Just Before Dawn dvd movie.|
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List Price: $19.95 Our Price: $17.99 You Save: $1.96 Features • Color • DVD-Video • NTSC In Theaters : March, 1982 DVD Release : 26 July, 2005 |
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| ♥♥♥♥♥ | 3.99 STARS: A unique campfire-slasher flick with a realistic feel. Highly recommended to slasher fans. |
| "Just Before Dawn" is a slasher flick which employs situational and setting-induced horror to create a good and unique horror movie. While the setting may appear familiar to veterans of horror movies and slasher flicks around the campsite, this one has some style and is different and definitely worth watching. In "Just Before Dawn", the audience is introduced to a couple of hunters who are goofing around near an old abandoned church up in some remote mountains. A mysterious and evidently retarded inbred cretin appears and kills one of the men. The other escapes. This scene sets the tone for what is in store for the audience the rest of the way. At this point, the audience is then introduced to some campers who are intent on locating and breaking in a piece of property that one of the campers, Warren, has recently come into ownership of.
Jeff Lieberman does a great job in shooting this film and of presenting the isolation and wildness of the mountains that the campers have decided to take on. There are some brilliant scenes from the beginning to end that just capture the essence of this situational and setting-induced horror movie. It is clear that these campers are taking on something that is way over their head. They meet a forest ranger named Roy, played well by George Kennedy, who warns the campers of the unknown dangers that lie up in the mountains, but obviously our know-it-all campers don't listen. Undertones of "Deliverance" are inevitable from the scenery and setting, but this movie is clearly different. At any rate, danger awaits our young group of campers in the form of a brutal killer or dare I say, killers? Will the campers be able to survive in the savage wilderness where a brutal killer awaits or will they fall prey to the killer and terrain around them? What is unique about "Just Before Dawn" as opposed to other campsite slashers like "Friday the 13th", "The Burning", "Madman" and others is that this particular flick does not involve a summer camp but is indeed about a small group of campers who are naive enough to challenge some rugged and remote mountain terrain where something evil and base awaits beyond their worst nightmares. Lieberman does a terrific job of presenting mood and a horror movie like atmosphere by employing suitable sound effects and chilling score that does a terrific job of presenting the situational horror that our protagonists find themselves engulfed in. "Just Before Dawn" also makes effective use of daytime killings which goes against the norm for any horror movies really, but adds to the film's realistic feel. Undoubtedly, movies like "Just Before Dawn" would have never been made if it weren't for the classic "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" which is, in a sense, the patriarch of movies like this, although "Just Before Dawn" is clearly different than "TCM" and maintains a charm all its own. The acting is actually quite good, especially for this type of flick, but what I clearly liked the most about "Just Before Dawn" is the realistic portrayal of the campers versus the killer(s). The director works well with the actors to present this realistic feel to the movie. The movie is executed very well exhibiting style as well as substance. "Just Before Dawn" does not come across as scripted yet the scenes flow very well from one scene to the next, and this is very effective in building tension in the audience. The first killing appears ridiculous in a sense, but the subsequent killings appear quite realistic and hit pretty close to home. "Just Before Dawn" allows the viewer to empathize with the protagonists as they face the very realistic-looking villains in this movie. Indeed, the viewer can actually imagine this kind of thing happening in that it would not be that far-fetched at all for something like this to happen given the setting and isolation of the campers. The natural feel that the viewer gets with this movie makes this movie all the more effective at presenting horror to the audience. "Just Before Dawn" really is a lost gem that should be owned by any fan of slasher flicks or horror movies in general. That being said, "Just Before Dawn" is not above criticism. As I eluded to above, the first killing is a bit on the ridiculous side, but that's minor and can be easily overlooked in light of the film's many positives. The killers may not be as physically menacing as I like, nor do they meet the threshold of prowess that I would generally like to see in a horror movie, and they are clearly a bit goofy and clumsy looking at times, but they are adequate. While I did not necessarily like them in all respects, I have to admit that they are very realistic looking considering the setting of this movie. Perhaps, the most glaring criticism deals with the ending itself. The final scene, while freaky, seems very far-fetched and ridiculous. In short, it really does not make much sense, but the film's good really outweighs the bad. In the interest of not giving the movie away, I will not directly address the scene, but it is sufficient to note that the final killing appears highly unlikely to have occurred the way the movie portrayed it. Also, "Just Before Dawn" might could have used a little more action, a few more kill scenes, and could have been more graphic or at least more revealing when it came to one kill scene in particular, and perhaps with most of the other kills scenes as well. And, finally, as a bit of small yet comical piece of criticism, the observant viewer will note that Connie's character inexplicably becomes more and more physically attractive as the movie goes on which is quite contrary to reason being that she's roughing it in the wilderness, trying to survive, filthy and scared out of her mind. Nevertheless, she pulls off the inexplicable if not impossible makeover all the way from a school-teacher old maid type to a fox by the final scene which she is most involved in, however nonsensical it may be. Anyway, however nonsensical it is, I suppose this is part and parcel with some sort of mystical transformation Connie's character is undertaking during the movie which is similar in nature to the school teacher and her kids in the very good Australian movie called "Fortress". At any rate, these are small criticisms for a movie that has as much to offer as "Just Before Dawn" does. The best thing about "Just Before Dawn" is that it does a terrific job of presenting the situational and setting-induced horror of an isolated group of campers in a remote area in the mountains with a bloodthirsty killer on the loose, and in a very believable and realistic fashion in harmony with the appropriate horror movie-like atmosphere. I really liked the setting, but then again I've always had a soft spot for slasher flicks that take place around the campfire, and I really thought Lieberman was creative enough with it to make a unique slasher that really gets under your skin. Is "Just Before Dawn" a "scary" movie? Well, let's put it this way, it's scary for the situation which the movie is based on which may seem one dimmensional to some horror movie critics, but only the true classics of the genre are able to generate scares irrespective of the setting and situation of the viewer. I wouldn't call "Just Before Dawn" quite a classic although it is very, very good as the four-star review indicates. Moreover, I don't how many people are going to be running to go camping in some isolated part of the mountains right after seeing "Just Before Dawn", and that is what a good horror movie does....just like many people might think twice about going in the ocean right after seeing "Jaws". You don't have to worry about Jaws being in your kitchen when you wake up at 3:00 a.m. to get a drink of water if you know what I mean. While "Just Before Dawn" is no "Jaws" or a classic horror movie, it does a great job with what it sets out to do, and it stays within itself to come across as realistic and capable of inspiring horror in the audience based on the situation within the movie. On a final note, I would like to point out that the picture quality of this particular DVD is rather poor, but being that it is a relatively unknown slasher flick, I don't know if I'd hold my breath for another release anytime soon. "Just Before Dawn" is definitely a must-buy for any fan of slasher flicks or the serious horror movie collector. Jeff Lieberman's camping slasher flick known as "Just Before Dawn" is definitely more than meets the eye. If you think that if you've seen one slasher flick, you've seen them all, this movie will prove you wrong on that note. A low-grade Four Stars for "Just Before Dawn" which might be a tad high, but I know a good slasher flick when I see it, and I must say I was impressed with this movie. Highly recommended!! |
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