Goose (Jim Van Bebber) quits leading the gang The Ravens at his girlfriend's request but when she is brutally murdered in a revenge attack he goes off the rails (dumping her corpse into a trash compacter (!), then moving in with his drug addict ex-Vietnam vet father), culminating in a wonderful display of ultra violence between him and Raven and Spider gang members. I can remember way back when Deadbeat came out and the controversy that ensued in Britain, the BBFC denying it a certificate. Thirty-five years on and I have recently purchased Arrow's blu-ray, restored and uncut. Was it worth the wait? Hell yeah!! Van Bebber wrote and directed this low budget movie in addition to playing the lead character, and he displays some impressive martial art and stunt skills. Shot in Dayton, Ohio, the film oozes that urban downtown grittiness, such a staple of Grindhouse movies. I think it would be fair to say that the cast is amateur but they all put in good and watchable performances, though they look older than the "teenage gang" that a TV reporter describes them as. I have watched thousands of movies but I was blown away by the amount of violence and gore within Deadbeat's 81 minutes, plenty here to satisfy any splatter fan. Bleak, bloody and brilliant. "Her intestines looked like snakes. Little snakes coming out of her skin!" Wow!
Review of Deadbeat at Dawn
