Hunter's Blood

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.

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

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!

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!