Midnight Movie of the Week #72 - Escape 2000 (aka Turkey Shoot)

It's been a while since a movie's come into my life and been as entirely cool as Brian Trenchard-Smith's Escape 2000.  Originally titled Turkey Shoot, the 1982 film is an Australian concentration camp film with a The Most Dangerous Game style hook; as a bunch of rich folks who run the camp and what appears to be a real life wolfman (named Alph, which is pronounced like Alf!) stalk inmates that they've released into a secluded bit of forest. 

Utilizing Trenchard-Smith's unique vision of dystopia - and no doubt playing off the success of Mad Max a little bit - Escape 2000 is a brutal, gritty film that seems to be all about sticking it to your oppressors.  Steve Railsback and Olivia Hussey star as inmates in the prison camp who become potential victims in their captors' game, and the opening scenes - which follow a brief montage of chaos and rioting - establish how these two peaceful protesters ended up in yellow jump suits.  There are plenty of parallels being made to World War II and the death camps we've all heard about - which is a bold statement to be made by a pulpy b-movie.  that's not to say Trenchard-Smith is exploiting Nazi death camps entirely, you can rest assured that the shower scenes in this movie feature far more nudity than they do genocide.

Then again, the camps aren't a nice place to be.  There are beatings, rapings, attempted rapings, and even a bit of genital-stuck-in-zipper action. Women and children are certainly not exempt from the violent guards, and the rich warden (Michael Craig) and his friends aren't doing the inmates any favors either.  In fact, it's the rich folk who decide to loose some of the more difficult inmates into the jungle for a bit of sport - the "turkey shoot" that the original title warns us of.

Though Railsback and Hussey's characters get top billing and early introductions, the rest of the hunted crew are given a bit of time to shine as well.  Most prominent is Rita, played by Lynda Stoner, who a suspected sex worker who - like Hussey - has a bit too much make up on for the camp to be too called too sadistic.  Joining the chaos are Griff, a defiant and tall fellow who factors into one of the film's bigger overkills, and Dodge, a mousy redheaded fellow with Coke bottle glasses who provides a smidgen of comic relief.  I think it's only a smidgen, because the rest of the movie is seriously about different ways people can die.

I'm a little surprised to find that Escape 2000 is listed among the most brutal of Ozploitation films (read as: Australian Exploitation films).  I mean, there's some brutal stuff in here, but I found a lot of the kills to be tame in comparison to other things I've seen from the era.  This certainly isn't something like a Fulci film, which preaches gore for the sake of gore, and most of the kills are a little bit comical, like bloody versions of a Looney Tunes cartoon.  Maybe I'm just desensitized - in fact, I know I am - but I rarely found myself being exploited by what Trenchard-Smith put on screen.  (Then again, I was one when the film came out and am American, so what the hey do I know?)

What I did find was that I was having a ton of fun watching this story play out.  Railsback - who's long been a favorite over-the-top actor of mine - and Hussey are likeable as the leads, the supporting cast does a great job of diving into their roles (especially Roger Ward as the well-mustached head guard), and the musical score by Brian May (who I JUST NOW learned was NOT the guy from Queen!) is on par with his excellent work on the Mad Max films and Roadgames.  Trenchard-Smith has a ton of fun with the simple story, and Escape 2000 succeeds in a way few Dangerous Game inspired films have.  I'm pumped to watch this one again, and that's more than enough for me to quickly add it to a list of flicks I want on my side when midnight comes around.  With BMX Bandits and Stunt Rock showing up before it, 2011 is quickly becoming the year Brian Trenchard-Smith and I became good cinematic friends.

Midnight Top Five - The 2011 First Quarter Midnight Favorites Edition

I might be jumping the gun a little bit, but it's been a surprisingly good first few months of 2011 for me.  And a big part of that fun has been finding a surprising number of cheesy flicks that I kinda love in the first part of the year.  Instead of waiting to wrap everything up at the end of the year, I figured I'd take the chance to shed some light on a few films I didn't cover yet at FMWL which I've fallen for in the first part of 2011.

This picture might be here because I never learned to ride a bike.  Or it might come into play later on....

Bonnie's Kids (1973, Dir. by Arthur Marks.)

Mega-Babe Tiffany Bolling and Robin Mattson star as the eponymous lead characters in this rape/revenge/film noir hybrid, two young girls on the run after the elder kills their stepfather who is attempting to rape the younger.  On the run from the law, the duo find themselves caught up in a series of dangerous events, including attempts to swindle money from their rich uncle and the problems that come with gang involvement.  The film's biggest legacy is probably the pair of interracial hitmen who track the girls, which were an inspiration to that guy who cast John Travolta and Sam Jackson in Pulp Fiction.

I already stated her mega-babeness, but I must again say that Bolling is a ridiculously fetching femme fatale.  Her Ellie is the focal point of most of the film, though Mattson's Myra does get in her kicks. By the time the film rolls into its cheesy "who can you trust?" third act, it does a good job of pointing out that there are few characters in the film that we should be rooting for.  This turns the film into a sleazy version of Double Indemnity as it heads toward the finish, but it stays fun thanks to the fun performances of the actors and a quick pace that fills 105 minutes easily.  This is the kind of movie I'd love to have found at a drive-in of that era.

Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things (1973, Dir. by Bob Clark.)

I know I'm not the first to point it out, but Bob Clark is the director with the most schizophrenic filmography of all time.  After debuting with the gender-bending She-Man (no relation to He-Man, naturally), Clark went on to make this film, the original Black Christmas, the Sherlock Holmes/Jack the Ripper flick Murder by Decree, the adult comedy Porky's, the holiday classic A Christmas Story, the Dolly Parton/Sylvester Stallone flick Rhinestone, and (finally) the Baby Genius movies.  I'm no expert on demonic possession, but I've seen one on TV - and I'm pretty sure Mr. Clark needs a young priest and an old priest.

Speaking of demonic, there's Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things, an entirely tongue in cheek zombie flick that lacks tact or style but is oozing with a homemade charm.  It's written by oddball star Alan Ormsby, who plays a character named Alan, and features a slew of cheesy characters (mostly named after their actors, too) on a cheesy island being attacked by the undead.  Despite its flaws in tone and execution, the film is a lot of fun to experience as a period of the era.  While a film with this plot and these characters might fall flat in today's saturated zombie market, Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things isa neat little byproduct of its time that I fully enjoyed.

Midnight Madness (1980, Dir. by Michael Nankin & David Wechter.)

If it weren't for its name, there's little that would really merit me talking about this film on this blog - but that's never stopped me before.  An American Werewolf in London star David Naughton headlines this surprisingly adult themed (but still PG) comedy from Disney, which features a bunch of cliched characters on five separate teams (jocks, nerds, feminists, bad white guys, good white guys with a token black friend) competing in an all night scavenger hunt that covers large sections of Los Angeles in the name of fun.  It's an incredibly simple film, but I had a ton of fun with it.

The film is assisted by the real-world board game plot, and part of the fun definitely lies in trying to figure out the clues. (I will admit I'm a bit too "wasn't even born then" and a bit too "I grew up in Iowa, what the hell do I know about LA?" to get it all.)  The film's madcap sense of humor, which seems like a toned down version of a John Landis film of the era, keeps it fresh, and the side performances - including a young Michael J. Fox in his film debut and PEE WEE HERMAN AS A COWBOY(!) - add to the appeal.  It's an innocent (except for that whole token black thing) comedy that is one of the more enjoyable '80s films I've found in a long time.

Night Visitor ( 1989, Dir. by Rupert Hitzig.)

I've mentioned before that Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window is 100% my favorite movie ever, but I also have a soft spot for most films that borrow its trappings to make a different kind of voyeuristic horror tale.  Night Visitor is an example of that, as Derek Rydall (later the male lead in Popcorn) plays a teenager with a vast imagination who becomes enamored with his new neighbor (Shannon Tweed), but then witnesses a vicious murder in her home that appears to be a cult sacrifice.

Night Visitor is buoyed by a strong cast of established actors, with Elliott Gould and Richard Roundtree (aka SHAFT!) on the police side of the film and Allen Garfield and Michael J. Pollard (of TANGO & CASH!) on the possibly satanic side of the film.  While the film shifts in tone far too often - and the tacked on ending is enough to make me gag on my own spit - it's a fun little diversion with good actors carrying a silly film and making the whole thing enjoyable.  It's no Rear Window, or even Fright Night, but it's a fun cult thriller for fans of '80s horror.

Stunt Rock/BMX Bandits (1980/1983, Dir. by Brian Trenchard-Smith.)

Up until a little while ago, I knew Brian Trenchard-Smith as the guy who made Leprechaun 3 and Leprechaun 4: In Space.  Oh, and Dead-End Drive In, which is an amusing oddity from down under.  When I started hearing some people talk more about him - and when I won a copy of BMX Bandits from Severin Films and Trailers from Hell - I didn't really know what I was getting in to, except that the film had a teenage Nicole Kidman doing bike jumps.  What I found was a laid-back and playful teen-based adventure that featured some inventive camera work and a frantic pace that was right up my alley.

I followed that up quickly with another Trenchard-Smith project I'd heard of, Stunt Rock.  The film is exactly what it sounds like (unless you think it's about a rock who stands in for actor rocks) - a chronicling of stuntman Grant Page and rock band Sorcery.  Page pulls off some awesome death-defying tricks, the music's fun for a classic rock fan like myself, and the whole film is just so unique that I had to love it.  I can't wait to look into more of Trenchard-Smith's work soon.

Have any great finds of your own from the first part of 2011?  Hit up the comments below and let me know! (And yes, I cheated.  HA!)