In a totalitarian near future any citizens who are considered deviants, nonconformists, or socially undesirable in any way are rounded up in prison camps for rehabilitation and hunted down like animals by decadent rich folks. Among the unwilling individuals forced to participate in this ghastly blood sport are strong-minded rebel Paul Anders (the always intense Steve Railsback), sweet innocent Chris Walters (a personable portrayal by the ravishing Olivia Hussey), and enticing tramp Rita Daniels (a nicely saucy turn by fetching blonde Lynda Stoner).Aussie exploitation expert Brian Trenchard-Smith keeps the entertaining story moving along at a brisk pace, delivers a handy helping of delightfully excessive and outrageous gore, maintains a blithely trashy tone throughout, adds several amusing moments of pitch-black gallows humor, and even offers a satisfying smattering of tasty gratuitous nudity. This film further benefits from a colorful array of cruel and hateful villains: Michael Craig as ruthless warden Charles Thatcher, Roger Ward as brutish guard Ritter, Carmen Duncan as wicked lesbian bitch Jennifer (who hunts her prey with an obscenely phallic crossbow), Noel Ferrier as gross fat toad Mallory, John Ley as sniveling weasel Dodge, Michael Petrovitch as the slimy Tito, and Guy Mercurio as the sadistic Red. The presence of a ferocious ape-like mutant freak named Alph who eats toes and meets a messy untimely end provides an extra campy kick. The script by Jon George and Neill D. Hicks tosses in some choice clunky social commentary on the evils of fascism and mindless conformity in an attempt to give a smidgen of substance to all the cheap lurid thrills that this flick contains in ample abundance. John R. McClean's crisp cinematography makes nice use of the widescreen format. Brian May's spirited score hits the stirring spot. A total schlocky blast.

Deviants are held at a rehabilitation fortress until they are set into a deadly game of survival, in the hopes of returning to world society.Recently, I watched the director's "Dead-End Drive-In" for the first time. While it was alright, it was not quite the Ozploitation classic I hoped it would be. "Turkey Shoot", on the other hand, has everything you could want: humans hunting humans, an intense shower scene (with both men and women), and some sort of societal commentary.Whether there is such a thing as Ozploitation in the sense that all the exploitation films in Australia have a similar feel, I don't know and rather doubt it. But there are a few gems in there, and this is certainly one of them. In a way, it almost seems like a precursor to "Battle Royale", and is clearly a companion film to "Dead-End Drive-In" with its focus on deviants and outcasts.

Certainly something for it's time, this guilty trashy little pleasure, is great for you gorehounds, thanks to those score of sickeningly and memorable scenes in the R version. Disliked by most of it's cast, who excel in the acting states, really giving their characters what they deserve in a 10/10 effort, Turkey Shoot is like The Running Man, except it's shot in the tropical balmy forests of Cairns, Australia. Made the same year as the Kiwi sci fi future pic, Battletruck, set in post 1994, here this stories set in 1995, a great year, especially for movies if I do say so myself. Deviants: the good guys, rebels, basically a conflicting party who are trying to expose the truth, about the evil forces of dictatorship, who rule with an iron and ruthless hand, are caught and are sent to this sort of torture prison camp, which they must earn their freedom, which of course will never be given. To pass the time for entertainment value, a score of deviants are chosen, where they are let loose in the forest, half an hour between each other, and are hunted down by our bad dudes, led by the merciless prison director, Thatcher (a fine Michael Craig, who like every other performer, impresses and never slacks). Of course the freed score are really just sitting ducks, yes, defenseless as turkeys, set up for their own demise, all in the name of sick entertainment, so the suspense and thrill factor is minimal through the whole hunt. The baddies just appear and take out their objectives. Carmen Duncan, especially, is a nasty piece of work, as a femme fatale, sadistic lesbian hunter, deadly with a bow an arrow. Trivia note: Actress and environmentalist, Lynda Stoner who plays sexy prisoner Rita, wouldn't each raw fish, so fake fish had to be brought in. Pity we didn't see her in other films, as she had the goods, to further her career, and attracts the likes of Hollywood, may'be. Of course, being an exploitation movie, we aren't surprised by the familiar names associated with it, including the actors. This is total trashy junk for the mind's eye, a popcorn flick, just as we love em, where the over top violence adds extra topping to what some people would consider one of the worst Oz films made, period, while many others have developed a cult liking for it, as with Trenchard's other great other set piece The Man From Hong Kong, and to a lesser extent, Dead End Drive in. The truth be known, I love all these flicks, but their all so bad/good popcorn movies, only this one is particularly bad, despite it's tight script of some bloody great dialogue, but the violence is sickeningly ugly, where other moments are just ugly, at the hands of some of the vile dictators, Roger Ward's performance I'll never forget, as also the disguised Steve Rackman as a half human, half monster badarse, looking like Mr Hyde, in those old drink driving ads, you know the one where his eyes light up with emerald green. Each actor is just as great as each other, truly and our two American imports are fantastic too. Just take Turkey Shoot for what's it worth, a mind numbing trashy cinema delight, yet one BLOODY bad movie too.

Turkey Shoot was the film I was looking forward to most out of a marathon viewing of Ozploitation films, which included "Thirst", "Dead Kids", "The Survivor", and "Patrick".Not expecting a hell of a lot from any of them I was nevertheless surprised at some genuinely good moments in all.Turkey Shoot looked like a winner until one scene that lobbed it into the incompetent category. The scene where Paul rescues Jenny from the clutches of Mallory in the inferno. He grabs Mallory's weapon, shoots him in the balls, then grabs Jenny and runs for it, leaving the weapon behind.Sorry. Even schlock films need to pay attention to this kind of detail.