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10
= Highest Rating |
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Guest
Review by Rod
Barnett |
Five
friends take a weekend excursion into the Oregon woods to relax
and look over a piece of mountain land one of them has inherited.
Warned by the local forest ranger (George Kennedy) not to make
the trip, they are further spooked by an old man they meet who
claims demons killed his hunting buddy and are now chasing him.
The group dismisses the drunken man's ranting and set up camp
on the mountainside for the night unaware that they are being
shadowed by someone with a machete — the same someone that killed
the hunter. Warned off again by a trigger-happy family native
to the mountain, they ignore this as well and one by one they
get picked off by a pair of monstrous-looking homicidal men.
Everything I'd ever heard about Just
Before Dawn
labeled it as an early '80s slasher film set in the woods, with
a Jason Voorhees style killer on the loose. I've never been
a fan of the slashers, as they tend to be formulaic and obvious
with little-to-no imagination on display, so my interest was
low. Still, I was curious because I had seen two other films
directed by Jeff Lieberman and he had done something interesting
with both the killer animal (Squirm)
and drug freak-out (Blue Sunshine)
genres. Luckily this movie isn't really a strict slasher flick
although it has enough elements to make most Friday
the 13th fans happy. Just
Before Dawn
is more accurately part of the horror sub-genre labeled 'Hillbilly
Horror', in which a group of under-prepared city folk venture
into the wilderness only to meet gruesome, bloody ends. The
best representative of this type of movie is the classic Deliverance
(1972), which Just
Before Dawn
is patterned after, but these stories are still being produced
in the 21st century with Wrong Turn
being a good recent example.
Also
separating this from the slashers is a slightly more subtle
approach to the characters and violence that pays off well —
we actually watch someone undergo a real transformation while
another exhibits unexpected cowardice. Even though I suspect
some of these choices were budget-related (such as the suggestion
of a dying deer on the roadside with the simple shaking of some
bushes) but they make for nice stylistic moments that a more
graphic display would have spoiled. Although not all of the
victims —
sorry —
campers are well defined
they are at least not painted as caricatures or stereotypes.
The performances are very good with some stand out moments from
Gregg Henry, Chris Lemmon and Deborah Benson-Wald. Ms. Benson-Wald
does a commendable job with a very difficult character that
seems to become more attractive and less timid as time passes
—
but is this a good thing?
The film's best attempts at doing more than just frightening
the audience revolve around seeing people reveal their real
characters under stress. While this too is derived from Deliverance
it's given an interesting twist here that will raise a few eyebrows.
And even though I really find the final few minutes of violence
too much to swallow it is a unique moment in film history that
I doubt we'll ever see repeated.
Not a bad little
sleeper that might grow a bigger cult audience now that it's
easier to find.
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Just
Before Dawn has been
brought to DVD in a two-disc special edition by Shriek Show. Before
I'd seen the movie I had read online about some missing moments
of gore in this release that were present on the old VHS edition.
Fans of the movie are pretty pissed about these missing shots
(as well they should be), but since I have never seen it before
I was just glad to finally get the chance. What I can comment
on is the terrible shape of the print presented here. Unable to
obtain the negative the DVD seems to have been created from a
worn print that often looks every bit of its 24 years. Lots of
scratches and wear lines appear throughout the film with a nasty
first reel change that looks just awful. These unfortunate flaws
are compounded by weak blacks and a too-soft picture that smacks
of sloppiness —
not the filmmaker's intent. The anamorphic image is letterboxed
at about 1.85:1 and the soundtrack has been remastered in 5.1
Surround, with purists given the option of the original mono.
The one extra on the
first disc is a commentary from director Lieberman that is both
informative and often entertaining. He vacillates between being
happy with his own pretensions about several "Bergmanesque"
moments in the script and being realistic about the film's small
accomplishments. At times I wasn't sure he was serious in his
(over) praise of the film, but he held my interest for the entire
running time even if his conversational style is a bit monotonous.
Disc 2 contains more extras, the best of which is a great 65 minute-long
interview featurette with Lieberman, producer David Shelton, Chris
Lemmon, composer Brad Fiedel and several others talking freely
about their memories of the shoot. The highlights are actress
Jamie Rose (Chopper Chicks in Zombietown)
talking about her nude scene in freezing water and the argument
about building the film's rope bridge. The only other extras related
to Just
Before Dawn are a photo
gallery and the original trailers. A group of trailers for other
Shriek Show/Fangoria International DVDs are also included.
It's a shame about the
inferior print but the movie is worth seeing for the curious and
the interviews are fantastic. Another mixed bag from Shriek Show.
9/05/05 |
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