Trapper County War (1989) Noble Entertainment Group/Action RT: 98 minutes Rated R (violence, some language) Director: Worth Keeter Screenplay: Russell V. Manzatt Music: Shuki Levy Cinematography: Irl Dixon Release date: May 1989 (US) Cast: Rob Estes, Betsy Russell, Bo Hopkins, Don Swayze, Noah Blake, R.G. Armstrong, Sarah Hunley, Ernie Hudson, Terrence Evans, Sage Parker, Royce G. Clark, Todd Maxwell, Wallace Merck, Mark J. Miller, Graham Paul, Parker Shelton, Red West, Dean Whitworth, Waycross Express. Box Office: N/A
Rating: ** ½
The one drawback of watching movies on Tubi (other than the ad breaks every 10 minutes) is that some of them are “edited for content”. I found that out when I tried to watch the hard-to-find 1987 crime thriller Deadly Illusion starring Billy Dee Williams, Vanity and Morgan Fairchild. I couldn’t believe it. I turned it off about 30 minutes in because I refuse to watch movies with the “objectionable material” cut out. I’m not that 12YO who had to settle for watching movies on network TV because of that damn insurmountable parental R-rated movie block anymore. Either show the film in its intended form or don’t show it all.
Although there was no disclaimer indicating so, I still have to wonder if Tubi is showing an edited version of Trapper County War, a backwoods actioner directed by Worth Keeter (L.A. Bounty). It’s rated R in the description yet the violence isn’t all that graphic and there’s hardly any swearing (they don’t use any of the biggies anyway). The question nagged at me the entire time I watched this straight-to-video cheapie about a couple of Jersey boys who get on the wrong side of the wrong family in the wrong small town. I still don’t have an answer as of this writing.
So what made me want to see Trapper County War? Last week, I watched L.A. Bounty which was also directed by Keeter. That one was pretty good for a DTV flick so I decided to check out some of his other titles. Trapper County War intrigued me the most and not necessarily for the plot, your basic Deliverance knock-off- i.e. city slickers run afoul of deranged rednecks for daring to be someplace where they’re clearly not welcome. It’s been done a lot since John Boorman’s terrifying thriller premiered more than 50 years ago. For me, it was more about the cast. How’s this for a lineup? It has Rob Estes (Phantom of the Mall), Betsy Russell (Avenging Angel), Bo Hopkins (American Graffiti), Noah Blake (Teen Witch), R.G. Armstrong (Predator), Ernie Hudson (Ghostbusters) and Red West (Road House). Speaking of which, it also co-stars Patrick Swayze’s little brother Don (Body of Influence) as one of the bad guys. I should also make mention of Sarah Hunley, an actress who had small parts in Ghosts of Mississippi, Waitress and The Kingdom. She plays one of the antagonists, a mother to end all mothers.
Two musicians from New Jersey, Ryan (Estes) and Bobby (Blake), are driving cross country to L.A. to seek fame and fortune when they decide to stop for breakfast in Trapper County. The first thing they notice is the Luddigger name on everything. The family basically runs the place and they don’t like outsiders. That’s what the guys find out when they encounter Deputy Walt Luddigger (Swayze) searching their vehicle without a warrant. He makes it clear they better skedaddle ASAP as in right now. Naturally, they stick around. Ryan made a date to meet up with the café’s waitress Lacey (Russell) at a dance that night and intends to keep it. Big mistake, bro!
It turns out Lacey is a Luddigger by adoption and “brother” Walt has designs on her. He’s none too happy to see those city boys again and even less so that the object of his perverted desires likes one of them. When he tries to physically intimidate Ryan, he gets his ass kicked. That’s your second big mistake, dude!
Tired of her living situation, Lacey accepts Ryan’s invitation to come to California with them. Naturally, Walt and the rest of his equally rotten clan aren’t about to let that happen. Let’s talk about them for a moment. The dad (Armstrong) is a raging alcoholic. He’s always drinking moonshine from a Mason jar. Mom (Hunley) is a real piece of work. She’s insanely protective of her family and will gleefully kill anybody she sees as a threat without hesitation. Walt, he’s a scumbag with a badge. The only reason he’s even on the police force is his family name. Basically, they’re a bunch of ignorant hillbilly lowlifes who rule by intimidation and violence.
Anyway, Lacey manages to sneak out of the house and head for the county line with her new friends. They don’t even make it that far. They’re chased down by the police with Walt leading the charge and arrested by Sheriff Sam Frost (Hopkins), a decent sort resigned to the fact that he answers to a family of vile criminals. Lacey is dragged back home where she’s to be kept under lock and key in her bedroom until the situation is resolved. I think you can guess what I mean by “resolved”.
Ryan and Bobby are later released from jail without charges only to be delivered right into the hands of the Luddiggers who intend to dole out their version of justice. They take the guys to a remote area where they plan to kill them after inflicting some serious pain on them. Predictably, the tables get turned and one of their own dies, Lacey’s simple-minded biological brother Elmore to be exact. In return, Bobby is shot and killed. Ryan manages to get away and spends the rest of the movie trying to outrun the Luddiggers and their lynch mob in unfamiliar and dangerous terrain.
So where exactly is the war promised by Trapper County War? That happens in the final 15 minutes when Ryan teams up with Jefferson Carter (Hudson), a Vietnam vet who lives the life of a hermit in the mountains. He has his own reasons for hating the Luddiggers and is reluctant to get involved until Walt and a couple of his buddies show up at his cabin uninvited bearing arms, threats and disrespect. That’s the last straw. Now he’s ready to fight. Like all Vietnam vets, he has a hidden arsenal of automatic weapons and is only too happy to go to war one more time.
It’s time for a reality check. A majority of these straight-to-video movies aren’t what you call quality films. To be blunt, they’re junk. They’re low-budget B-movies that probably would have played for one-week engagements to near-empty houses had they been released theatrically. Sending them right to video stores made more sense. There’s a better chance people will rent titles like Trapper County War than see them at the movies. It’s a matter of paying a couple of bucks for a one-night rental versus shelling out two or three times that amount for a ticket. As much as I love seeing movies on the big screen, I’ll concede some are better watched at home. It’s not like anything’s lost in the switch to smaller TV screens.
ANYWAY, Trapper County War is pure unadulterated junk. It’s shoddily made, clumsily edited, spottily directed, poorly written and badly acted. All of this would appear to indicate a terrible movie. The truth is that’s not a word I’d use to describe Trapper County War. It’s a bad movie for sure, but it’s one of those bad movies that will have you laughing in disbelief. The extreme overacting by Swayze and Hunley cracked me up. The latter’s character is taken to fits of rage when faced with defiance or impertinence. When Lacey refuses to lie about what really happened to her brother that night, Mom puts on her crazy face and screams at the top of her lungs, “YOU KNOW WHAT YOU JUST DONE?!! YOU DONE SIGNED YOUR BOYFRIEND’S DEATH WARRANT!!!” Swayze plays to the nosebleeds and beyond as Walt, a creep in cop’s clothing. The way he contorts his face when he speaks is priceless.
Russell (25 at the time of filming) looks older than her character’s 17 years and doesn’t shift into bad ass Avenging Angel mode until the end. She’s easy on the eyes though. Armstrong isn’t given too much to do, but it’s always good to have an old pro like him on hand. The late Hopkins, always a welcome presence, made a lot of these B-movies later in his career (e.g. The Fifth Floor, Sweet Sixteen, Mutant and Uncle Sam to name a few) so he’s right at home amidst all the usual genre tropes. He turns in the best performance of the lot playing a lawman who’s like a polar opposite version of Brian Dennehy’s bad sheriff in First Blood. In a subplot that gets about five minutes worth of attention, he’s in a relationship with another one of the café’s waitresses, the ever-patient Dolly (Parker, RoboCop) who just wants him to take a job with the state police, leave town and marry her already. Isn’t that what all women want?
The action-packed finale is pretty cool even if it doesn’t have nearly enough bloodshed. Why didn’t Keeter take the opportunity to really lean into Rambo territory and have his heroes set up all kinds of deadly booby traps? At the very least, he could have had one death by bear trap. What we get instead is a lot of shooting, explosions and bodies flying through the air. None of it even comes close to an R except maybe for a brief glimpse of an impalement. There’s one other decent action scene, a car chase with Swayze wildly firing his shotgun at a stolen truck driven by Estes. BTW, he’s okay in the lead but I can see why he didn’t become a big action star.
All in all, Trapper County War isn’t an awful way to kill a couple of hours. It could have been so much better though. If only Keeter had upped the violence, we might have been looking at a DTV gem. Instead, it’s one of those flicks that the viewer forgets by the time he returns it the next day (or same day for half-price rental).
