The Bushwhacker (1968) User Reviews

Rubdown City

[ElijahCSkuggs · 4/10 · 29 February 2008]

After reading a pretty stellar summary outline with words like necrophilia and torture thrown in, I knew this was one I had to check out. You do get a little of both, but damn, pretty weak stuff.

The Bushwhacker follows/terrorizes the survivors of a plane crash. A plane crash due to gunfire from a shotgun! Well, not surprisingly all passengers and pilot survive, and they are now in the California wilderness being followed by.....The Bushwhacker. The Bushwhacker is just some crazy guy who wears a Raccoon hat. For some reason, he's into killing chicks, which is okay with me as long he's feeling up them up good and plenty beforehand. Which he does! Anyways, this is the entire story. Bushwhacker follows and eventually terrorizes the group of people.

You'd think with such a simple plot the movie would be loaded with nudity and sex. Well, it is, kinda. There's a good bit of nudity, some nice boobs, some unwhacked bushes, and some dirty bum bums. And then we have the sex, if you wanna call it that. It's mostly "Girl gets naked, guy takes off his shirt, they make-out and they rub each other down." Lots and lots of rubbing, too much rubbing. Weird part, there's barely any boob touching, just lots of belly and thigh rubbing. I didn't get it, and I didn't enjoy it very much. Though, all the chicks are definitely above average in the body department, all with bigger than average breasts, and one with gigantic melons. Unfortunately she shows them the least amount.

The Bushwhacker just didn't cut it. The acting and writing I'd say is in the "So Bad It's Good" department....like the line when the pilot describes the Bushwhacker: "He's whacky. Bushwhacky. The Bushwhacker." You also have the pilot coming up with genius ideas of going to bed so they can have plenty of energy for the next day....but why go to bed when it's still quite obviously midday and the sun's still completely out? It has it's silly moments, that's for sure. But it moves at a snail's pace, the rubbing and uneventful sex scenes are lackluster, and the Bushwhacker himself is just pretty lame. If this film actually used hardcore sex scenes instead...this would be a classic film. But nope, it's very average stuff that only fans of this type of material will enjoy. 4 outta 10 for the cheesiness and plethora of boobies.

Wow, where have you been all my life?

[Tromafreak · 3/10 · 18 April 2009]

The 1960's, the very beginning of the golden age of exploitation. A decade which gave us such underground epics as The Blood Trilogy and The Undertaker And His Pal's, just to name a few. Some of these classics are M.I.A. and will never be seen by human eyes again, some are just unwanted, because they are completely unwatchable, and apparently, some have just been hiding under a rock for 40 years. I do believe The Bushwhacker is ready to come out and play! Alright, so, no credits, just the title written on a piece of wood, I'm cool with it. Nevermind the credits, anyway, the story is what matters here... OK, fine, not much of a storyline either. Who needs a story, anyway? What truly matters here in Exploitation Country is violence and nudity... yeah, that's it. A hermit (bushwhacker), living in the California desert, shoots down a plane filled with some guy and his three girlfriends. Either Mr. Bushwhacker is lonely and needs a playmate, or he's feeling ornery and feels like stalking, and hopefully murdering four innocent people, but then again, what's the difference? Like I said, not much in the story department. Guy and his girlfriends take their time walking back to civilization, and naturally, the bushwhacker takes his sweet damn time stalking them. Guy finds excuses to go off alone with one girlfriend at a time, which is where all that nudity comes in, and there's a lot, but nothing too impressive. Considered too offensive for the Drive-in circuit of the 60's, The Bushwhacker was forced into obscurity not long after its debut. In 2007, the print resurfaced, and soon transferred/released on DVD. Directed by Byron Mabe, The Bushwhacker is one of the sleaziest, pre-70's B-movie I can think of. The world just wasn't ready for such a grim combination of sex and violence, certainly no longer the case. Anyone familiar with Bethel Buckalew's soft-core-hick-porn-corn-ball comedies of the early 70's (Tobacco Roody) should appreciate similar qualities. The Bushwhacker ain't bad, were looking at an obvious Z-grade production, with atrocious acting, endless sex scenes, gruesome killings, grainy film quality, unintentional (?) humor, and just all around bad taste, hey, that's what 60's exploitation is all about. Welcome back, Bushwhacker. 7/10

Probably written in less than five minutes...

[sgcim · 5/10 · 16 August 2013]

Basically a backwoods guy with a raccoon hat shoots down a plane with four passengers, and kills two of them, and then gets shot in the face with a flare gun. No back stories at all. Dialogue consisting largely of imaginative lines like, "Where are you going?" "I'm going to sit under that tree over there." The highlights include the Bushwhacker supposedly striking Sherry very hard, but rather than using sound effects, the director keeps the music going at full blast, and we see the BW gingerly touch her, as she writhes in pain. Then the BW picks up a flimsy piece of a shrub, and whip her with it. This is the equivalent of whipping someone with a flower! He then leads her away with a rope with a red hair cloth over her mouth so she won't scream, but he doesn't tie up her hands, so she could take the hair cloth off anytime she wants to, but for some reason, doesn't...

For those who like such things, the only redeeming factors are a decent jazz group basically playing a few original tunes and improvising, and watching Sherry being carried around nude and "touched" to death. Even the legendary lesbian necrophilia scene is quite a letdown.

Historically relevant, but incredibly dull.

[Drive-In-Freak · 2/10 · 26 April 2010]

I wanted to like it. I really did. It would seem to me that it had all of the ingredients that should make for an interesting flick. All of the elements are there...nudity, sex, and violence. Dare I say it's even somewhat historically relevant as it takes thing a step further than the "roughies" that came before it.

The only problem is that it's incredibly dull. Seemingly endless scenes of walking around in circles followed by more of the same. The soft-core scenes were...well, I've never seen anything like it. It's almost like they were afraid of each other, or had never even seen people together let alone done anything with anyone themselves. Kinda like what maybe a six year old would think people do. It's not that I was looking for hardcore sex as much as I don't think I've ever seen anything less erotic that's supposed to be erotic.

There is a substantial amount of nudity (sometimes full frontal at that). The women are quite attractive too. You'd think that would be enough to keep everything afloat, but after a while it grows thin. Yea...I know. I wouldn't think it was possible either, but they managed to find a way.

Well there's always the violence, right? Not really. The idea behind it, perhaps, but the execution left a lot to be desired. What should be the most simple of effects comes off about as poorly as possible.

I'm very forgiving of low budget flicks. Hell I'm not only tolerant of them, but usually take a great deal of pleasure from what I call the "cheeze element". Sadly even that's not enough to save this one.

"Manos" Has competition

[jimgoebel1 · 1/10 · 22 April 2008]

Oh.. Dear.. Lord..

The review...

of...

THE BUSHWACKER

OK.. Here's the "story" A crazed loon, complete with Davy Crockett hat runs amok in the California desert. He sees an airplane flying above, and shoots it down with his rifle.

The plane crashes (or so we're led to believe.. ) and 4 passengers run away before it explodes (Be careful with that cherry bomb! YOu may lose a finger!) The four people -- a pilot and 3 actually pretty beautiful women -- decide that they're in the middle of nowhere (despite several scenes with roads and one with some high tension lines in the distance), and should find their way out.

The pilot and one of the chicks get it on 3 times, and the other two chicks get it on with each other twice -- once after ONE OF THEM HAS DIED! Im not kidding.

Well, the BUshwacker loon carries off one of the girls, kills her after tying her to a tree (about ONE HOUR IN TO THE FILM!) and then carries off another, and cuts off one of her breasts..

The Bushwacker shoots the pilot and runs off. Then the remaining chick has a brilliant idea. She tries seducing the Bushwacker while the pilot (who was only grazed by the shot, unbeknownst to the bushwacker) tries to hit him over the head with a branch..

The remaining chick takes off her top, bushwacker pushes her to the ground, bad guy gets hit with branch, and then gets shot with a flare gun. Cue credits.

For those who have seen ""Manos" The Hands of Fate", this movie is one hundred times worse. I am not kidding.

From the multiple disappearing/reappearing blankets that happen to be conveniently scattered about the desert when there's nudity (HOnestly, we only see a person carrying one at around the 1:15 mark), to the almost unreadable credits... WRITTEN WITH A SHARPIE ON PLYWOOD.. this one is a total stinker. I recommend that everyone see it once just to see how boring nudity can be.