I wanna give it a split thumbs up/thumbs down but it won't let us.

Just before Dawn is another movie from the early 80's -- 81 to be exact. It's also one of the most underrated movies of its time to boot.

Hot on the heels of Friday the 13th and well before Jason became Jason, this movie, along with MADMAN was cutting its teeth into our hearts. Sweet huh?

Anyways, I picked this up the otherday cause I had fond memories of watching it when I was young and eating chicken soup when I had an ear infection and had to stay home from school when I was in 3rd grade.

So here goes.

The story is about twins basically... Funny as it is we've got 2 sets in this movie. 2 sets who don't have any idea who the other is until they cross paths.

It's a backwoods slasher flick that's sure to make you sick. Well, in some cases that is. A group of campers set out to look at some land they've just got inhereted to them up in Oregon.

After being warned not to go any further by the local "nut" they continue on anyways, even after some guy comes out of the woods and tells them his brother was just killed by two crazy axe wielders and was struck in the croch with a large knife. << Yes, it's very painful to watch this >>

Anyways they survive the night but soon begin to disappear looking for one of the memebers of their party who has vanished while they all slept.

The movie sounds predictable but it gets way whacked out after this point... It has a shocking twist in it that'll make you keep watching, trust me.

In the end the movie leaves you with a bitter sweet feeling that you neither love or hate the movie you just sort of respect it for being a pioneer film. A sort of front runner after the fact.

The movie borrows heavily from H.G. Lewis's 2000 maniacs and a little from Texas Chainsaw and a little from "sigh" Craven's Hill's Have Eyes "which was stolen from Moonshine mountain men" so really it doesn't matter what stole what... It's a decent flick. IT came before Jason and a lot of the other backwoods slahser flicks and is well worth a look.

I bought it on the basis I remember seeing it as a kid and being kinda drawn to it, maybe for the nostalgic look back... I dunno?

It has a scene at the end "SPOILERS"

Where one of the killers is actually killed "get this" by having an arm shoved down his throat. It's pretty stupid when you watch it, but oh well.

3 out 5 -- not bad, not good, just kinda underated and not mentioned enough in the halls of horror movies. I enjoyed the watching of it again but it's nothing the mainstream will like. Watch it if you're hardcore into horror, only. Cause I believe that's the only way you can appreciate the films originality and content.

I can't really tell if I like this or hate it. It's a little boring, but does have some great scene(s), I personally like the rope-bridge scene.

HATE TO DO THIS TO YOU IAN, but I suggest in reading Ian Warren's rewrite to the script, it's great and better than the actual film.

-ONEY