The Bushwhacker

The 1960's, the very beginning of the golden age of exploitation. A decade which gave us such underground epics as The Blood Trilogy and The Undertaker And His Pal's, just to name a few. Some of these classics are M.I.A. and will never be seen by human eyes again, some are just unwanted, because they are completely unwatchable, and apparently, some have just been hiding under a rock for 40 years. I do believe The Bushwhacker is ready to come out and play! Alright, so, no credits, just the title written on a piece of wood, I'm cool with it. Nevermind the credits, anyway, the story is what matters here... OK, fine, not much of a storyline either. Who needs a story, anyway? What truly matters here in Exploitation Country is violence and nudity... yeah, that's it. A hermit (bushwhacker), living in the California desert, shoots down a plane filled with some guy and his three girlfriends. Either Mr. Bushwhacker is lonely and needs a playmate, or he's feeling ornery and feels like stalking, and hopefully murdering four innocent people, but then again, what's the difference? Like I said, not much in the story department. Guy and his girlfriends take their time walking back to civilization, and naturally, the bushwhacker takes his sweet damn time stalking them. Guy finds excuses to go off alone with one girlfriend at a time, which is where all that nudity comes in, and there's a lot, but nothing too impressive. Considered too offensive for the Drive-in circuit of the 60's, The Bushwhacker was forced into obscurity not long after its debut. In 2007, the print resurfaced, and soon transferred/released on DVD. Directed by Byron Mabe, The Bushwhacker is one of the sleaziest, pre-70's B-movie I can think of. The world just wasn't ready for such a grim combination of sex and violence, certainly no longer the case. Anyone familiar with Bethel Buckalew's soft-core-hick-porn-corn-ball comedies of the early 70's (Tobacco Roody) should appreciate similar qualities. The Bushwhacker ain't bad, were looking at an obvious Z-grade production, with atrocious acting, endless sex scenes, gruesome killings, grainy film quality, unintentional (?) humor, and just all around bad taste, hey, that's what 60's exploitation is all about. Welcome back, Bushwhacker. 7/10

I wanted to like it. I really did. It would seem to me that it had all of the ingredients that should make for an interesting flick. All of the elements are there...nudity, sex, and violence. Dare I say it's even somewhat historically relevant as it takes thing a step further than the "roughies" that came before it.

The only problem is that it's incredibly dull. Seemingly endless scenes of walking around in circles followed by more of the same. The soft-core scenes were...well, I've never seen anything like it. It's almost like they were afraid of each other, or had never even seen people together let alone done anything with anyone themselves. Kinda like what maybe a six year old would think people do. It's not that I was looking for hardcore sex as much as I don't think I've ever seen anything less erotic that's supposed to be erotic.

There is a substantial amount of nudity (sometimes full frontal at that). The women are quite attractive too. You'd think that would be enough to keep everything afloat, but after a while it grows thin. Yea...I know. I wouldn't think it was possible either, but they managed to find a way.

Well there's always the violence, right? Not really. The idea behind it, perhaps, but the execution left a lot to be desired. What should be the most simple of effects comes off about as poorly as possible.

I'm very forgiving of low budget flicks. Hell I'm not only tolerant of them, but usually take a great deal of pleasure from what I call the "cheeze element". Sadly even that's not enough to save this one.