Turkey Shoot follows three new inductees to a futuristic totalitarian torture camp for ‘deviants’. It’s presided over by Thatcher, who organises what he calls a ‘turkey shoot’ in which a handful of inmates are set free but then hunted for sport by himself and his similarly psychopathic guests.

A stellar cast (Steve Railsback, Olivia Hussey, Lynda Stoner) leads a film in which everything is turned up to eleven. This is an Ozploitation film to end all Ozploitation films. In other words, it’s great fun and goes the extra mile. One example would have to be the member of the hunting crew who is a genetically engineered gorilla-human hybrid.

Camp, gruesome, sadistically innovative and an absolute hoot, it has to be seen to be believed. As it said on its posters, this is ‘not a film for chickens!’ But it’s also a film that is brilliantly directed and looks beautiful. The shots of the burning fields in one scene is an example of this.

I love that the camp’s leader is called Thatcher and there are no prizes as to why. This film would have gotten Maggie’s knickers in a twist. It’s somewhat ironic that the film bombed in its native Oz but was a huge hit in the UK. I thought the BBFC would have banned it on obscenity grounds.

I also love the fact that most of the film’s budget was gambled away by the producer. This meant that it was shot on only a quarter of its budget but that seems to have worked to the film’s advantage. Low budgets seem to make some filmmakers rise to the challenge and director Brian Trenchard-Smith certainly did and succeeded.

Turkey Shoot is pure cult cinema and reminds me of the brilliance of Bloodsucking Freaks in that it’s aimed at an exploitation film demographic and certainly doesn’t disappoint. Every target it aims at hits the bullseye. That’s no mean feat. It also encapsulates the time when exploitation films were packing out cinemas just before censorship moral panics started to come into force.

The first time I saw Turkey Shoot I was actually living in Australia. I thought it was one of the best films I had ever seen. This rewatching just confirmed that. It’s also one of Quentin Tarantino’s favourite films.

5 out of 5 stars