Hunter's Blood

You thought "Deliverance" was painful ?! It is a walk on the beach compared to "Hunter's Blood" !! I remember seeing it in the theater when it opened in 1987, I went because I had been a big fan of Clu Gulager who played Billy the Kid in the 60's TV Western "The Tall Man"...so people over the age of 50 will recognize him, but the next biggest name in this is Joey Travolta, who, unlike his brother, has zero talent. Their fight against the demented rednecks is very suspenceful, but I have to warn you that there is a very graphic, stomach-turning scene...have fun!

Five macho but supposedly civilized men take off to the unexplored Arkansas woods to do some old-fashioned deer hunting. There they encounter a bunch of aggressive and large-scale poachers that don't really appreciate strangers trespassing their business. After a couple of banal showdowns follows a truly violent and merciless hunting contest that'll demand many lives! This rather unknown and underrated 80's exploitation movie opens rather slow and ordinary, with redundant speeches about manhood and the art of deer-hunting, but the exciting and genuinely suspenseful hunting sequences during the last half hour widely make up for this. This cool 80's gem has perhaps stolen its storyline and most essential moments from classic blockbusters like "Deliverance" and "the Deer Hunter", but the raw violence and effective shocks are director Hughes' very own merit. The film contains a couple of very graphic make-up effects, like a stabbing through the neck and a very eerie close-up shotgun killing. Many 80's horror movies feature undistinguished (to say the least) Southern folks as unhinged killers and the cast members of "Hunter's Blood" definitely belong to the most successfully menacing Rednecks ever. The filming locations are very impressive and even the photography is surprisingly professional. Keep also an eye open for Billy Bob Thornton in a very small role as background redneck. Recommended!

Five guys go down the deep South for a weekend of hunting, Fishing and generally macho stuff. However, one of them unwisely decides to start snapping pictures of surly locals when they stop off for a beer.

Worse still, one of them then decides to poke fun at a just as surly barmaid, and in the deep backwoods south, the locals don't take kindly to high falutin' big city slickers, and promptly attempt to extort them. One failed extortion attempt against them later and our boys are camping down, only to run into two spooked Sheriffs on horseback who flat out warn them about poaching hillbillies and further warn them that "people turn up missin' round these parts"...

Does this deter our protagonists? Hell no, they're here to do some hunting and fishing, and they're gonna, by gawd. Only thing is, our earlier hillbillies happen to know the forest like the back of their hands, and they're still mighty rankled at these city slickers besting them earlier...

Hunter's Blood is a nicely effective, well made and tense enough backwoods survivalist flick, that's well worth checking out, with decent performances, a solid cast (with Sam Bottoms, as well as a menacing Billy Drago, and a brief appearance by an unknown at the time Billy Bob Thornton. Who plays a hillbilly. Called Billy Bob) and nasty enough individual scenes.

Any fan of horror or tense thrillers should seek it out, it's an underseen little treat.

Hunter's Blood is one of those little-known gems that some of us are lucky enough to have in our video collections. The story centers around five buddies who trek out to the Arkansas wilderness (actually filmed in California) to hunt deer. Game wardens warn them of a murderous gang of poachers in the area, but naturally our heroes disregard the warnings and set up camp. Sure enough, they eventually run into these poachers and several gun battles erupt.

This film was clearly inspired by Deliverance, as so many other films about the outdoors are. With Hunter's Blood, the emphasis is on action rather than characterization or drama. That said, there are still plenty of tense moments along the way as the action unfolds.

Perhaps one of the strongest things about this film is the collection of colorful characters who make up the poacher clan. There are plenty of creepy looking individuals among them who you will know doubt recognize from other films. Keep a close eye out for Billy Bob Thornton as he gets thrown from the back of a pick-up truck that takes a sharp turn too quickly.

Lots of blood and gore. You will need a strong stomach for a few of the scenes.

The film isn't too long and the conclusion is quite satisfying. This film is definitely worth a look if you can find a copy. I haven't seen it on the movie channels for years.

So sayeth the Hound.

A father-and-son team of hunting guides take a group of city folk into the Arkansas woods,despite some warnings that people have been vanishing inexplicably.When they encounter a family of bloodthirsty,hostile and relentless killers,they become the hunted prey and must use all their skills and knowledge to make it out alive."Hunter's Blood" is an exciting and bloody shocker that owes a lot to "Deliverance" and Canadian horror masterpiece "Rituals".The acting is okay and the action is fast-paced.The stalking scenes are well-photographed and there is enough violence and gore to keep most of the horror fans entertained including vicious stabbings and shots in the face.I'm a big fan of backwoods horror flicks and I enjoyed "Hunter's Blood" very immensely.It's a crying shame that this criminally underrated horror film is so rare and tough to find.Give it a look.8 out of 10.