GodsBloodyAcre

God’s Bloody Acre (1975)

The movie opens with three men living in the middle of the woods in Florida. All they want is to be left alone, but a construction crew is encroaching on their home. The state has decided to build a campground right were the men live. They try and scare off the work crew, but accidentally kill on of the men. Later that day after the workers have left some campers show up to spend the night. The men thinking that since they have already killed someone have nothing to lose decide to try and scare them off. This leads to more deaths and much mayhem.

I can’t really say that this is a good movie. There are some serious issues with the plot. It takes far too long to get the campers to the campground because the movie spends way too much time on the backgrounds of the characters. This includes a strange bit with one of the characters quitting his job designing weapons and hitting the road to meet people. Of course later on he is forced to kill and I guess this was supposed to be a big deal. Though it is handled pretty badly and he turns awfully quick from a pacifist to bloodthirsty (literally). There is also the rather funny case of bad writing where the construction crew finds the body of their co-worker, tosses it in the back of the station wagon, and continues with their day. They don’t call an ambulance or the cops… Even in the ‘70s weren’t their rules about this sort of thing?

Again this isn’t a good movie, but I really enjoyed it. Not sure if it is because of some mental deficiency on my part or if I just don’t have any taste. But there is just something about a goofy drive-in movie like this that is appealing to me. There is such earnestness to trying to toss as many exploitive things into a movie that I appreciate. You have the crazy hicks, plenty of kills, some oddball dialogue and jokes (the workers reaction to the body is classic), topped off with that “warm” feeling that you only can get from a movie shot on 16 mm. The fact that the DVD from Code Red used the best source they could find and that was a beat up print with scratches and some discoloration only reinforces it. To me this is one of those movies that is made better by being seen this way.

Most of the kills are done on the cheap (as is the rest of the movie) but they are sort of fun. The best of the bunch is a guy getting cut in half by a bulldozer blade. You only get to see it after the fact and it is a simple effect, but it works. There is also a throat-slashing, shotgun to the chest, axe blade to the chest, and a throat ripping. None of them are that graphic, but again for a cheap movie like this it works. Plus I’ll take simple practical effects work over CGI any day.

If you have read many of my reviews or hung out here at Gutmunchers.com you would know already that I’m a huge fan of drive-in and exploitation movies. While God’s Bloody Acre isn’t as good as I Drink Your Blood or Bloodsucking Freaks it is still a good time. So if you want to kick back and get the feeling that you are sitting in the front seat of your car watching something silly then this one is for your.

2 ½ out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer