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Escape 2000 More at IMDbPro »Turkey Shoot (original title)

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40 reviews in total

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16 out of 23 people found the following review useful:
Entertaining trash., 17 March 2002

Author: gridoon

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. (**)

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9 out of 11 people found the following review useful:
Fun, Goofy, Weird "Survival" Film From Australia..., 15 August 2006

Author: EVOL666 from St. John's Abortion Clinic

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

I gotta say that I got a kick out of TURKEY SHOOT. Just the sort of strange hybrid type film that I liked to see come out of the 1980s. Part sci-fi, part horror, part exploit film - TURKEY SHOOT pretty much has it all, and somehow blends it all together well, without becoming too "heavy-handed" with any specific elements. A bit disjointed and silly at times for as "serious" as the film seems to take itself - but definitely enjoyable...

The film takes place in the future (which at this point looks pretty outdated, and probably didn't look all that "futuristic" for 1982 either...) where a totalitarian government is in control and obedience to the State is all that is accepted. Anyone who dissents or disobeys is sent to a camp for "deviants" for reprogramming. Camp Thatcher (named after the Head of the camp) is supposed to be the worst-of-the-worst as far as the camps go, and a new group of deviants, including a timid (but smokin') female, another girl who's a little tougher, and a guy who is all about anti-establishment and has escaped other camps before, are subjected to the hardships and torture that Camp Thatcher has to offer. To keep things interesting, Thatcher comes up with a MOST DANGEROUS GAME-style amusement - hunting prisoners. The new recruits along with two others are chosen, and are freed as game - under the agreement that if they can avoid death til sundown - they're free to leave the camp as rehabilitated citizens...but of course it's not quite that simple...

TURKEY SHOOT is action-packed, violent, and a bit gorier than I would have expected - all good things. The whole rehabilitation and behavior modification camp was actually unnecessary to the storyline for the most part, but it worked in the context of the film. There are some silly things that I have no idea why they were thrown in (the "werewolf" circus creature, anyone???) - but what the hell - there's not a whole lot of rhyme-or-reason to this film, it's just a good time with an excuse to show a bunch of gratuitous violence and a titty or two. Recommended for early-80s Roger Corman-style exploit/action fans - others will probably find it cheezy...8/10

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13 out of 19 people found the following review useful:
Very exciting and violent..., 10 March 2000

Author: BUTCHER-5 from Poland

The "Turkey Shoot" is one of my favourite films ever.Original music by Brian May,plenty of violence,blood and torture and two gorgeous ladies:very charming Olivia Hussey(she is so sexy in this one!)and Carmen Duncan.Some of the scenes of mayhem are really over-the-top for example machete in head and many more.To summarize,this picture is very exciting and memorable.I would give it a perfect 10 out of 10,mainly for creativity and uniqueness.Check it out,if you can find it-it's rather difficult to locate this title.Many people gave it 1-don't listen to them.Watch it for yourself.

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8 out of 11 people found the following review useful:
mean-spirited torture and stalking fun!, 5 August 2006

Author: Scott-from-Modesto (andrea_yates_clogged_drain@comcast.net) from United States

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Turkey Shoot (aka Blood Camp Thatcher) is one of those films that really tickles my nipples. It's cheesy and ludicrous to be sure. It's supposed to take place in the future but I have no idea how you're supposed to be able to tell that because all the equipment and whatnot used in the picture is stuff that was available in the early eighties, save for a eugenic man-beast that sniffs out human prey. This truly is enjoyable stuff despite its many asinine characteristics.

Steve Railsback and Olivia Hussey are prisoners in a camp for people that tried too hard to be individuals in a future where conformity is strictly enforced. Railsback as always is your basic rugged bad boy hero and Hussey is an attractive piece of meat who gets fondled inappropriately. Camp Thatcher is the name of the place and the prisoners are miserable, so when the commander Thatcher offers some prisoners a chance to go free if they are willing to be hunted by his scummy staff, all involved take the man up on the offer. This leads to mêlées of exploding and/or poisoned crossbow bolts, guns, gore, and the aforementioned man-beast getting accidentally run into with a steel plow by his handler, thus separating his torso from his still kicking legs. Yum!

Turkey Shoot's a good dose of fun stuff, somewhat cheesy but that's definitely forgivable. The villains are especially villainous (like characters on Star Trek) and the good guys are mostly killed off! Give this Aussie-produced trash-fest a look--8/10.

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5 out of 6 people found the following review useful:
Target practice., 2 February 2007

Author: lost-in-limbo from the Mad Hatter's tea party.

Set in the near future, the world is dominated by a strictly malevolent society that throws 'social deviants' who don't conform with these rules into maximum-security behaviour modification camps. The latest arrivals to the camp warden Thatcher's terror camp are the spirited fighter Paul Anders, the uneasy Chris Walters and the game Rita Daniels. Things are tough going and gruelling cruel, but they are given a chance of freedom. That's if they take part in a survival hunt called the "Turkey Shoot", where they would be released if they survive the twenty-four hours.

The Australian production "Turkey Shoot" was a complete hoot (or for some a shocker)! This unsparingly cheapjack action exploitation crossed horror / sci-fi fare only has one thing on mind - crass entertainment. Everything about it is on the fast track and there's hardly any thought of letting up. Despite being a ultra-campy and sadistically violent variant of "The Most Dangerous Game" and George Orwell's "1984" theme, the deranged premise is downright silly as they seem play it straight. There's nothing really to work off it as it rather one-dimensional material. The cheekily black subject matter isn't much of a satire (which from the original script sounded like it could've been), but its hokey dialogues, ghastly splatter and outrageously impulsive actions make this schlock highly watchable. Especially one worthy head explosion!

The array of performances were suitable for this type of film. Olivia Hussy looks mopish, but definitely petrified (she wasn't just acting if you watch the DVD extras), but fits the bill. Steve Railsback is rather intense in the heroine role and buxom Lynda Stoner makes the most out of her character. A classy Michael Craig is strikingly serviceable as the strenuously cold-blooded camp warden Thatcher. Roger Ward is superb as the devilishly brutal right hand Chief Guard Ritter and Carmen Duncan is terrifically vindictive with that crossbow as one of bloodthirsty hunters. Noel Ferrier, Bill Young and a twitchy John Ley make up the rest of the support cast. Director Brian Trenchard-Smith boldly goes all out and throws caution to the wind with snappy pacing, truck-load of pyrotechnics and flair to boot. He does an exceptional job with the hassles and pressures that shaped and lurked on this hazarded product. The picture perfect location (shot in the North Queensland) of the vast sprawling landscape adds another element to the mixture and Brian May's uncannily throbbing electronic music score gels with on-going scenes and moods.

Hearing all the troubles that disrupted this project (like budget chops, the film's production time being cut short, the opening part of script being erased and uncomfortable actors) it could have been some thing of decent quality. Anyhow you can only do with what you got and its welcoming trash that's not trying to be anything else. That's the best way to take this diverting turkey.

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7 out of 11 people found the following review useful:
Turkey or THE great lost Aussie dystopic b-grade classic?, 10 November 2001
Author: Infofreak from Perth, Australia

'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!

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1 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
Muddled exploitation, 13 February 2011
Author: tomgillespie2002 from United Kingdom

Directed by Anglo Australian filmmaker Brian Tenchard-Smith (most notably known for the Australian film that introduced Nicole Kidman to the world, BMX bandits, a kid/family movie, mainly remembered for the zeitgeist trend of the bicycle craze in the title), this post-Mad Max dystopian future movie tells the 'story' of a camp for retraining the 'deviates' of society, so that they may conform to the institutionalised norm as a whole. It begins with three people being taken in the back of a van to the camp of 'Re-Education and behaviour modification'. The camp looks much like the Nazi concentration camps of such films as SS Experiment Camp, or Ilsa: She-Wolf of the SS. The film begins as all of the usual 'nazisploitation' movies do, with a pinch of titillation and humiliation. This is not however a nazisploitation movie, as it appears to have a more communist edge; as the motto goes (in a quite comical sequence where 'chief' guard Rimmer picks out the smallest woman, and mock-punches to her face, whilst forcing her to recite it), "I am a deviate, lowest form on earth..."

The main 'heroes' of the piece, are Paul (Steve Railsback), and Chris (Olivia Hussey - also known for such genre films as It, and Black Christmas). These also constitute the ubiquitous love interest within the plot. Whilst the inhabitants of the camp are humiliated and ritually abused in almost gladiatorial fashions, the main plot stems from the concept highlighted by the films title (although this was altered both for the UK video market - Camp Blood Thatcher; and the US market, Escape 2000), where there are five prisoners who are set 'free' from the camp so that seemingly elite persons from society can game hunt them with no consequences. All this leads to utterly predictable outcomes, resulting in an attempted overthrown of the 'authorities'!

The film exploits the concept of game hunting with elements of gore (again ubiquitous of the times of production), but doesn't really explore the societal elements that the protagonists are trying to subvert. We know nothing of the 'societies' structural elements that may instigate any kind of revolution or revolt. What exactly are the protagonists subverting? What are the policies, or dogmas of this 'society'? We only see the camp, and are not given any knowledge of the non-diagetic world beyond this.

The rich hunt the imprisoned. That is about as political as this movie gets. OK, so all movies don't necessarily need to have a message, granted. But if you are going to make a film set in a dystopian future, the world needs to be constructed so that we may understand why this future exists. To add insult to injury - despite the finale having a touch of gore - it almost seems like an episode of The A-Team, only people actually get shot. I almost forgot to say; a certain 'thing' accompanies one of the rich on the game hunt that he "found in a freakshow", which is essentially a badly dressed wolf-man. It's as if someone turned up on set in the wrong costume, and the director thought "well, we'll make it work!"

If you love bad filmmaking, with no social commentary, and no element of surprise or suspense, then you may well love this. But, it is, and will always be a bore!

www.the-wrath-of-blog.blogspot.com

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1 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
Hunting is the national sport...and people are the prey!, 12 August 2009

Author: Tortoisemogwai from England

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.

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1 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
Average, feels derivative and low budget, 8 March 2008

Author: Bruce from Columbus, OH

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

This movie feels extremely derivative - when I watch it, I get the feeling that I have seen similar scenes from a number of other movies - Bridge over the River Kwai opening, when the older inmates look a the new arrivals (early in the film), someone with coke bottle glasses which reminds me of Dustin Hoffman's character in Papillion, the somewhat sadistic camp head guard - Cool Hand Luke and, in particular, the little known "The Hill" - overall, predictable. Other than the nudity and the scenes of the F-111s flying around - it's really just a bit of forgettable fluff.

Also, I have the supposedly uncut version - I did see this film on cable years ago, and frankly I don't understand what the additional scenes are that made up this 10 minutes. It may be some of the graphic violence, nudity and swearing.

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3 out of 5 people found the following review useful:
Violent futuristic survival thriller., 14 August 2009

Author: HumanoidOfFlesh from Chyby, Poland

I remember seeing "Turkey Shoot" for the first time several years ago and it surely left the lasting impression on me.Set in a totalitarian future Paul(Steve Railsback),Rita(Lynda Stoner)and Chris(Olivia Hussey)have been labelled 'deviants' by the government and are transported to a correctional camp where prisoners are brought into line or tortured and killed.The correctional camp is led by cruel Mr.Thatcher,whose motto goes like this:"freedom is obedience;obedience is work;work is life".It's time to begin 'turkey shoot',in which inmates,given a head start,are then hunted by camp authorities armed with guns,tranquilizer darts,exploding arrows,bazookas and a cannibal wolf-man."Turkey Shoot" surely moves fast.It's full of violence,torture and gore and I must say that Orwellian concept is a nice touch.9 out of 10.A cult classic!

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