Escape 2000 (1983) New World/Sci-Fi-Action RT: 93 minutes Rated R (language, graphic bloody violence, gore, full frontal nudity, sexual content) Director: Brian Trenchard-Smith Screenplay: Jon George and Neill D. Hicks Music: Brian May Cinematography: John R. McLean Release date: September 2, 1983 (Philadelphia, PA) Cast: Steve Railsback, Olivia Hussey, Michael Craig, Carmen Duncan, Noel Ferrier, Lynda Stoner, Roger Ward, Michael Petrovitch, Gus Mercurio, John Ley, Steve Rackman, John Godden, Oriana Panozzo. Box Office: $1.4 million (US)/$321,000 (Australia)
Rating: *** ½
New World Pictures really earned my respect after I read about the bait-and-switch they pulled on the MPAA with Escape 2000. The version released to theaters in September ’83 was different from the one they submitted to the ratings board. The theatrically released version previously earned an X rating for its extreme violence and gore. When I read about this in a local paper in January ’84, I could barely contain myself. I went to see it the Friday it came out and reveled in the on-screen carnage being thrown at the audience. How was I to know I was getting my first taste of forbidden fruit?
For years, the only version available was the toned-down R-rated version released to home video. About ten years ago, I got my hands on the uncut version of Escape 2000 (original title Turkey Shoot) on DVD. It’s every bit as cool as I remember. Set in a dystopian future, it concerns a group of prisoners being forced to take part in a human hunt a la The Most Dangerous Game. This awesome hunk of Ozploitation cheese is wall-to-wall action and graphic violence. That right there is a ringing endorsement.
In this movie’s future, a totalitarian government runs the show. Those labeled “social deviants” are sent to re-education camps for behavior modification. The latest arrivals at Camp 47 are Paul (Railsback, The Stunt Man), a dissident with a knack for escaping prison camps; Chris (Hussey, Romeo and Juliet), a shopkeeper falsely accused of aiding a rebel and suspected prostitute Rita (Stoner). Little do they know what the sadistic camp master Thatcher (Craig, Modesty Blaise) has in mind for them. It’s sick and twisted, I’ll tell you that.
Thatcher offers them and another inmate, Dodge (Ley, BMX Bandits), a deal. If they survive a “turkey shoot” that he’s arranged for a few VIPs- Secretary Mallory (Ferrier, The Year of Living Dangerously), Jennifer (Duncan, Now and Forever) and Tito (Petrovitch, The Exorcism of Hugh)- they will be allowed to go free. The catch is that the targets don’t have weapons to defend themselves. The hunters, on the other hand, are armed to the teeth with automatic guns, arrows with explosive tips and machetes. One guy brings a hulking circus freak (wrestler Rackman) to the party.
WOW! Is this thing ever violent and bloody! The highlights include the following: a female prisoner is beaten to death by a sadistic guard (Ward, Mad Max), another prisoner is burned alive, a man gets impaled on a punji-stake booby trap, a man gets cut in half by a bulldozer, another is run over by a vehicle after being shot repeatedly with a crossbow, somebody gets their back broken, a man’s head in sliced in half by a machete, another has his toes ripped off by the freak (a cannibal!), somebody’s head explodes, another is literally blown to pieces by a chain gun and, my personal favorite, a man has both hands cut off then holds the bloody stumps up to the camera. All of this is in addition to the shootings, beatings and attempted rapes. In other words, fun for the whole family!
What is it with Australians and bleak visions of the future? One could argue there’s political subtext in movies like Escape 2000. It was made in the early years of the Reagan administration in the US and Thatcher’s reign as Prime Minister in the UK. That the warden is named for the latter only strengthens this argument. Could Smith have been predicting a totalitarian world order should this type of leadership continue? How symbolic is it that the premise has members of the upper class eradicating those who dare defy the establishment and its rules? It’s very Orwellian.
That’s one interpretation of Escape 2000. Still another is it’s a damn good Ozploitation flick with loads of violence and nudity. The showers in the detention camp are co-ed, but the emphasis is definitely on female anatomy. It’s odd that the guards harbor rape fantasies about the female prisoners given that they’re all castrated. It’s a job requirement; it’s supposed to make them meaner. Sex is permitted (while not encouraged) between prisoners, but pregnancy and homosexuality are punishable by sterilization and death respectively. This prison camp is right out of one of those Nazi-porn flicks of the 70s (e.g. Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS).
As for the acting, it’s exactly what you’d expect from an exploitation movie. Most of the cast camps it up very nicely. Ward is great as the most sadistic of the guards. Railsback is fairly wooden, but that’s’ the right kind of performance for a cheesy action flick like Escape 2000. Hussey does very well in a role we’ve seen in every women’s prison movie ever made; that is, the innocent babe in the concrete jungle for the first time. She’s no Linda Blair (Chained Heat), but still quite good. Duncan proves herself the Faye Dunaway of Ozploitation with her OTT performance as a lesbian socialite with designs on Rita.
Director Brian Trenchard-Smith (Stunt Rock, BMX Bandits) keeps it short and sweet at a lean, mean 93 minutes. The gore effects are excellent. Brian May contributes a great score. I could go on and on, but the bottom line is that Escape 2000 is great grindhouse fun. It has everything (and I mean everything) a true exploitation lover wants in a movie.
