Rednecks, hillbillies, hicks, yokels, ... whatever they're called, the people from the (Southern) U. S. backwoods form the biggest assembly of stereotypes the horror genre has to offer! Also, movies featuring maniacal rednecks truly reflect the spirit and heyday of 70's exploitation cinema, as these types of films simply cannot be made anymore nowadays. They're always discriminating to someone, rough, women-unfriendly, and shameless. If someone made something like this today, groups of protesters would march outside the theaters until the owners have no other choice but to cancel the showings.
The wondrously unscrupulous 70's decade has various "Rednecksploitation" highlights to offer, including acclaimed classics ("The Texas Chainsaw Massacre", "Deliverance") and fantastic hidden gems ("Poor Pretty Eddie", "The Love Butcher"). I secretly hoped to have stumbled on yet another hidden redneck-gem when I got my dirty little hands on "God's Bloody Acre", but apparently there are a handful of good reasons to justify this film's obscurity status. "God's Bloody Acre" is a tedious and uneventful film, and unless you dispose of a high level of tolerance regarding bad acting, endless padding and a lack of coherence, you should avoid seeking out this film. The reasons for failure involve a combination of uninspired plotting and severe budgetary restraints. Director Harry Kerwin, as well as his entire cast and crew, obviously displays a lot of goodwill but he had very little to work with. The basic plot outline shows potential, but the rest of the screenplay was seemingly improvised on the spot.
The peaceful lives of three hillbilly brothers, living in their self-made tepee in the middle of the woods, get brutally interrupted when construction workers arrive with their heavy machinery and begin to deforest the area in favor of building a camping ground. Reluctant to leave the area, they plan to scare the workmen away, but the youngest and over-enthusiast brother Billy accidentally kills one of them. Convinced there's no way back now, the threesome continues to terrorize everyone who sets foot on their turf, including two couples camping in the woods. "God's Bloody Acre" easily could have been a uniquely gritty and violent piece of redneck-horror, but alas, it turned out as 85 minutes of sheer boredom with only a couple of pleasurable moments.
For some reason the script insists on drawing the irrelevant backgrounds of the camping couples. We witness the middle-aged couple struggling through a boring marriage crisis and needless flashbacks illustrate the reasons why the other two decided to leave everything behind. The sequences revolving on the three rednecks and their primitive lifestyles are the only worth mentioning. The oldest brother Monroe is the leader and Ezra desperately craves female attention. The coolest one, however, is young Billy. His hair looks like an exploded labradoodle, and he tries to nurse cut down trees with bandages. The massacres are as good as bloodless, the undertones are quite racist, the plot-twists are absurd and senseless and there's only a slight bit of nudity on display. Heck, even the soundtrack is disappointing.
*Note: this user-comments previously got deleted following a complaint. I edited some parts and offer my apologies in case it's still offensive to some people.
The wondrously unscrupulous 70's decade has various "Rednecksploitation" highlights to offer, including acclaimed classics ("The Texas Chainsaw Massacre", "Deliverance") and fantastic hidden gems ("Poor Pretty Eddie", "The Love Butcher"). I secretly hoped to have stumbled on yet another hidden redneck-gem when I got my dirty little hands on "God's Bloody Acre", but apparently there are a handful of good reasons to justify this film's obscurity status. "God's Bloody Acre" is a tedious and uneventful film, and unless you dispose of a high level of tolerance regarding bad acting, endless padding and a lack of coherence, you should avoid seeking out this film. The reasons for failure involve a combination of uninspired plotting and severe budgetary restraints. Director Harry Kerwin, as well as his entire cast and crew, obviously displays a lot of goodwill but he had very little to work with. The basic plot outline shows potential, but the rest of the screenplay was seemingly improvised on the spot.
The peaceful lives of three hillbilly brothers, living in their self-made tepee in the middle of the woods, get brutally interrupted when construction workers arrive with their heavy machinery and begin to deforest the area in favor of building a camping ground. Reluctant to leave the area, they plan to scare the workmen away, but the youngest and over-enthusiast brother Billy accidentally kills one of them. Convinced there's no way back now, the threesome continues to terrorize everyone who sets foot on their turf, including two couples camping in the woods. "God's Bloody Acre" easily could have been a uniquely gritty and violent piece of redneck-horror, but alas, it turned out as 85 minutes of sheer boredom with only a couple of pleasurable moments.
For some reason the script insists on drawing the irrelevant backgrounds of the camping couples. We witness the middle-aged couple struggling through a boring marriage crisis and needless flashbacks illustrate the reasons why the other two decided to leave everything behind. The sequences revolving on the three rednecks and their primitive lifestyles are the only worth mentioning. The oldest brother Monroe is the leader and Ezra desperately craves female attention. The coolest one, however, is young Billy. His hair looks like an exploded labradoodle, and he tries to nurse cut down trees with bandages. The massacres are as good as bloodless, the undertones are quite racist, the plot-twists are absurd and senseless and there's only a slight bit of nudity on display. Heck, even the soundtrack is disappointing.
*Note: this user-comments previously got deleted following a complaint. I edited some parts and offer my apologies in case it's still offensive to some people.