Review of Open Season

Open Season (1974)
6/10
A fairly mediocre example of a super familiar formula
3 January 2023
Peter Fonda, John Philip Law and Richard Lynch are family men who go on an annual hunting trip together. On the way up, they abduct Alberto de Mendoza and Cornelia Sharpe, a couple cheating on their respective spouses, and bring them to their fairly impressive cabin. They hold them for several days, acting like they are guests but also abusing them (somewhat) mildly. What are they up to?

This flick has two major twists that I'm withholding in the interest of not spoiling them, but I'd suggest they are fairly obvious. One of them in particular is suggested by the fact that a film is not likely to have a completely irrelevant first scene and that if a star like William Holden appears for 30 seconds mid-film, he's pretty likely to show up again.

That's not really my problem with the film. My issue is that it takes a very long time to get to the twists, so the majority of the film is spent watching the three leads dick around. A combination of weak performances (especially on Law's part) and bad dialogue makes this a bit of a chore. Still, if you want to see these three together this is really your only opportunity and it's otherwise an okay version of a very very familiar genre.

You aren't likely to find it easily though. This British/Spanish co-production seems to only exist in pretty poor quality VHS rips.
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