Just Before Dawn

Audience Reviews

View More

Hagrid W Sep 29, 2018 After decades of watching horror movies I didn't think there were any good ones from the 80s left for me to see. But after reading plenty of glowing reviews for the tough-to-find 80s slasher, Just Before Dawn, my interest was peaked and my expectations raised. The movie starts off quite well with some gorgeous locations, an extremely gory kill and a wonderfully creepy score from Brad Fiedel. The characters, although rather bland, aren't the stereotypes we usually see in these movies, and the acting is better than it has any right to be. The film's greatest strength is the atmosphere utilized from the beautiful/terrifying Oregon locations. Countless horror movies have been set deep in the woods, but Just Before Dawn does a terrific job of making you believe you'll never escape them. Unfortunately after a great set-up it all goes downhill rather quickly. The gore vanishes, the characters get dumber, the pace gets slower, and there are numerous suspenseful buildups with no payoff. It also doesn't help that the killer turns out to be a backwoods version of Homer Simpson. I'm sure if I'd seen this as a kid it would've freaked me out, but adult me was bored out of his mind. See more

George R Feb 11, 2018 For those who say that this pic is formulaic, it does have some classic elements of the slasher genre, but it relies more on atmosphere and characters slowly losing there minds, to scare you, rather than brutal, bloody deaths. For a slasher movie, the violence is soft enough, and the killers don't wear any masks, which makes Just Before Dawn a quite different movie, for the time. And even though there isn't any music during the intense scenes, which would've helped, it's a spooky film, and if you watch it with an open mind, it should be a pleasant little horror experience. Worth a look!! See more

Anakin R Aug 21, 2017 Solid 80's slasher flick.

Albus S Jan 12, 2017 Genre director Jeff Lieberman gives us a pretty solid little backwoods slasher, and I dug it quite a bit, low-budget roots and all It's indeed well worth a trip into the woods, to check out a property with friends and see what the mongoloid local who doesn't take kindly to new faces might be up to, y'know? Rental! See more

Read all reviews

Just Before Dawn

My Rating

Read More Read Less WRITE A REVIEW EDIT REVIEW POST RATING