Just Before Dawn is a 1981 American slasher film directed by Jeff Lieberman and starring Chris Lemmon, Gregg Henry, Deborah Benson, Ralph Seymour, Jamie Rose, and George Kennedy.

The film follows a group of hikers who travel into a mountainous region of Oregon to visit property inherited by one of them, only to be hunted by a ruthless backwoods killer.

In a rural, mountainous region of Oregon, drunken hunters Ty and Vachel come across an abandoned church, which they explore.

Meanwhile, forest ranger Roy McLean encounters an RV of five college-aged adults heading to rural property which one of them has inherited.

After reaching a point where the RV cannot drive any further, the group set out on foot and make a campsite; at night, while around the fire, Constance, Megan, and Daniel hear noises around them and become frightened, only to find that Jonathan and Warren are playing a prank.

The next morning, they hike along Silver Creek to a waterfall, where they see a young girl named Merry Cat Logan singing before noticing their presence and running into the woods.

Jonathan assumes it is the rope bridge over the waterfall ahead and begins to go across, only to be confronted by the killer, who cuts his hand with his machete.

At camp, the other twin stabs Warren and tries to kill Constance, who rams her fist down his throat, choking him to death.

Joseph Middleton), was titled The Tennessee Mountain Murders, and later The Last Ritual, and had heavy religious themes behind the twin killers' motives.

They did the exact same thing: they pre-sold the movie, claiming they had George Kennedy and Linda Blair as the stars and me as a director.

[5] Based on the success of the film, the producers of Just Before Dawn urged Lieberman to integrate a high number of violent killings in the screenplay: "But I didn’t want to do that.

[6] Per a June 1980 newspaper article, however, filming was officially slated to begin on July 7, on a budget of approximately $1 million.

According to Fiedel, many of the ominous sounds in the music score were actually electronically altered audio clips of himself vocalizing droning noises, in addition to the use of a synthesizer.

[15] It was also shown in several other nearby Florida cities the following week, including Fort Lauderdale and Palm Beach.

[18] In the United Kingdom, the film was released theatrically in the summer the following year, opening in Birmingham on August 15, 1982, with an X rating.

[19] The film was released in France under the title Survivance in an attempt to capitalize on the popularity of John Boorman's Deliverance.

[20] Just Before Dawn was released on DVD in 2005 from Media Blasters on their Shriek Show imprint in a 2-disc special edition and features a director's commentary, as well as a documentary on the making of the film.

[25] Jim Davidson of The Pittsburgh Press panned the film upon its initial release, writing: "The only suspense in this appalling 1980 movie...  lies in anticipating the who and when of the next stabbing", adding that "director Jeff Lieberman uses forest locations and a full set of dark filters that disguise the cheapness of the production".

Considering the low aims of this standard slasher plot, the result is almost unaccountably beautiful, just thanks to locations such as huge, cascading waterfalls and rickety rope bridges.

"[27] TV Guide gave the film and unfavorable review, deeming it a "crushing disappointment from director Jeff Lieberman, whose Squirm (1976) and Blue Sunshine (1977) were two of the more interesting genre efforts of the 1970s" and comparing negatively to The Hills Have Eyes (1977).

[31] AllMovie's review of the film was favorable, writing: "Anyone lucky enough to fish out a copy of director Jeff Lieberman's Just Before Dawn will certainly find themselves richly rewarded".