I remember this movie vividly as it was somehow playing in a large multiplex bowling/arcade/fitness/cinema (only in the '80s) complex in Peoria Illinois, where I grew up, circa 1982 or 1983.
It stayed in my head because it was so unlike anything I had seen playing at the time. It was the first time I really experienced an "independent" film (this was not a town that played Art Movies) and I literally wandered out of the theater with a "did that just happen to me?" disposition.
The best way to sum up "Baker County" (or "Baker Country" as the group of Vietnamese refugees we were then tutoring, kept enthusiastically chanting after the screening) is that it's a precursor to the torture-porn freak movie --- a miscarriage that occurred in the space between visceral roughhouse '70s gems like "Last House on the Left" and "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" and the more polished current-day renditions like the "Saw" and "Hostel" movies.
There is absolutely no character development, the acting is amateurish (with the possible exception of Henry Silva's deranged evil-incarnate hillbilly) and the story is beyond simplistic: passive college kids witness Silva murdering a man and are then hunted and tortured for his pleasure before they get their standard, expected eye-for-an-eye revenge.
Even at 18 I was aware I was being blatantly manipulated and in such an obvious way that it was annoying and condescending. Yes, I expect to be manipulated by a horror film but this does it with such little style and creativity that it's merely insulting.
I was shocked to find that today this movie is considered a "cult classic" --- HA! --- and even more shocked to find it was made for $2 MILLION??? Well, it was obviously more expensive to rent film equipment in those days as that cost is nowhere to be seen on film.
The only thing I will say to recommend it is that it really is a true "Grindhouse"-type film. Even in the theater I remember the print being incredibly effed-up. It's exploitation taken to the extreme and if that's what you're after, as an artifact anyway, it fills the bill.
It stayed in my head because it was so unlike anything I had seen playing at the time. It was the first time I really experienced an "independent" film (this was not a town that played Art Movies) and I literally wandered out of the theater with a "did that just happen to me?" disposition.
The best way to sum up "Baker County" (or "Baker Country" as the group of Vietnamese refugees we were then tutoring, kept enthusiastically chanting after the screening) is that it's a precursor to the torture-porn freak movie --- a miscarriage that occurred in the space between visceral roughhouse '70s gems like "Last House on the Left" and "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" and the more polished current-day renditions like the "Saw" and "Hostel" movies.
There is absolutely no character development, the acting is amateurish (with the possible exception of Henry Silva's deranged evil-incarnate hillbilly) and the story is beyond simplistic: passive college kids witness Silva murdering a man and are then hunted and tortured for his pleasure before they get their standard, expected eye-for-an-eye revenge.
Even at 18 I was aware I was being blatantly manipulated and in such an obvious way that it was annoying and condescending. Yes, I expect to be manipulated by a horror film but this does it with such little style and creativity that it's merely insulting.
I was shocked to find that today this movie is considered a "cult classic" --- HA! --- and even more shocked to find it was made for $2 MILLION??? Well, it was obviously more expensive to rent film equipment in those days as that cost is nowhere to be seen on film.
The only thing I will say to recommend it is that it really is a true "Grindhouse"-type film. Even in the theater I remember the print being incredibly effed-up. It's exploitation taken to the extreme and if that's what you're after, as an artifact anyway, it fills the bill.