DEADBEAT AT DAWN – The Blu Review

Review by Roger Carpenter

Back in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s I was (over)active on the bootleg video circuit.  One of the directors I discovered in my dealings with other collectors was Jim Van Bebber.  His Deadbeat at Dawn was a legend almost immediately after it was released, and his reputation was solidified by a handful of short films which traumatized heretofore steel-bellied horror movie viewers.  Even in slightly blurry, multi-generational bootleg copies, his films carried a wallop not felt very often.  They were energetic, raw, no-holds-barred and outrageously gory.  They had to be seen to be believed.

Fast-forward to the present and Van Bebber is one of a handful of DIY film mavericks, along with Bill Lustig, Frank Henenlotter, Sam Raimi, Buddy Giovinazzo and their ilk, now revered for their hardcore 80’s output.  But of this group, perhaps Van Bebber stands just a little taller for his extreme persistence.  You see, he’s only made two feature films:  Deadbeat, which took around four years to produce and release; and The Manson Family, which was begun in 1987 and not finished properly and released until 2003.  This level of persistence is certainly admirable.

Up to the present Deadbeat has had several successful DVD releases but it isn’t until now that the film has found its way to Blu-Ray.  The storyline follows Goose (Van Bebber himself), leader of a street gang called The Ravens.  Their nemeses are The Spiders, led by Danny (Paul Harper).  Goose is determined to give up the life of a street hood for his woman, Christie (Megan Murphy).  He hatches a plan to make one last score to fund their escape from the streets, but while he is away making his drug deal, The Spiders raid his apartment, killing Christie.  With nothing left to live for, Goose turns to revenge as his motivating factor for continuing to exist.  He begins tracking down each member of The Spiders until a climactic battle with the crazed Danny ends his blood-soaked rampage.

Deadbeat is truly a DIY film.  Van Bebber used every friend, every acquaintance, and every favor—along with every dollar he made—to complete the film.  The result is remarkably consistent and of above average quality when you consider what raw materials he had to work with.  The acting ranges from wooden to hyperkinetic and over the top.  Though most of the leads and supporting characters have limited—if any—acting experience, they come across as reasonably credible for the most part.  Van Bebber himself isn’t a great thespian but he has the body and the moves for the fight scenes so it was imperative he play the lead.  Paul Harper, as Danny, leader of The Spiders, really does a fine job portraying a drug-riddled sicko without a shred of morality.  The scene when he reacts to his girlfriend telling him she is pregnant is pure sleaze, and likely unfilmable in today’s PC climate.  It’s shocking to say the least.  Marc Pitman supports as Bonecrusher, a truly psychopathic second to Danny’s lead.  Filled with rage and ready to kill at a moment’s notice, it’s another crazed performance that works really well.

Filled with gunfights, knifefights, fistfights, and, well…really any kind of fights you can think of, Deadbeat is action-packed and moves at a breakneck pace.  Perhaps its most famous quality though, is the sheer number of gruesome gore effects contained within the film.  Viewers were used to this level of brutality in the horror genre, and expected it in Hollywood films such as Predator.  But viewers were shocked not just by the gore the film contained, but the way Van Bebber lingered lovingly on these shots.  Sure, Predator was bloody, but contractually obligated to bring in an R rating, so the effects were edited in such a way that many times viewers weren’t sure what they’d actually seen.  Conversely, Van Bebber simply set the camera up and let it run with no cuts for each of his gore sequences.  The film quickly became legendary for both its gritty action as well as its grim violence.

Now, in celebration of the 30^th Anniversary of its release, Arrow Video USA has released Deadbeat at Dawn on Blu-Ray in a brand new 2K restoration from the original film elements and supervised by Van Bebber himself.  It’s safe to say the film has never looked or sounded better, and likely never will.  The film was originally shot on 16MM and blown up to 35MM, so it will never be perfect, but it still looks incredible and sounds just as good.  Of course, in true Arrow fashion, the disc comes with an absolute ton of special features, including a new commentary track with Van Bebber, Harper, and others (so keep your old DVD’s if you’re a completist as there are no archival tracks this time around).  Another spectacular inclusion is a feature-length retrospective of Van Bebber and his career called “Deadbeat Forever!”  It’s a truly superb, all-encompassing feature that walks the viewer through Van Bebber from middle school until the present.  Simply fantastic!

Van Bebber was also a prolific music video director for several grindcore bands and there are four music videos included on the set as well.  There is another short archival feature about a failed day of filming for Deadbeat, several very extensive image galleries, and a promotional trailer Van Bebber shot for the infamous, unmade film, Chunkblower (oh, how I wish that project had been greenlit!).  Finally, there are four of Van Bebber’s film shorts included on this disc, all of which have undergone restoration as well, and each which includes a commentary track of its own.  First up is Van Bebber’s “Into the Black,” a kung fu/fantasy film made as a high school senior which helped him receive a scholarship to film school; the next two films are the seminal “My Sweet Satan” and “Roadkill: The Last Days of John Martin,” which are simply devastatingly goulish and gross and were bootleg staples in the mid-90’s; and lastly, “Gator Green,” essentially a 16-minute promotional section of a full-length film which Van Bebber shot in 2013 to try and raise money for the full feature.

Wrap this all up with a new booklet for the first pressing only which features writing by Scott Gabbey and Graham Rae, and one can see Arrow has assembled a first-rate package for a seminal exploitation film.  If you are a Van Bebber fan, why are you still reading this?  Go purchase this disc now.  If you have never heard of Van Bebber but love exploitation and roughies, then you should purchase this disc as well.  I guarantee it will change your life forever.  This film is now available for purchase at Amazon or you can purchase the film directly from Arrow Video at http://www.arrowfilms.co.uk/category/usa/.