent viewings because after the first watch you will be aware that you do not have to worry that this is going to go down that well trodden path. Much here to give concern, not jump shocks but eerie visions and suggestions of evil goings on. At the same time the nerdy kids seem to change, become more attractive and less annoying as we move inexorably towards what turns out to be a great ending up a tree and then an even greater one back on the forest floor. Lovely waterfalls and an amazing rope bridge along the way, I haven't even mentioned the siren like young girl or her big twin brothers, or the man who talks to his horse. Big surprise.