June 6, 2008
DEADBEAT AT DAWN is gritty ultra-low budget filmmaking at its finest; and it should be recognized along side other influential '80s exploitation classics li...( read more)ke EVIL DEAD, BASKET CASE, and RE-ANIMATOR because it's just as important. It was released in 1988 and written, directed by and starring Dayton, Ohio's Jim Van Bebber.
DEADBEAT AT DAWN melds together action, martial arts, crime drama, horror, graphic violence and splatter into a hugely entertaining tribute to '70s drive-in cinema. The story concerns Goose (Jim Van Bebber) as the leader of a street gang called The Ravens. He decides to quit the gang and make one last drug deal before settling down with his girlfriend Christy (Megan Murphy). Danny Carmodie (Paul Harper), leader of a rival gang called The Spiders, considers Goose "fair game" now that he's quit The Ravens. He sends two of his minions, Bone Crusher (Marc Pitman) and Stubby to kill him. While Goose is out making his drug deal, Bone Crusher and Stubby force their way into his ramshackle apartment and brutally beat his girlfriend to death. Goose comes home, discovers her bloody body and is of course grief stricken. He's not grief-stricken enough to report it however; instead he disposes of her body in the buildings trash-compactor?! He hides out with his Vietnam veteran, heroin addicted father for a while.
There are a few grimy and depressing scenes with his paranoid, strung-out father before grief and despair finally get the best of him, and he decides suicide may be the answer. Before he can blow his brains out, Keith (Ric Walker) the new leader of The Ravens finds him, sobers him up, and brings him in on an armored car robbery that The Ravens and The Spiders are planning together. Goose goes along with it just long enough to exact bloody revenge on Danny and the rest of The Spiders.
That's basically what the movie boils down to - a revenge thriller filled with some excellent '80s splatter effects - knife wounds, slow motion blood sqibs, decapitation, and a spectacular throat-ripping (done just as effectively as any Lucio Fulci throat-ripping). The gritty look of the film comes from the fact that it was shot on 16mm reversal film stock; and as such, it achieves that pseudo-documentary look of films like TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE, DERANGED, MANIAC, and COMBAT SHOCK. The grittiness is also helped out by the film being shot in some of the seediest-looking locations in Dayton, Ohio. While most of the movie is lit with natural light or white light, there are some scenes lit with bright reds, yellows and greens that add a certain nuance to those scenes; and at certain points in the film there are these '60s style psychedelic kaleidoscope transitions between scenes that compliment the lighting scheme I just mentioned. All this adds to the richness and texture of the film in my opinion, and gives it that '60s and '70s drive-in movie look that Van Bebber was going for. The acting is as to be expected from an ultr-low budget film, but there are some stand-out performances. Jim Van Bebber as Goose has a great screen presence and is the quintessential anti-hero. Paul Harper as Danny (leader of The Spiders gang) handles his role well. But my favorite performance is by Marc Pitman as Bone Crusher (one twisted and sadistic mofo), especially the scene before they kill Goose's girlfriend. He's ranting and raving about about his nihilistic philosophy on life, and it includes such choice lines as, "Man that ain't nuthin' compared to the rush you can get when you're killin' somebody, man. When you're lookin' in their eyes and you're seein' all that life go right out of 'em. It's power." , "I hate people, man! I don't care. I don't give a sh*t. I don't give a sh*t about nuthin'. Man, all my life people have f*cked with me! I just f*ckin' hate people. And I don't care!....Awww! I'm the baddest mutherf*cker you ever seen, man!".
Jim Van Bebber's name should be synonymous with Stuart Gordon, Frank Henenlotter and Sam Raimi; and it would be except that his output has unfortunately been minimal. After DEADBEAT AT DAWN (his first feature film) he made the short serial killer/cannibal film ROADKILL: THE LAST DAYS OF JOHN MARTIN in 1988, and another excellent short film called MY SWEET SATAN (based on real life killer Ricky Kasso) in 1993. He made another short film in 1994 called DOPER. He began his second feature film, CHARLIE'S FAMILY, in 1995, but due to lack of funding it remained unfinished until DVD distributor Blue Underground helped fund its completion in 2003; and it was finally released under the title THE MANSON FAMILY. Van Bebber has also directed music videos for the following artists: Skinny Puppy, Necrophagia, Pantera, and Superjoint Ritual. I would personally love to see him make the film CHUNK BLOWER, which he shot a 4 minute promo for back in 1990. It looks like a great film for slasher/splatter fans. Someone needs to give Van Bebber some funding. The man has talent.
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