Hunter's Blood

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.

"Deliverance" might be the granddaddy of this popular sub-genre, but "Hunter's Blood" has got be one the better imitators of the fold. I love these backwoods horror / action outings where it all comes down to survival, reverting to instinctive methods to keep alive and this keeps the blood and adrenaline pumping throughout. "Hunter's Blood" actually begins slowly setting-up the well-liked characters and the harrowing situations they find themselves in gradually building-up, but when the bone-rattling horror begins its intrusively nasty and unsparing ride through the wilderness with the pacing and jolts never letting up.

A group of city men (father and son, two brothers and friend) set out for weekend hunting trip. However their fun is short lived when they encounter some psychotic redneck backwoodsmen, who after a couple of heated confrontations take a shine to the city blokes and then begins the fight for life.

Rather a traditional and simple set-up (with it being all about the stalk in a cat and mouse game), but it's excitingly achieved with many taut, suspenseful incidents that you can easily look passed its customary staples. It's well-made and professionally photographed with the strikingly detailed lush backdrop coming off the screen and the atmospherically oozing southern sounding music score camouflaging with the imagery and moods. Helping largely would be that of the strong, character actors the cast bestows. You got a steely Clu Gulager and a burley Ken Swofford leading the way along with Sam Bottoms (who pretty much takes charge with a resilient performance when the chaos erupts), Mayf Nutter and John Travolta's younger brother Joey Travolta. There's such a great, believable rapport built up amongst the group. As for the inbred redneck poachers there are fine performances by Lee de Broux as the leader Red beard and alongside him are Billy Drago (at his slimy best), Charles Cyphers, Bruce Glover (who's dementedly good with that cackling) and Mickey Jones. Finding herself stuck in the middle is the ravishing, but durable Kim Delaney. How her character finds her way in, feels like nothing more than a contrived secondary plot method to add much more tension, but it could have been easily left out. Also showing up is Eugene Robert Glazer, Ray Young and in his debut role is Billy Bob Thorton in very small role as one the rednecks that the boys get into a dispute with at a backwoods bar.

This movie is generally scary, especially if you enjoy movies where the theme is being "kidnapped or killed by serial killers and/or hillbillies". Kim Delaney is a hottie in this one too, but the typical dumb mistakes by the city slickers leads them to get chased all over god's creation, somewhere in backwoods Arkansas. When you receive warnings from the locals not to go somewhere, you should LISTEN!!! Overall, a must see!

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!

There has been much mention here regarding the appearance of a very young Billy Bob Thornton. For historical BBT fans, this is a must see. There is another interesting, demented performance from none other than Billy Drago. For these two reasons alone, "Hunter's Blood" should be a keeper. The added bonus is that the movie is actually entertaining. Somewhat talky in the beginning, it gradually builds toward a very satisfying hunted in the woods movie experience. Given that it has a 1987 release date, the movie holds up well, since there is little in the Arkansas outback, other than the Bronco, to indicate a 20 year old production. - MERK