The atmospheric backwoods slasher JUST BEFORE DAWN hacks its way back onto Blu-ray uncut courtesy of Code Red Releasing.

A quintet of hikers – alpha male Warren (Gregg Henry, BODY DOUBLE) and his girlfriend Connie (Deborah Benson, GHOST FEVER), jokester Jonathan (Jack Lemmon's son Chris, WISHMASTER), his girlfriend Megan (Jamie Rose, CHOPPER CHICKS IN ZOMBIE TOWN) and his brother Daniel (Ralph Seymour, GHOULIES) – head up into an unexplored expanse of Oregon mountains and make all of the usual backwoods slasher film mistakes. They carelessly hit a buck with their camper, they refuse to help local Ty (Mike Kellin, SLEEPAWAY CAMP) fleeing from a "demon" that has killed his nephew, or heed the warnings of ranger Roy (George Kennedy, DEATH SHIP) about the dangerous terrain (and also lie to him about where they are camping), make flip remarks about inbreeding among the locals (based on an observation of the unusual number of twins among the population), disturb the stillness of the night with loud music, and further desensitize themselves from danger of a very real stalking presence with a series of ill-timed pranks. By the time Ranger Roy finds them, the campers may already have fallen victim to what the locals call "the devil".

More creepy than scary or all that gory – although it does sport some make-up effects and prosthetics by Matthew Mungle (THE DORM THAT DRIPPED BLOOD), possibly underplayed for the benefit of the climactic effect – what makes JUST BEFORE DAWN so watchable (and rewatchable) is its uneasy atmosphere courtesy of director Jeff Liebermann (SQUIRM), cinematographer Joel King (FRIGHTMARE aka HORROR STAR), the electronic scoring of Brad Fiedel – who would also score the period backwoods supernatural horror film EYES OF FIRE a couple years later – which makes heavy use of whistling that melds into the sound design, and the subtle touches of production design by Craig Stearns (ROSE RED), as well as the sketchy though still likable characters (despite his insensitivity, Warren is the most sensible while Connie makes quite the leap from timid to tough final girl). Although the scares are well-timed, Liebermann is more successful here with some unnerving set-ups that stages action within all parts of the depth of the frame (and work even if we can see predict what is going to happen). Blondie's "Heart of Glass" is heard on the camper radio early on in the film.

Released theatrically by Juniper Releasing and on tape from Paragon in its uncut US version, the film first hit DVD on Media Blaster's Shriek Show line in a far from pristine anamorphic widescreen transfer missing bits of footage here and there including a wicked shot from the first death scene. Code Red's 2013 Blu-ray and DVD lacked the extras from the Shriek Show two-disc edition but did feature an uncut widescreen transfer of the US R-rated version (90:24) as well as a significantly longer European cut of the film (102:24). The Blu-ray was one of Code Red's early forays into the format and was criticized for squeezing two cuts onto one BD25 – as was Code Red's NAIL GUN MASSACRE disc – while UK company 88 Films' subsequent BD50 Blu-ray edition gave the R-rated version more breathing space but the extended cut was also given a lower bitrate treatment that was about the same size as the Code Red. Code Red's new 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.78:1 widescreen Blu-ray sports a new transfer of the theatrical version in which the blooming of the diffused highlights is not as excessive as the previous transfer, with a better gradation of colors and contrasts – Roy's horse Agatha is now a grayish off-white with some pink – and the few saturated colors from greenery to bloodshed also have more pop. The DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono track sounds clean and is now accompanied by English SDH subtitles. The extended international version – which first turned up on a British budget DVD (the UK theatrical release and VHS cassette were of the American version with additional cuts to the tape for the first death) – looks considerably rougher with green vertical scratches throughout and an overall softer look. The added footage contains no additional gore or nudity, but consists of several bits of extended dialogue and additional shots that add to the mood (the US version is more streamlined, but the longer version doesn't really drag). The international version's DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono is not as clean as the American version but nothing to complain about, although SDH subtitles have not been included for this cut.

The American version is preceded by an introduction with stars Jamie Rose and Gregg Henry (2:47) reacting with veiled incredulity to Bananaman. Carried over from the Shriek Show DVD is the restrospective featurette "Lions, Tigers, and Inbred Twins" (50:49) which has been trimmed of roughly seventeen minutes consisting of Lieberman's total input (which suggests that the Lieberman commentary was excluded not because it would have be resynched from the cut DVD). Screenwriter Mark Arywitz recalls that the original concept by Jonas Middleton (THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS) had the backwoods family as a snake-handling cult who wanted to induct Connie which was jettisoned by Lieberman to Arywitz's relief, while Sheldon discusses working with producers Doro Vlado Hreljanovic and V. Paul Hreljanovic – who produced his subsequent directorial effort LOVELY BUT DEADLY – and clashing with Lieberman over the expense of building the rope bridge. Lemmon, Rose and twin actor John Hunsacker (GYPSY ANGELS) discuss the Silver Lake, Oregon shoot, the stunts, and the death scenes (the re-editing of this Shriek Show featurette has thrown the audio out of sync).