Just Before Dawn 1981

As two hunters venture into a dense forest, their excursion takes an unsettling turn when they stumble upon an abandoned church. Their curiosity piqued, they cautiously enter the dilapidated structure, only to be met with a gruesome surprise: one of them receives a brutal machete blow to the groin from a menacing figure clad in a checkered jacket, while his companion, Ty (character), flees in terror.

Cut to Roy McLean (George Kennedy), a seasoned park ranger, who’s initially at ease in his home before being interrupted by a vanload of five carefree teenagers - Warren, the chiseled blonde; Constance, his timid girlfriend; Jonathon, the goofy party animal; Megan, his provocative companion; and Daniel, the camera-obsessed nerd. Ignoring McLean’s warnings not to proceed down their chosen path, the quintet becomes hopelessly lost.

As they navigate through the wilderness, they narrowly avoid colliding with a frantic Ty, who frantically urges them to depart but is ignored. He instead dashes into the woods, leaving the group oblivious to the impending doom that awaits them. They eventually stumble upon a secluded campsite, where they indulge in revelry - drinking beer, devouring food, and grooving to music - utterly unaware of the sinister presence lurking just beyond their peripheral vision.

As night descends, the group retires to their tents, blissfully ignorant of the fact that they’re being watched. The next morning, they awaken to a tranquil atmosphere, but their idyllic setting is short-lived. A young girl, Merry Logan (Kati Powell), appears at the waterfall, only to vanish into the woods, leaving them perplexed.

Meanwhile, Megan and Jonathon take a dip in the lake, unaware that an unseen entity lurks beneath the surface. As they frolic in the water, Megan’s bliss is shattered when she realizes her companion has exited the lake, replaced by an unsettling feeling of being touched. Her panic subsides only when she spots Jonathon on the shore, prompting her to scramble for safety. The group’s carefree excursion has suddenly taken a dark and foreboding turn, setting the stage for a descent into terror.

As the group disperses to explore the woods, Jonathan’s keen senses are piqued by a fleeting glimpse of Merry, prompting him to give chase. His query about her name is met with playful evasion, and she leads him on a merry dance through the trees until they stumble upon an eerie clearing. There, she beholds a ghastly spectacle that sends her scurrying back towards the forest’s shelter. Jonathan, undeterred, assumes it’s the taut rope spanning the river ahead and begins to traverse it, but Merry’s hasty retreat sends him in hot pursuit once more. His momentum is abruptly halted when he’s struck by a machete wielded by a deformed figure clad in checkered attire. The blow sends Jonathan tumbling to the far bank, only for the rope to snap beneath his weight, plunging him towards a potentially fatal fall into the rapids below. As he scrambles up the riverbank, he’s confronted by the same twisted individual, who boots him back into the water with cold calculation.

Meanwhile, Megan and Daniel have wandered off to capture the woods’ serene beauty on camera. Their stroll takes them to a foreboding church and adjacent graveyard, where Daniel’s misfortune besets him – his glasses shatter, and he mistakes a looming figure emerging from the trees for Jonathan. Megan, ever the pragmatist, improvises a charade of intimacy with her companion, hoping to deter the approaching stranger. However, when Daniel realizes his mistake, he hastily pushes Megan aside just as the machete-wielding assailant closes in, striking him with deadly precision. As Megan flees into the church, she finds herself face-to-face with the same demonic figure, only this time, she’s met with a jarring revelation: the twins are identical, sharing a gruesome bond that transcends mortal comprehension.

Back at camp, Warren and Constance have reunited, their search for the missing teens yielding nothing but Jonathon’s lifeless form drifting in the river. As night begins to descend, they’re left with no choice but to revisit the scene of the crime, only to discover that Jonathan’s body has vanished into thin air.

In a separate corner of the woods, Ty finally crosses paths with Roy, regaling him with tales of the killer twins and their unholy exploits at the church. Roy, ever the stalwart guardian, takes it upon himself to track down the wayward teens on horseback, eventually stumbling upon Merry’s troubled family – a father consumed by madness, a silent sister-mother, and an eerie air that clings to them like a miasma. As Roy learns more about the twins’ dark past, he discovers a twisted tale of maternal tragedy, incestuous horror, and an unbroken cycle of depravity that defies comprehension.

As Warren ventures forth to claim Jonathon’s lifeless body, he departs Constance by the campfire, leaving her vulnerable to the merciless advances of one of the malevolent twins. The fiend chases her up a towering tree, where she desperately seeks refuge. Meanwhile, Warren discovers not only Jonathon’s corpse but also Daniel’s, clad in shades, and secures the keys before racing back to the campsite with the ranger in tow. Unbeknownst to them, the twin is hot on Constance’s heels, having already toppled her tree sanctuary.

Just as all hope seems lost for the beset couple, Roy intervenes, delivering a fatal shot that silences the twin’s murderous intentions. With the immediate threat neutralized, he instructs Warren and Constance to gather their belongings and depart the campsite forthwith. As they comply, Merry dashes through the woods in pursuit of them.

Upon their return, the atmosphere turns treacherous once more, as one of the twins launches a brutal assault on Warren, striking him with deadly precision. In a desperate bid to defend herself, Constance seizes her chance and crushes the twin’s throat with a savage fist, ending his reign of terror. As she rises from the carnage, her gaze takes on a hauntingly familiar quality, echoing the unearthly cries once uttered by the twins themselves.

Warren’s concern for Constance’s well-being is palpable as Merry observes their ordeal from a safe distance, watching with an air of quiet unease. The narrative comes full circle as the camera pans out to reveal the forest bathed in the golden hues of sunset, mirroring the serene beginning of this descent into chaos and terror.