GOD'S
BLOODY ACRE (1975)
Directed By Harry Kerwin
Trans World Entertainment VHS
THE FILM
So you think you've got it rough?
Try switching places with any one
character in this film for a day.
Time for some sleeping pills and/or
wrist-razors, if you know what I
mean.
Ah, the Kerwin brothers. 'Twixt
the two of them (that would be Bill,
actor and all around nice guy, and
Harry, producer-director-jack of
all trades), they had a few hands
in everything from Blood Feast
to Playgirl
Killer to Sometimes
Aunt Martha Does Dreadful Things.
The double K's are a veritable road
map down the exciting and sometimes
overlooked back roads of cheap exploitation.
You know, streets like Herschell
Avenue and Bill Grefe Lane. In God's
Bloody Acre, little brother
Harry directs Bill in one of the
most repellent, downbeat, and ludicrous
films of either man's career. I
guess you would tend to get a little
loopy towards the end of such a
long road of "adults only"
entertainment, right? Hold your
nose; it's gonna be a "looong,
hard one."
Welcome to the backwoods of Dollar
Store, USA. Ezra, Benny, and Monroe
(Billy K.) are three homeless hick
brothers, living in a homemade teepee
in the middle of nowhere. When a
construction crew starts knocking
down trees to make room for a new
camping site (?), the grimy brothers
take action, 'cause they're not
gonna move again. Rock fights escalate
into an embarrassingly cheap chopped-in-half
construction worker. Upon finding
their dehabilitated fellow employee,
the crew cracks jokes like, "So
do we have to come in to work tomorrow?"
After a series of bizarre backstories,
the remaining characters converge
on the campgrounds; a racist pig
husband and his innocent wife, a
counterculture dweeb, and a sexually
abused woman. About this time, the
film switches gears and spews forth
a bleak mix of hick slashers, racism,
blatant misogyny, and a nasty
drawn out rape scene. A dirt-cheap
exercise in goofy backwoods exploitation
morphs into a truly unpleasant experience
and that's only the beginning.
God's Bloody Acre has problems.
The horrible treatment of the film's
two female characters can only point
to one thing: whoever shat out this
choppy screenplay (that would be
Mr. Wayne Crawford and Harry K.)
had a serious issue with women.
The name calling, the fondling,
the violence...This kind of "entertainment"
might have held water in the age
of drive-ins and grindhouses, but
seeing it as a fresh film in the
00s is sad and pathetic. If you're
looking for a redeemer technically,
forget about it. This thing is chock
full of drawn out padding and sliver-thin
character traits. Exposition? Sensible
editing? Never! Harry Kerwin throws
in a few interesting shots (Mr.
Anti-Establishment's flashback scene
is eerily convincing) and the tension
runs high, but that’s really
due to the subject matter, not a
reflection on the film itself. They
even try to stir up some heavy handed
“weapons of destruction”
social commentary, which, if you
haven’t guessed, falls flat
when placed in the context of such
moronic gunk.
God’s Bloody Acre
is an empty attempt at dueling with
the big guns in gritty 70s exploitation.
It’s a depressing disaster.
AUDIO AND VIDEO
Much like its main characters, the
film has blue-green tinted print
that looks like it needs a good
scrubbing. Rough, soft, and a little
warbly. The mono sound was heavy
on the wooded background noises,
maybe a little distorted. The construction
vehicles screeched a lot and hurt
my ears.
EXTRAS
Trans World is all strikes.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Despicable characters, lousy filmmaking,
and no fun; Kerwins, what were you
thinking? No kidding, God’s
Bloody Acre is enough to make
you swear off blind film inquiries
forever.
— Joseph A. Ziemba, 02.24.05 |
Uncle Bill
Stock up for this one
Two barrels of revenge
So real it hurts
|
