Synopsis: Our story follows the father/son team of Mason and David Rand (Clu Gulager and Samuel Bottoms) as they head out to the Arkansas wilderness to do a little hunting with a few friends. After one of the hunters makes a wise crack to a waitress at a local bar, an altercation occurs with a group of backwoods inbreds (who of course don't take too kindly to city folk). The city boys win the fight, but not the war and the hunters soon become the hunted as their peaceful vacation turns into a fight for their lives.
My Thoughts: If we learn anything from this movie, it's that Clu Gulager ("Return of the Living Dead", "A Nightmare on Elm Street 2") is a bonafide badass. He basically plays the Burt Reynolds role from "Deliverance" (the film that this movie borrows the most from), but he does it like only Clu Gulager can. He's one cool motherf#%ker. The rest of the acting is average at best, besides a couple pretty good performances from Sam Bottoms (“Apocalypse Now”, "The Outlaw Josey Wales”) and the always creepy Billy Drago ("Vamp", "The Adventures of Brisco County Jr.") who plays 'Snake', perhaps the craziest of all the rednecks.
The director (Robert C. Hughes, "Memorial Valley Massacre", "Zadar! Cow From Hell") does a great job in that he never tries to pretend that this is anything more than what it is ...a hillbilly exploitation movie. Because of that, the audience could just shut off their brains, sit back and enjoy a movie that could have just as easily been called, 'Attack of the Killer Rednecks'.
This movie has just the right amounts of action and cheesiness to make a good 80's exploitation movie. It's also probably a bit more of a slasher film than most of the other films of it's kind. I would say it's a cross between "Deliverance" and "Wrong Turn". It could've used some nudity and a little more gore, but I always seem to say that. Overall, "Hunter's Blood" makes for a fun hour and a half.
* note: This is Billy Bob Thorton's first role. The only problem is, if you blink you'll probably miss him.
My Rating: 8 / 10
Okay, maybe we've already seen this story a hundred times before, but I just can't help it ...I love me some crazy rednecks. This one's definitely worth a watch. Unfortunately, it still hasn't been officially released on DVD in the U.S., so VHS or bootlegs seem to be your only options (not that I condone the buying or selling of bootlegs). A used VHS copy will run you about $12 on amazon.com. I've also seen it up on youtube now and again.
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