Sam Bottoms, Clu Gulager, and his hunting buddies take city boy Joey Travolta out into the woods on a deer hunting trip in this entertaining Deliverance clone. Along the way, they anger some local rednecks in a bar and get into a brawl. Once in the woods, they are attacked by a tribe of inbred hillbillies who use the woods as their private poaching ground. They try to pick the hunting party off one by one until Sam digs deep and turns the tables on those backwoods loonies.
Hunter’s Blood suffers from some erratic pacing and deliberate stalling tactics. However, the cast is so great that you can easily savor their presence even when the movie is spinning its wheels. The villains are especially well-cast. Any inbred crew that contains Billy Drago, Bruce Glover, and Mickey Jones is one to watch out for. We also have the great Charles Cyphers as the ringleader who works at a meat packing plant, and there’s even Billy Bob Thornton making his film debut in a blink-and-you-miss-it appearance.
I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for Joey Travolta. He should’ve been at least half as huge as his brother John. He delivers a great performance as the clueless city putz who’s in way over his head.
Sure, it may be a tad overlong, but the deaths are pretty gruesome. Some moments resemble an Italian cannibal movie are there are severed heads, skinned bodies, and a great exploded head gag. The scenes of Sam Bottoms going all kinds of Rambo on a bunch of character actors in the wilderness are enormously crowd-pleasing too.
Besides, how many times do you get to see Clu Gulager defending Joey Travolta’s honor from the likes of a horny Billy Drago?
Also noteworthy: The soundtrack, which is composed by Hamilton, Joe Frank, and… uh… Weber? Remember Hamilton, Joe Frank, and Reynolds of “Don’t Pull Your Love” fame? Well, Reynolds must’ve pulled his love out on the band by this time in their career as he’s nowhere to be found. Let me tell you something: Weber is no Reynolds. I guess Hamilton and Joe Frank COULD’VE gone on as a duo, but they realized they were nothing without that third name on the marquee.
Although the cast is packed with lots of big names, it is Ken Swofford who has the best line of the movie. While pontificating on the importance of hunting and masculinity, he says, “A man’s gotta feel his balls!”
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