Woodyanders Rugged Vietnam veteran mechanic Frank (an intense and excellent performance by Muse Watson), his amiable firefighter buddy Steve (a likable turn by Timothy Gibbs), wiseguy Al (Lou Martini, Jr.), eager young Lenny (Wass Stevens), and smartaleck Charlie (an amusingly sharp-tongued Tony Travis) run afoul of a vicious family of crazed cannibal hillbillies while embarking on a hunting expedition in the deep woods. Director Ron Sperling relates the absorbing story at a steady pace, maintains a suitably tough and gritty no-nonsense tone throughout, and punctuates the grisly story with startling moments of extremely raw and gruesome in-your-face violence. Phillip "Chick" Faicco's script may be trite, but it still possesses the right wicked ingredients to make for a pleasingly harsh and hard-edged Grade B fright flick. The game no-name cast all deliver acceptable performances. The main characters are well-drawn and engaging. The rednecks are a colorful bunch of sick hick degenerates: Matthew Cowles as grizzled patriarch Mitch, Raynor Scheine as the drawling, laid-back Roy, Patrick Cooley as hulking, boastful chromedome brute Jed, Peter Linari as creepy mute Ben, Lorin Donadio as sexy spitfire Bobbi-Jo, Jefferson Slinkard as the scraggly Wilbur, and Duke Valenti as leering behemoth Jimbo. Ben Dolphin's effectively grainy cinematography and the funky, syncopated score by Ed Terry and Ron Sperling both do the trick. Better still, there's a handy helping of ghastly gore and a decent smattering of gratuitous female nudity and soft-core sex. While this picture starts out really slow and talky, it kicks into thrilling gear once the hunt is underway and overall rates as a welcome and refreshing departure from the usual teens in jeopardy fare. A cool little low-budget horror outing.

alangoodenough this film will not challenge you in any way at all. But what it will do is keep you entertained for a few hours. The budget is non existent, other than a few one liners the dialogue is stiff and unnatural. The acting is awful for the most part and there are some flashback scenes that are just cringe worthy. The film just feels like low budget 70s horror and works very well because of it. The sound track consists of one song that sounds like bad second generation grunge but fits in well with the movie. If you like low budget horror then check this out!

Paul Andrews Season of the Hunted stats with Steve (Timothy Gibbs) convincing his friend Frank (Muse Watson) to accompany him on a deer hunting trip he has arranged by e-mail through a website, Frank agrees & on the morning of 'November 30, 2001' together with three of their friends Al (Lou Martini Jr.), Lenny (Wass M. Stevens) & Charlie (Tony Travis) they head off for the remote backwoods location where they have been told to meet up with the owner who turns out to be a hillbillie named Mitch (Matthew Cowles). Mitch tells them to follow him to their accommodation which turns out to be basic to say the least, there already are other hillbillie hunters ready for some killin'. The next morning & everyone sets out armed with the weaponry of their choice including bow & arrows, hunting knives, chainsaws & shotguns, however it's not long before the hunters become the hunted as the hillbillies turn on their well-to-do city slicker guests...Co-executive produced, produced & directed by Ron Sperling who also has a small role in the film, there is very little in Season of the Hunted that I could recommend it by. The script by Phil Fiacco starts off really slowly & it takes quite a while for the killing & hunting to kick off, although when it does the pace picks up considerably. As a whole Season of the Hunted is both predictable & pretty straight forward & as such holds no real surprises. Obviously taking it's inspiration from the likes of Deliverance (1972), The most Dangerous Game (1932), Turkey Shoot (1982) & even mixes in a little Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) as these backwoods psychos seem to have cannibalistic tendencies although it's nice to see all the blokes sit back & let a woman do all the cooking... The character's are annoying especially Charlie the comic relief who is anything but funny. The so-called twist ending is weak & throughly unoriginal. Everyone's decision making is suspect, the film has very little story overall & there are even Vietnam flashbacks for good, clichéd measured.Director Sperling obviously doesn't know how to make a competent film, Season of the Hunted has all the sophistication & visual style of appearing to be shot on a camcorder. The music is totally inappropriate & doesn't suit the on screen 'action' (I use the word action loosely) at all & becomes a constant source of irritation. For some bizarre reason there sometimes is a black circle around the edge of the screen, I really can't think why. The violence are gore is disappointing, none of the killings have any sort of imagination put into them, they are all virtually bloodless, they are basically just people being shot with arrows & they then cough up blood even though there is no physiological reason why they would. There are some intestines on a table & a severed hand but other than that forget it.The budget for Season of the Hunted must have been small to say the least, it's filmed in some local woods on a digital camcorder which also adds to the cheap look to it. The fake blood looks like red water, blood just isn't that thin is it? The acting is poor, very poor & am I really the only one who thinks Frank looks like a cross between Lance Henriksen & Tom Savini?! Or that Charlie resembles Ron Perlman?! I am also alone in the opinion that Steve is a George Clooney lookalike?!Season of the Hunted is a poor film from start to finish, actually having said that the end credits are just about the best thing about it as they play various little outtakes & bloopers. I really can't see many people getting that much out of this film, there are so many more much better horror films out there that you really shouldn't be wasting your time & hard earned cash on this. One to avoid.

spectre316-1 Truly hilarious "horror" film.Here's a short synopsis: a bunch of hunting hick friends go on a hunting trip, but end up being hunted one by one themselves by cannibalistic hunters.It's all really lame. The flashbacks to Vietnam are especially tasteless; they look like they were filmed in the director's backyard. The acting is often laughable (watch for when one of the hunting friends gets hit by an arrow; his facial expressions and the weird gurgle-sounds he conjures are absolutely hilarious). Half the time, it looks like it was shot through a paper towel tube. It's just awful in nearly every single way.If you want a laugh, "Season of the Hunted" will provide you the opportunity. I found it in my local rental store, and I encourage you to look out for it.