Turkey Shoot

'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.

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!

Turkey Shoot is an Australian remake of the classic (And many many many times adapted) The Most Dangerous Game (1932) and in this guys estimation is not only the best adaptation but better than the original.

It twists the original tale by making it about a world where "Deviants" are sent to a glorified penal colony. To entertain the wealthy they are set off into the wilderness with a 3hr head start hunted down and killed.

Personally I liked this angle, not only did it work in theory but it worked in practice as well. Instead of playing the suspense and tension card like the others it becomes a full on action film and surprisingly (Considering I'm not an action guy) it very much works in the movies favor.

Turkey Shoot is a fantastic piece of Australian cinema and had it not been for a couple of unfortunate flaws could have been a true classic.

The Good:

Interesting twist on the classic tale

Very well paced

All round likeable movie

The Bad:

Looks and sounds very dated

Couple of spots fell flat

It is no coincidence that "Turkey Shoot" a.k.a. "Escape 2000" has a prison camp warden named Thatcher. For whatever reason the film played big in Margaret Thatcher's England. A nice assortment of women and men political prisoners are brainwashed and routinely tortured in Prison Camp 97. Although apparently an attempt was made to market this as "black comedy", it is really some sort of hybrid women in prison, hunted in the jungle combination. It has the required nude shower scene, along with lots of meaningless shooting and explosions. The actual turkey shoot pits armed evil types against unarmed resourceful prisoners. Although the whole thing makes little sense, there is plenty of over the top action, and for some unknown reason "Turkey Shoot" is strangely entertaining. - MERK