Tuesday, January 12, 2016

Dawn of the Slasher

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This past weekend I realized that I had a couple of captive guests in my home who'd 1) never seen the 1981 horror flick Just Before Dawn and 2) were down with watching it (the first part is typical, the second part less so) and so we watched the 1981 horror flick Just Before Dawn, me for like the 5th or 6th or 32nd time in my life. It is great, incredibly under-valued, one of the most interesting and atypical and curious slasher films of the Slasher Era. 

Even calling it a "Slasher" seems a little off, given its weirdness, but seeing as how it's about a group of "kids" traveling to the woods and getting stalked and killed one by one by big lumbering [fill in the blank] with a machete the size of a samurai sword until one girl, a Final one, remains to duke it out, well... I suppose Slasher fits.
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Anyway it came up in conversation while talking about this discussion-worthy flick that it did indeed come out in 1981, The Year of the Slasher, and I completely forgot all of this until I was just now reminded via this list of 1981's Prime Slashers at Chiller... which doesn't include Just Before Dawn!!! Super oversight, you guys! But then you could make a list of slasher movies released in 1981 that's probably thirty-five titles long, so I suppose tastes may vary. I mean you can't go wrong with The Burning or My Bloody Valentine either.

Just Before Dawn's proper 35th anniversary will be in October so I'll try to remember to celebrate it properly then. That gives you guys nine whole months to seek the movie out and watch it! It was recently released onto blu-ray so you have no excuses. And then go read my previous posts on the film -- here where I got to see it on a big screen in 2012, or here where I talked about visiting the waterfalls in Oregon prominently featured in the film.

2 comments:

Rob K. said...

I saw this some years back and it is indeed a really good, scary slasher (omg, the Where Are My GLasses scene), with a final girl who really has a way with her fist.

FoxVerde said...

hey new plaid pants do you remember the name of the movie where the canoe goes by some rocks and then they move? the maniac was disguised under a rock/bush camouflage?