Deadbeat By Dawn (1988) is a splatter-punk symphony on a beer can budget. Directed, written, and starring Jim Van Bebber, a film school drop-out who put everything into this low-budget action flick, even choreographing the fights and stunts. With gang members in ripped denim and head-bands, sporting switch-blades and nunchaka, this movie has been compared to Streets Of Rage, but rather than an 1980s neon arcade game, there’s something more grimy and grungy here; the synth score is crunchy, the blood is like red paint, and it’s clear that Bebber is putting his body on the line with each hectic stunt. That, and you can just feel that when they drive a car into a river for one scene, they don’t have any back-ups to spare; everything piece of action or violence has a consequence in this shoe-string production. Shot on the streets of Dayton, Ohio, there’s a primal reality to everything, even with it following a familiar exploitation plot. Bebber plays Goose, leader of the Ravens, who are in a gang war with the Spiders, led by the sadistic Danny (Paul Harper). When Goose’s girlfriend Christie (Megan Murphy), who dabbles in mysticism, and physic readings, asks him to leave the gang life behind for the straight-and-narrow, Goose obliges. After tragedy strikes due to Danny’s violent machinations, the scene will be eventually set for a showdown of revenge. Clearly feeding off the scuzzy punk vibes of The Warriors and Death Wish, there’s also a sense that Bebber is carrying off his own Taxi Driver intensity in certain scenes, like when he stays with his heroin-addicted father in a rundown apartment, or when he walks the streets with bloody soaked fists (clearly shooting on the fly to the gawking background passerbys). The violence hits hard and fast, even when the guns look like toys; Bebber gets enough visceral energy from his handling of nunchucks or the gory body blows. A triumph of cheap, passionate genre filmmaking, with energy coursing in the moving camera and editing in of the cityscape, all eventually escalating into a satisfyingly bloody fight across a train station platform. Marc Pitman is also a scene-stealer as the spaced-out nihilist gang member named Bonecrusher (it’s that type of flick!). Available to stream on Tubi. Recommended.
VHS Tracking 