#horror – #PressRelease – #JustBeforeDawn – #JeffLieberman – #GeorgeKennedy – #Slasher – #BackwoodsHorror – #CultHorror – #PhysicalMedia – #4K –
A 45-Year-Old Backwoods Slasher Finally Has Its Rightful Owner Back
One of the most underrated slashers of the early ’80s just had its day in court, and the man who helped make it walked out the winner. A six-person jury in West Palm Beach, Florida, has ruled that cult DVD distributor David DeFalco infringed on producer Vlado Hreljanovic’s copyright in Jeff Lieberman’s 1981 backwoods shocker, and Variety dug into the strange saga behind the verdict, which came down on October 20 after four years of litigation.
Hreljanovic, now retired, put together the financing for the George Kennedy-starring film with his father as a young man, and the rights stayed in the family. He licensed it to Code Red DVD in 2012 under a six-year deal that he let lapse in 2018, so he was surprised to later discover the movie streaming on Shudder and turning up on store shelves. DeFalco, who ran the horror label Dark Force Entertainment, maintained the title had been handed to him by the late Code Red founder Bill Olsen, while Hreljanovic’s team argued the key assignment document was forged and traced an unbroken chain of title back 45 years.
The other parties named in the suit, including AMC Networks, Kino Lorber and several major retailers, settled out of court before trial. DeFalco, who wound up representing himself, was ordered to pay $46,000 in statutory damages, well below the $150,000 maximum, and says he is shutting down Dark Force and walking away from physical media altogether.
The good news for slasher fans is that the film isn’t going back in the vault. Hreljanovic says he intends to release a 4K restoration of the picture next year, giving the story of hikers stalked by a machete-wielding killer in the Oregon wilderness a fresh coat of paint more than four decades after it first crept into theaters.
Title: Just Before Dawn (1981)
Director: Jeff Lieberman
Stars: George Kennedy, Chris Lemmon, Deborah Benson, Gregg Henry
Producer: Vlado Hreljanovic
4K Restoration: Planned for 2027
Source: Reporting and confirmation via Variety.
