This 1981 horror film stars George Kennedy, Deborah Benson, Gregg Henry, Chris Lemmon, Jamie Rose, Ralph Seymour and John Hunsaker. This tells of 5 friends, Constance (Benson), Warren (Henry), Jonathan (Lemmon), Megan (Rose) and Daniel (Seymour) who head to the wilderness to camp. Kennedy (The Naked Gun) plays Roy, a forest ranger who warns them that it's unsafe and should go back where they came. Of course, they don't listen and go anyway. Soon, they're hunted by a crazed killer (Hunsaker) until Roy comes to the rescue. This is one of the most underrated slashers following in the footsteps of "Friday the 13th" with nice, remote settings and an eerie score. It's not bad and I recommend checking it out if you're a fan of the genre.

First off, let me say I wasted Halloween movie night by watching this garbage. Second, let me inform you that the current DVD available by Shriek Show is not uncut, so you gore hounds will be very upset. Third, that one scene is the highlight of the film and since it's been cut, well, you see where I'm going.I know a lot of horror fans dig this movie. It is atmospheric, shot in the woods with some very nice scenery, waterfalls and such. But after the opening kill, which has a very brutal shot of a machete being jammed through a hunter's crotch, you get no real brutal kills after that. And, with a slasher movie, you sort of want that. At least, I do. The director and co. do nothing new with the killer in the woods idea, several of this type of movie were all made right around the same time in the very early eighties. The only thing this has going for it is that you don't hate the actors as much as you might in other films. They are sort of likable. The kids have a reason for being there: one of them owns a deed to some property on the mountain. But what is not explained is why his family has property there. There is no cabin or house, so why buy property in East Jesus, especially if you aren't a hunter or whatnot? Well, I'm sure some people do buy land for camping purposes, but that just seems unusual. Anyway, two squealing backwoods inbreds show up and start stalking the campers and picking them off one by one. And, as I said before, you get pretty much nothing in the way of decent deaths after the machete kill in the beginning. The ending has a sort of off the wall kill by Connie, but even that isn't enough to save this from being almost equal with the completely forgettable film, The Forest, which is mind-numbing.If Shriek Show had been able to get a real uncut print, then this review might have been a little more forgiving, but this is the day and age of uncut/unrated DVD releases of old obscure films for cine-hounds like me. When you slight us, you get the crud review. Sadly, the presence of the great fatherly George Kennedy is the only highlight of this movie to set it apart from the other garden variety trash that was churned out back in the day.

Taking its cues from backwoods classics Deliverance and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Jeff Lieberman's Just Before Dawn might not offer much very new in terms of plot—a maniac stalks and kills a group of campers—but still manages to be an effective shocker thanks to the director's deft handling of the material, great use of the stunning scenery, even greater use of women in hot-pants, a brooding synth score from Brad Fiedel and a nifty twist towards the end (although one that should be apparent to those who have been paying attention).Thanks to solid performances from its capable cast—including Oscar winner George Kennedy as forest ranger Roy McLean—there is a sense of realism to Just Before Dawn that is all too often missing from this kind of fare. The film also offers a pretty creepy maniac (who sniggers like Dick Dastardly's dog Mutley and uses a nasty serrated machete to kill), and delivers a couple of very imaginative sequences which help lift it above many of its contemporaries: a topless woman (gratuitous nudity box well and truly ticked) in a lake discovers that the hand that has been groping her underwater doesn't belong to her boyfriend; and a shortsighted character makes out with his pal's girlfriend (as a joke), unaware that the person who is slowly approaching is not his friend but the killer.

Five teens set out to do some camping in the Oregon wilderness, and despite being warned by the park ranger, they soon realize that something is lurking around in the backwoods waiting to strike.When it comes to old horror movies, the only one that keeps popping up in every conversation is Friday THE 13th, so I took it upon myself to find those good old horror movies that fell short for simply being compared to Friday THE 13th, JUST BEFORE DAWN just so happened to be among the ones I found, and was really very impressive, it wasn't as bland as some of the stuff you find today, it was very sharp in terms of character development as it had quite a few likable ones, and it has this very casual pace, its not in a hurry to get to the hack and slash bits, it takes its time to set the proper mood and tone and is very atmospheric and builds some killer suspense by letting you always have that sense of dread like, somethings out there but you don't know where it is or when it will strike.Where I live its definitely an overlooked gem simply because people never heard of it or won't give it a chance, but I'll state that it is not a Friday THE 13th rip off, the two concepts don't even go near each other, but in my mind, it is overall one of the more impressive slashers I've seen in a while.