Turkey Shoot-Escape 2000-Movie Review

Turkey Shoot (aka Escape 2000)

Dir. Brian Trenchard-Smith
Australia, 1981
Digi-beta 98 min.

"Futuristic women-in-prison flick starring Olivia Hussey, who arrives at a concentration camp for "deviates," and the first thing she hears from the guards is "Hey, fresh meat!"

This particular camp is run by a sergeant whose idea of a good time is to knock her down, rope her neck, and make her do something truly nasty. He also commands a midget to get out of line and perform her re-education speech, which begins: "I am a deviate, the lowest form of life on earth." She has to keep repeating it until she messes up, at which point this Nazi Cochise starts kicking her into a little pile of mincemeat.

Over on the male side, Steve Railsback gets caged up and tortured. Then these party animals burn a guy alive and try to gang-rape Olivia, but she zips up a guy's pants before he's ready to be zipped, if you know what I mean. Finally all the guards decide to let five prisoners go so they can hunt 'em down. Joining Olivia and Steve are a boxy blonde bimbo, a weirdo jerkola red-head freak, and a guy who acts like Bruce Dern.

One of 'em gets his little toe ripped off by a green-eyed werewolf in a dune buggy. There's a Joan Collins lookalike riding around on a horse and shooting exploding arrows at people. A lot of guys get kicked in the groceries. The werewolf gets his eye gouged out and his body sliced in half in a beautiful scene with an exotic motor vehicle. The Nazi Cochise gets his hands chopped off with a machete. Then Railsback goes nuts with a recreational vehicle and fights the whole Communist air force.

Exploding heads. Twenty-one breasts, including two stunt breasts. (Shame on you, Olivia.) Thirty-four dead bodies. RV crash-and-burn. Bimbo meat factory. Six pints blood. Four motor vehicle chases, with two crash-and-burns. Heads roll. Hands roll. Stomachs roll. Little toe rolls." (Joe Bob Briggs)

FILM FESTIVALS