I don't like to rag on movies like this, where someone with a vision, little to no training, and negligible resources overcomes all that to just make the movie he wanted to make. But there's no escaping the fact that in many ways, Deadbeat at Dawn is just not a very good film.

The acting is really very unconvincing. The casting too - I mean, Van Bebber could only cast the people he had access too, but these guys look more like plumbers than gang members.

The story is admirably mean spirited but ultimately pretty uninteresting. And although I love how he tried to take the gore to the max, I don't think he pulls it off with anywhere near the success of, say, early Peter Jackson.

There is one saving grace, here, though, and that's the editing. This thing really is fantastically well cut together, to the point where many of these shortcomings can almost be rendered unnoticable. This is particularly apparent in the action scenes - all those bad actor reactions and poorly executed fighting moves get stitched together into half decent action scenes - especially that final climactic brawl, which is actually pretty great.

I generally struggle a bit with these super-low budget, amateurish films because I can't get past the obvious artifice, and this is no exception. But if you have an interest in this kind of film-making, and a thing for brutal revenge flicks, you'll find plenty to admire in Deadbeat at Dawn.