A Caçada do Futuro

Set in a totalitarian future society, this film has a bleak but quite vividly drawn vision of the world...for its first 20 minutes or so; then it turns into a straight action-chase adventure. The uncut 90-minute version is extremely gory, but some of the effects are rather lame. Nevertheless, it's a fast-paced, trashily entertaining film, and the actors are adequate for the little they're asked to do. (**)

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!

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