Just Before Dawn (1981)
(In French, On Cable TV, April 2020) The only thing worth noting about run-of-the-mill slasher Just Before Dawn is the location—set deep in a northwestern forest, it evokes feelings of folk horror more than urban (or summer camp-set) slasher films. But it’s still a kill-based slasher (no matter writer-director Jeff Lieberman’s protests) with an ever-dwindling cast until the Final Girl does her thing. Whatever ambitions or distinctions it may have held are lost in an absolutely undistinguished morass of 1980s slasher ennui. Not even Jamie Rose as a cute redhead can make it better. Frankly, Just Before Dawn is a pain to get through, and not solely because it’s so similar to other movies in the subgenre.