Just Before Dawn

Five campers travel into a remote mountain area of Oregon to inspect a property one of them has inherited. A forest ranger warns them that the land's residents do not welcome visitors and urges them to turn back, but the group continues anyway. After making camp, they hear unexplained noises, come across a strange singing girl, and begin to vanish one by one, stalked by a machete-wielding killer. Elsewhere in the same mountains, two hunters have already encountered the attacker in an abandoned church.

Just Before Dawn was released in 1981 and runs ninety minutes. Jeff Lieberman directed it from a screenplay he wrote with Mark Arywitz, with David Sheldon producing. It followed Lieberman's Squirm (1976) and Blue Sunshine (1977), placing it third among the films he directed. The cast includes George Kennedy as Ranger Roy McLean, Mike Kellin, Chris Lemmon, Gregg Henry, Deborah Benson and Ralph Seymour. On TMDB it holds a rating of 6 out of 10 from 147 votes.

The film is a horror thriller set in the American wilderness, using the isolation of the backcountry and the warnings of a local official to build tension around a group cut off from help. Its premise concerns a small party whose decision to ignore advice leaves them vulnerable to violence in a place they do not know. The cast mixes genre players with familiar character actors, and the modest rating and low vote count on TMDB suggest a small, durable audience rather than wide popularity.