Just Before Dawn Movie Review

Just Before Dawn is a 1981 horror movie directed by Jeff Lieberman and starring Gregg Henry and Chris Lemmon.

The film begins in the woods. Two guys are in an old church. Someone is watching them. Their truck gets wrecked and there is a laughing killer hiding. He kills one of the guys, while the other, Ty, gets away. Cut to a group of people driving along in a van. They are Warren(Henry), Jonathan(Lemmon), Megan(Jamie Rose) and Daniel.They meet a local guy called Roy(George Kennedy) who is a forest ranger. He tells them that they should not camp in the hills. They think that he is crazy. They meet the scared Ty(Mike Kellin). He babbles to them about what happens and they think that he has lost it.He warns them to get out of there. They don't listen. They drive off and leave him.

They set up camp in the woods. The next day, the hear someone singing in the woods. It's a woman and she runs off when she sees them. The group set off exploring the area. They jump into the water for fun and the girl watches them from the woods. The killer is also on the lookout. Megan is in the water when she feels someone touching her and she gets freaked out. Ty reaches Roy's house and he tells him all about what happened in the old church and he tells him that he warned the kids, but they didn't take any heed of him. Connie wants to leave. She doesn't feel safe in the woods. Jonathan is in the woods and he meets the girl. She is called Merry Cat. She kisses him and he follows her. He also meets the killer who pushes him into the water. Daniel is taking pictures when she stumbles upon the old church. Connie and Warren find Jonathan who is dead.

Megan and Daniel spot the killer. He stabs Daniel and he chases Megan. She runs  into the church. It turns out that there are two killers. She gets caught. Warren and Connie look for the others. They find a house and Merry's family are inside. They won't help them. Warren needs the keys to the camper van so they can go for help but they are in Jonathan's pocket. He has to go back and get them from his dead body. Roy is in the woods and he wants to help the group. He visits Merry's family. They won't help him. Merry tells him that the killers are her brothers. She tells Roy that she will take him to find them. Connie is waiting for Warren to come back with the keys when one of the killers comes for her. She climbs up a tree to get away and he starts to cut it down. Roy comes and shoots him dead. Warren arrives back and gets attacked by the other killer. Connie tries to help fend him off. He squashes her but then she puts her fist into his mouth and suffocates him!!! Very unusual death. Merry Cat finds them and sees her brother's death. Warren and Connie are upset as they come to terms with what happened.

This was a fun film. I liked the woods setting and there were some decent scenes. I had heard of it before, but I only watched it recently. It is a low budget film, but that doesn't take away from it.
Overall, I enjoyed it and the end scene with the fist in the mouth death was really unusual. I had to laugh at that! There was some nice scenery on show also. The acting wasn't great but I can let that go I recommend this one. I will give it 5/10.