Turkey Shoot

Directed by Anglo Australian filmmaker Brian Tenchard-Smith (most notably known for the Australian film that introduced Nicole Kidman to the world, BMX bandits, a kid/family movie, mainly remembered for the zeitgeist trend of the bicycle craze in the title), this post-Mad Max dystopian future movie tells the 'story' of a camp for retraining the 'deviates' of society, so that they may conform to the institutionalised norm as a whole. It begins with three people being taken in the back of a van to the camp of 'Re-Education and behaviour modification'. The camp looks much like the Nazi concentration camps of such films as SS Experiment Camp, or Ilsa: She-Wolf of the SS. The film begins as all of the usual 'nazisploitation' movies do, with a pinch of titillation and humiliation. This is not however a nazisploitation movie, as it appears to have a more communist edge; as the motto goes (in a quite comical sequence where 'chief' guard Rimmer picks out the smallest woman, and mock-punches to her face, whilst forcing her to recite it), "I am a deviate, lowest form on earth..."

The main 'heroes' of the piece, are Paul (Steve Railsback), and Chris (Olivia Hussey - also known for such genre films as It, and Black Christmas). These also constitute the ubiquitous love interest within the plot. Whilst the inhabitants of the camp are humiliated and ritually abused in almost gladiatorial fashions, the main plot stems from the concept highlighted by the films title (although this was altered both for the UK video market - Camp Blood Thatcher; and the US market, Escape 2000), where there are five prisoners who are set 'free' from the camp so that seemingly elite persons from society can game hunt them with no consequences. All this leads to utterly predictable outcomes, resulting in an attempted overthrown of the 'authorities'!

The film exploits the concept of game hunting with elements of gore (again ubiquitous of the times of production), but doesn't really explore the societal elements that the protagonists are trying to subvert. We know nothing of the 'societies' structural elements that may instigate any kind of revolution or revolt. What exactly are the protagonists subverting? What are the policies, or dogmas of this 'society'? We only see the camp, and are not given any knowledge of the non-diagetic world beyond this.

The rich hunt the imprisoned. That is about as political as this movie gets. OK, so all movies don't necessarily need to have a message, granted. But if you are going to make a film set in a dystopian future, the world needs to be constructed so that we may understand why this future exists. To add insult to injury - despite the finale having a touch of gore - it almost seems like an episode of The A-Team, only people actually get shot. I almost forgot to say; a certain 'thing' accompanies one of the rich on the game hunt that he "found in a freakshow", which is essentially a badly dressed wolf-man. It's as if someone turned up on set in the wrong costume, and the director thought "well, we'll make it work!"

If you love bad filmmaking, with no social commentary, and no element of surprise or suspense, then you may well love this. But, it is, and will always be a bore!

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'Turkey Shoot' makes me proud to be an Aussie! There is something so gloriously stupid and cheesy about this movie that it utterly fascinates me!

Set in a future police state, the movie begins with three new prisoners being taken to a "rehabilitation" centre. They are Steve Railsback ('Helter Skelter', 'The Stunt Man'), Olivia Hussey (Zeffirelli's 'Romeo and Juliet'), and Lynda Stoner (err, 'Cop Shop'). The place, of course, is a seething hot bed of brutality, sexual frustration and yellow jump-suits. Pretty quickly we find out that our three newcomers are going to be hunted for sport by the Camp's leader, the enigmatic Thatcher, his sadistic colleagues, and a werewolf in a dune buggy.

I won't say any more as to not spoil your enjoyment of this long forgotten sci fi thriller. Australians will get more out of it than other viewers, as they will fully appreciate the supporting cast of soap stars, 70s TV personalities, and at least two 'Mad Max' actors. In fact, I cannot go without singling out the unknown, unsung hero of Australian cinema, Bill Young, who plays Griff here, and was also in another underrated Aussie trash classic 'Body Melt', AND 'The Matrix' AND 'Chopper'! If this guy has a fan club, sign me up!

'Turkey Shoot' - If you haven't seen this one you just don't know what you're missing!

Ozploitation. Exploitations colloquial cousin. During a period Ozploitation films where popular and Turkey Shoot is a notable success amongst some of the trash of the Australians attempts at exploitation films. It's fairly controversial 'The Most Dangerous Game' approach has helped it gain a fair amount of cult following over the years and all though it doesn't hold up in the slightest to later films with the same honourable human hunting intentions such as Battle Royale and more recently Exam it still holds up nicely as the definitive Australian approach to the subject matter.

Turkey Shoot takes place in a dystopian future, now past, where 'social deviants' can be re-educated and returned to society through concentration style camps. The films narrative starts by following the lives of three newly arrived inmates and their view upon the extreme violence and toil prisoners suffer throughout their stay, mostly beatings and depravity by a hugely entertaining large bold Australian with a handlebar moustache. In the second half of the film the camps owners, safari British style hunters, round up five one-dimensional, to the extreme, characters (we have whore, rebel, rebel mark 2, bad guy and vulnerable) and force them to participate for their possible freedom in a human hunt, staring themselves, called Turkey Shoot. When faced with the dilemma of what to do when hunted each character uses their own personality to forge different ways of dealing with the situation and in true exploitation style extreme violence bordering on hilarity ensues.

Brain Trenchard-Smiths direction is riddled with plot holes but the right ingredients are there; i.e. gore, nudity and some kind of circus freak werewolf guy. What makes the film and its direction good is that it doesn't treat itself seriously, there is no character development or even some kind of message or lesson learnt by the end of the film. It just wants to exist to entertain its audience and being a film exploiting violence make money. All the factors that would bother audiences in drama films don't matter in Turkey Shoot and can be disregarded as its honesty in being a technically bad film tells the audience that it wasn't made to win awards or be visually or musically stunning.

Naturally the acting is bad. But as all the characters only have one characteristic for the actors to act in the characters are appealing as comical relief from the films serious, even if not shown in the film, underlying story. The English actors are great in playing their roles as the bad guys in typical posh ascents to stress that they are 'better people' than the Ausies. The person that stands out most however is Roger Ward as Chief Guard Ritter, his enthusiastic approach to the violent sadistic character fits perfectly creating a highly memorable giant Australian with a handlebar moustache. This along with the werewolf placed in the film just to chew peoples toes and such are probably the most imaginative parts of the film and make it memorable over many other films in its genre.

Visually and musically there is little going on. The film is shot and edited nicely enough but sometimes its conventional style makes you think that the director could have done so much more. The aspect that saves its dull camera work comes from the variety of lush Australian landscapes ranging from the sandy concentration camp style centre to woods, fields of long dry grass and beaches. This helps the film as a whole always capture your interest and I'm in no doubt that without this kind of variety in the sets landscapes the film might seem very boring indeed. Overall Turkey Shoot holds up as an entertaining popcorn flick and with its blend of extreme violence and lovable characters (for the most part, villain-wise anyway) makes a entirely watchable exploitation movie. If you are a fan of the The Most Dangerous Game style situations it might boost itself to a must watch.

Citizens labelled "deviant" are sent to a prison camp, where the motto is "Freedom is obedience, obedience is work, work is life." The regime is brutal and the only chance of release is by taking part in a "turkey shoot" in which inmates are the prey and the camp governor plus a few cronies are the hunters. The camp scenes reminded me of the many Naziploitation flicks such as Ilsa movies that were churned out in the 1970's, the hunt part has obvious comparisons with "The Most Dangerous Game" (1932). Turkey Shoot is considered to be an Ozploitation movie. In the UK the movie was originally released heavily cut under its original title but in 2003 Vipco released it uncut on DVD as Blood Camp Thatcher. This movie contains a lot of violence. On one hand a male guard savagely beating a female inmate was quite nasty but on the flipside some of the gore is quite laughable. A man has both of his hands cut off but the shape of them is clearly visible through his sleeves. One of the weapons used against the "turkeys" is a half-man half-wolf freak, played by wrestler Steve Rackman. This is one of those movies in which certain characters appear immune from machine gun fire, it is all very trashy but fun too. Amongst the international cast is Olivia Hussey, she starred in the horror classic "Black Christmas" (1974) and it sounds like they pinched a scary musical chord from that movie, only it sounds completely out of place here. Turkey Shoot is no classic but like one character says it "beats the hell out of network television". It sure does!

Known everywhere in the world except the U.S. as TURKEY SHOOT (there it was accorded the dumb aka of ESCAPE 2000) this is trash Oz film-making at its best! You gotta see this flick! A truck-load of 'anti-establishment' personnel are sent to this insane privately run "conditioning camp" set up and operated by a futuristic corporation for the amusement and dubious scientific study by its patrons. Railsback is quite obviously a non-conformist and gives the authorities what-for in no uncertain terms. He is marked for extermination.

Yet another derivative of THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME, the voyeuristic bad guys like nothing better than a "hunt" of escapees, re-hashed yet again in the 90's with Jean-Claude Van Dumb as HARD TARGET! You might even like to reflect on similarities (in concept ONLY) with THE RUNNING MAN. If then you like grotesque violence, lesbian advances, excessive torture, guys with a hard-on for girl prisoners, yellow jump suits and girls shot through the breast, this is the film for you.

Incredibly, it was an enormous hit JUST in London at the midnight show in a theater in Leicester Square during the summer of 1982. They were queueing round the block for the privilege of watching Lynda Stoner and Olivia Hussey try to make it through the night. Damned if I didn't queue as well!