Ep. 21: Escape 2000 (Turkey Shoot)

In the first Ozploitation film we've featured on the show, Escape 2000 - aka Turkey Shoot - presents us with a dystopian future (or present?) where dissenters against a fascist government are sent to death camps with only one way out: participating in the turkey shoot. The turkey shoot, of course, is an event where a bunch of rich people bring a bunch of insane weapons into the Australian bush and hunt the prisoners for sport.

Will Olivia Hussey's character survive the ordeal? And will the real Olivia Hussey survive the truly harrowing experience of filming this in the Australian bush? On this episode Ryan and Cassie paint you a picture of how the actress slowly lost her mind while shooting this insane movie. Additionally, Cassie recounts the year she lived in Australia and applies that experience to discussions about Aussie culture clashes. Ryan, meanwhile, presents a crash course on just what precisely Ozploitation is, and how it's tied to the Australian New Wave, which was a filmmaking renaissance that took place in the mid-70's and 80's. He'll also spin a yarn about the one time the director set George Lazenby on fire.

Released in the US as Escape 2000, but now pretty much universally known as Turkey Shoot, this film fits nicely into our extended glance into the year 2000 through the visions of grindhouse filmmakers many decades prior. And hopefully you're ready to learn what a koala mating call sounds like because...yeah. This episode unravels some incredibly strange threads.

Escape 2000 / Turkey Shoot
Directed by Brian Trenchard-Smith
1982, Australia

Additional Music:

"Solara" by Karl Casey at White Bat Audio

Incredibly Strange Video is produced and edited by Ryan Quinn and Cassie Kay. Follow us on Bluesky @isvpodcast.bsky.social for updates on the newest episodes!

Theme music:
The End by EVA
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0

All excerpts from the films discussed are used for educational and critical purposes only.