435 Turkey Shoot

[MichaelB]

TURKEY SHOOT
(Brian Trenchard-Smith, 1982, 94/79 mins)
Release date: 16 November 2026
Limited Edition 4K UHD (World premiere)

Pre-order: UK 4K UHD/UK Blu-ray/US 4K UHD/US Blu-ray (four separate releases)

From director Brian Trenchard-Smith (BMX Bandits) and producer Antony I Ginnane (Patrick, Snapshot) comes the controversial Ozploitation classic Turkey Shoot, starring Steve Railsback (The Stunt Man), Olivia Hussey (Black Christmas), and Michael Craig (Mysterious Island).

Under a brutal fascist regime which imprisons ‘social deviants’ in hellish concentration camps, the sadistic warden Thatcher (Craig) organises a ‘turkey shoot’, in which prisoners are hunted and killed for sport. Political prisoner Paul (Railsback), falsely imprisoned Chris (Hussey), and prostitute Rita (Lynda Stoner, The Young Doctors) are amongst those who fight for survival as they lead a rebellion against Thatcher’s brutal reign.

Released to a worldwide storm of critical opprobrium and official censorship, Turkey Shoot is a dystopian sci-fi thriller which retains all of its power to shock and outrage.

INDICATOR LIMITED EDITION 4K UHD SPECIAL FEATURES

• Brand-new 4K HDR restoration from the original negative by Powerhouse Films - HDR exclusive to 4K UHD version;
• 4K (2160p) UHD presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible) - 4K UHD version only;
• Two presentations of the film: the original Australian theatrical version (94 mins) and the shorter US version, Escape 2000 (79 mins);
• Original mono audio;
• Audio commentary on the Australian version with director Brian Trenchard-Smith (2003);
• Audio commentary on the Australian version with producer Antony I Ginnane and filmmaker Mark Hartley (2021);
• ‘Turkey Shoot’: Blood and Thunder Memories (2003): ‘making-of’ documentary directed by Hartley, featuring cast members Michael Craig, Lynda Stoner, and Roger Ward;
• A Good Soldier (2003): Trenchard-Smith looks back at the chaotic production and controversial release of Turkey Shoot;
• ‘Not Quite Hollywood’ Interviews (2008): outtakes from Mark Hartley’s acclaimed documentary on Australian cinema, featuring Trenchard-Smith, Ginnane, special make-up effects artist Bob McCarron, and actors Steve Railsback, Gus Mercurio, Stoner, and Ward;
• The Ozploitation Renaissance (2026): Ginnane, Trenchard-Smith and acclaimed cinematographer Vincent Monton discuss Turkey Shoot and the golden age of Australian genre cinema;
• Critical appreciation by the academic and Australian cinema specialist Stephen Morgan (2026);
• Original theatrical trailer, teaser and TV spot;
• Trenchard-Smith trailer commentary (2016);
• Sympathy in Summer (1970): Ginnane’s sole directorial work, heavily influenced by the nouvelle vague;
• Image galleries;
• Script galleries;
• Limited edition exclusive 80-page book with a new essay by David Michael Brown, an exclusive extract from Antony I Ginnane’s unpublished memoirs, an archival interview with Brian Trenchard-Smith, an overview of contemporary critical responses, and film credits
World premiere on 4K UHD;
• Limited edition of 10,000 individually numbered units (6,000 4K UHDs and 4,000 Blu-rays) for the UK and US;
• All features subject to change.

#PHILE435U
BBFC cert: 18
REGION FREE
EAN: 5060697923759

[GaryC]

I honestly didn't expect anyone to release Sympathy in Summer, as I wasn't sure to what extent it still existed. The NFSA don't appear to have any holdings for it other than publicity material, so I presume this came from Ginnane himself. I have seen clips from it, and by all accounts it's a lot artier than the films he went on to produce.

[olmo]

I've been through Thatcher's brutal regime before, I don't wish to go through it again.

As allegories go, it's a bit on the nose isn't it?

[ryannichols7]

I honestly didn't expect anyone to release Symphony in Summer, as I wasn't sure to what extent it still existed. The NFSA don't appear to have any holdings for it, so I presume this came from Ginnane himself. I have seen clips from it, and by all accounts it's a lot artier than the films he went on to produce.

literally one log on Letterboxd. officially beats Pemini as the most obscure Indicator release, no?

[Aunt Peg]

I may consider double dipping into Turkey Shoot which is probably my all time favourite Ozploitation film. I saw it back in 1982 at the Barclay where many Australian films of all genres were buried for a week. Just think over the period of 1977 to 1987 everything from Midnight Spares, I Wanna Hold Your Hand, Race to the Yankee Zepher, Tenebrae, Eyes of a Stranger, The Hearse, Straight Time, The Big Fix, The Jericho Mile, amongst many others only ran one week.

Turkey Shoot was met with the most hostile of reviews. Philip Adams described how once Lynda Stoner got stabbed in the breast by a crazed lesbian played by Carmen Duncan they he got up and walked out of the cinema in utter digust. Despite all this free publicity the film tanked at the box office and finished the following week. Even having a non-restrictive rating of 'M' which allowed children to view the film. without an adult to accompany them didn't help the film find any kind of audience. However, the following year, 1983, VHS really took off and Turkey Shoot proved very popular with renters. Word of mouth really got out about this one (ditto I Spit On Your Grave, 48 HRS, The Blues Brothers, Tenebrae and other cinema flops).

Personally, I love the film and it always gives me a good chuckle. I will seriously consider doing an upgrade. For me and my hubby, Turkey Shoot rocks.

[GaryC]

David Stratton in his review in Variety called it a "sadistic bloodbath". Antony Ginnane blamed that review for the film's ban in Malaysia.

God knows what the OFLC were smoking when they gave it a M. In the UK it's always been 18 and its first release on VHS was cut by something like six minutes.

[therewillbeblus]

I have no interest in this film, but I'm very intrigued by Sympathy in Summer... very cool inclusion considering it's nowhere on the web

[spectre]

Absolutely! A remarkable inclusion. Sympathy in Summer turns up in all the Australian film reference books as a very early feature-length work in the Aus Film Revival, but hardly anybody – even Australian film scholars of the era – seems to have seen it. I sat behind Ginnane in a cinema a few years back and was hoping to ask him about it, but missed the opportunity. Will be exciting to finally get the chance to see it, even if it means buying a stacked release of a film I also have little interest in.

[GaryC]

It's very much an Australian deep cut, that's for sure. Tiny-budget films like this, often shot in 16mm and based in Melbourne or Sydney, were a large part of Australian filmmaking in the 1960s and 1970s, particularly the former decade when hardly any locally-made features were produced. A lot of it is very hard to find - there are some I know of which have been on YouTube, Vimeo and other such places, but very few on disc. Pure Shit (1975) did have a three-disc DVD release but that's OOP and fetching high prices used. The NFSA put out a box set of the films of Giorgio Mangiamele, whose Clay was in competition at Cannes in 1965. But I can't off the top of my head think of much else. And Sympathy in Summer is going to be on Blu-ray and UHD, though I've no idea if the transfer will be either of those, or maybe SD.

On a Facebook group I'm in, Adrian Danks has said that he's seen it, so that's one Australian film scholar. The clips I've seen were in the documentary Carlton + Godard = Cinema, made by the late Nigel Buesst, who made a few of these films himself and who was the cinematographer on Sympathy in Summer. Ginnane is interviewed in the documentary.

I've said it more than once that other than a few standard classics you have to pass something off as Ozploitation before it can get a restoration and Blu-ray or even UHD release. Meanwhile, other films which not that long ago would have been called classics in the 1970s and 1980s, and are much less obscure than Sympathy in Summer, have never got further than DVD or SD streams or are AWOL. I'd be very happy if Indicator or anyone else puts some of those out on Blu-ray. So I'm very happy about Sympathy in Summer getting a release, even if it is on the disc of a film I liked well enough but have seen before and already have on Blu-ray.