The Legend of Alfred Packer (1980) User Reviews

It's College Kids On Packer's Old Trail - Not A Biography

[Rainey-Dawn · 4/10 · 10 September 2017]

The film actually focuses on the college kids that believe they are on the same trail that Packer himself took. It's not a dramatized biography as expected. It's an okay film though.

Strange things happen to the students as they walk the same path that Alferd/Alfred Packer took years ago. They see strange apparitions/visions and scare each other at times.

It's kinda fun to watch but nothing what I expected it to be. I'd classify this more of a ghost story of Packer and not a biography (because it's NOT a biography at all).

4/10

Amateurish but entertaining, offbeat western based on a true story

[Wturnerbill · 9/10 · 29 June 2002]

The Legend of Alfred Packer is the unbelievable true story of the only man ever convicted in the U.S. of cannibalism, the same story later told in the film "Cannibal! the Musical", and partially told in "Ravenous". This film is unintentionally funny as it was so ineptly acted. The two actors that play the grotesque mountain men\trappers steal the show, while Packer is portrayed as a burley, half-crazed Civil War vet. Despite the bad acting, the locations and costumes are great. The direction is adequate but the internal and night-time scenes are very dark, resulting from either bad lighting or a bad video transfer. I cannot tell. Watching this movie it's easy to see that it was used as a reference for "Cannibal!" as some of the scenes, narrative devices, and even a costume design exactly parallel the ones in this movie. Despite it's shortcomings, I did enjoy seeing it.