Jeff Lieberman's Just Before Dawn (1981)

Jeff Lieberman's Just Before Dawn (1981)

Jeff Lieberman's Just Before Dawn (1981)

Roughly four years after making his '70s counterculture LSD horror film Blue Sunshine, talented writer and director Jeff Lieberman added to the booming slasher genre his 1981 offering Just Before Dawn. Part backwoods survivalist adventure a la Deliverance and part forest slasher a la Friday the 13th, the film is incredibly creepy without buckets of gore (though there certainly is some gooey red stuff for bloodhounds) and should please fans of both genres. Imbued with the best of early '80s atmosphere that makes great use of deceptively tranquil and picturesque woods of Oregon, Just Before Dawn also boasts an oppressive, otherworldly electronic score by Brad Fiedel that highlights the film's most suspenseful scenes. Though it wasn't a box office success (probably due to poor distribution), Just Before Dawn has acquired a comfortable cult following throughout the years. Long unavailable in the US except on a pricy, out-of-print VHS from long-defunct Paragon Video, the film was remastered and brought to DVD by Media Blasters in a fantastic two-disc special edition with commentary track by director Lieberman, much to the delight of hardcore '80s slasher fans.

After a truly creepy and ominous opening that features two alcoholic scroungers, Ty (Mike Kellin from Sleepaway Camp and Midnight Express) and his nephew Vachel (Charles Bartlett) ransacking an abandoned church in the Oregon woods for loot and being stalked and terrorized by a fat, giggling "demon" with a sword, we meet a van full of five young campers -- blond hunk Warren (Gregg Henry of TV's Rich Man, Poor Man, Gilmore Girls and Hung) and his no-nonsense girlfriend Connie (Deborah Benson), wisecracking Jonathan (Chris Lemmon, son of Jack) and his carefree auburn-haired fiancee Megan (Jamie Rose), and Jonathan's lovelorn younger brother Daniel (Ralph Seymour of Ghoulies and Killer Party fame) -- who are on their ill-fated way into the thick of a mountainous forest to explore some property Warren has just bought and to enjoy some old-fashioned, deep woods camping. After being warned by well-meaning forest ranger and horticulturist Roy McLean (George Kennedy, straight from the classic Death Ship) not to travel into the foreboding terrain, the stubborn campers continue on their way. Even an unsettling encounter with gin-soaked Ty in the woods, who drunkenly babbles his story of a murderous demon killing his nephew to our young cast, doesn't prevent them from driving further into the forest and setting up camp for the night.

After some invigorating hiking and swimming in a rushing river near a waterfall, the travelers indulge in some campfire dancing before being interrupted by gun-wielding backwoods couple Ma and Pa Logan (Barbara Spencer and Hap Oslund), who tell our young friends that they've raised the devil with their loud music and partying and to leave immediately. But this is a slasher film at heart, and so our young victims pay the increasingly unnerving warning signs no heed. Jonathan even foolishly pursues backwoods vixen Merry Cat Logan (Katie Powell), Ma and Pa's nubile daughter who has eyes for him. Soon the campers are picked off in frightening ways by not one but two giggling, machete-wielding mutant twins (both played menacingly by John Hunsacker), who it turns out are the murderous, retarded offspring of Ma and Pa and the brothers of Merry Cat. Eventually it's up to Connie to bravely fend off the oversized demons for herself, and in the film's shocking climax (after one brother has been shot to death) she stuffs her fist down the other twin's throat as he manhandles her and asphyxiates the nasty beast.

Just Before Dawn has uniformly excellent acting (very rare for an early '80s low-budget slasher), particularly Deborah Benson as survivalist Connie; Gregg Henry as Warren; Falcon Crest's Jamie Rose as ill-fated Megan; and seasoned pro George Kennedy as the concerned forest ranger. I rate it an 8 of 10 and recommend it strongly to those looking for a well-made and scary cross-breed between Deliverance and Friday the 13th.

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