Turkey Shoot (1982)

“I’m the one you can’t break. I’m what you’ve been afraid of all your life!” 

One of a number of so-called ‘Ozploitation’ movies to have emerged from down under in the 1980s, Turkey Shoot is a bizarre curio, which stars a bunch of Australian soap actors alongside Steve Railsback and Olivia Hussey as a band of ‘social deviants’ forced to become human prey in sadistic hunts organised for the benefit of the sneering upper classes.

Known variously under a plethora of ridiculous names, including the opportunistic ‘Blood Camp Thatcher’ and Escape 2000’ (despite being set in 1995, for some reason), it’s a particularly nasty piece of work, blending an uneasy mix of dystopian sci-fi and sexualised violence among scenes of comic-book stupidity and… erm… werewolves.

Everyone involved in the production notoriously hated the experience. Hussey found the outback miserable, director Brian Trenchard-Smith reportedly poured beer over executive producer David Hemmings’ head after he made fun of him and various actresses outright refused to perform many of the films gratuitous nude sequences, which is understandable, given that they serve little to no narrative purpose whatsoever.

Strung together on a threadbare premise, which the ridiculous trailer efficiently summarises below, none of it really works and the inclusion of Alph, the aforementioned werewolf thing, only seeks to make the experience even more baffling. The whole thing makes about as much sense as Chesney Hawkes attempting to launch a comeback, which we’re assuming hasn’t happened yet.

It’s available to pick up on DVD over here, although, given that you can watch the confusingly tell-all trailer below, we’d suggest it probably isn’t worth bothering with.