Silver Falls State Park, Oregon, is the magnificent location where "Just Before Dawn" was filmed. Waterfalls, rock formations, and a lush green forest were used to great advantage. The photography is absolutely stunning for this type of low budget, backwoods, slasher, and adds immeasurably. Acting is totally acceptable, and while the two inbred "knuckle draggers" never speak, there is a menacing tone that permeates the movie. Do not mistakenly believe that this is just another attempt to tag an inferior film onto a single name actor like George Kennedy. This is extremely well made and highly recommended. I'll even go so far as to say, one of the best of it's type, and proves that you don't need buckets of blood to make a great horror film. - MERK

Man, if all Jeff Lieberman did was make Squirm and Blue Sunshine, he'd already be way ahead of the horror game. But no, he also made this contribution to the slasher genre, which owes a major debt to Deliverance (it was called Survivance in France).

Shot in the Silver Falls State Park in Sublimity, Oregon as Mt. St. Helens erupted, this film reminds you of one very important fact: if George Kennedy tells you to stay away from the woods, you better listen.

After that encounter - and seeing the survivor of the movie's first attack by the mountain family saying that he's seen demons - a fivesome of teens still head into the woods for what they hope will be a fun time away from the rest of the world. Chris Lemmon - yes, Hulk Hogan's Thunder In Paradise co-star - is in this, as is Gregg Henry from Body Double.

There's more than just a killer in the woods - there's a set of identical twins and an inbred girl and a strange church and crickets that seem to know how to get quiet every time a character shows up.

While the original script's heavily religious themes were cut out - it was to end with the family forcing the final girl to handle snakes in a ritual - it's still a pretty great take on a slasher, one more based in something that could happen, with little to none of the supernatural getting in the way of all that murder. And the way that the last bad guy is taken out - wow. Talk about visceral.

Five campers arrive in the mountains to examine some property they have bought, but are warned by the forest ranger Roy McLean (George Kennedy) that a huge machete-wielding maniac has been terrorizing the area. Ignoring the warnings, they set up camp, and start disappearing one by one.

What this film has going for it is a decent cast of young actors, some of whom (particularly Gregg Henry) have gone on to do bigger and better things. And we have a pair of older, experienced actors: Kennedy and the amazing Mike Kellin ("Sleepaway Camp"),who really should have done more horror films.

Director Jeff Lieberman ("Squirm") claims he never saw "Texas Chain Saw Massacre" or "The Hills Have Eyes" before shooting this film. While this seems very strange for a man working in horror, it really does not matter, as anyone who sees those films as being an influence on this one is just trying too hard. This is a plain old slasher: kids in the woods, guy with a machete.

Being released in 1981, Lieberman deserves credit for getting on the slasher wave early. While not the first by a long shot, his film did not get released long after Jason Voorhees hit the screen (there is about a five month difference). Slasher fans will need to see this, but everyone else has better options.

For what it is worth, though, this is superior to the similarly-themed "Final Terror" (1983).