... aka: El salvaje y su presa (The Savage and His Prey)
... aka: Entführt und gepeinigt (Kidnapped and Tormented)
... aka: Jakten (The Hunt)
... aka: Kidnapped
... aka: Terrore nella foresta (Terror in the Forest)
Directed by:
Boon Collins
In the summer of 1984, 22-year-old American biathlon (a sport combining cross country skiing and rifle shooting) competitor Kari Swenson was working a summer job in Montana when she was kidnapped by father-and-son wackos and wanna-be part-time survivalists, who supposedly were keen on eventually forcing her to be the son's wife. Her traumatic ordeal included her being wrapped in a sleeping bag and chained to a tree for the better part of a day and then being shot in the chest at point blank range with a rifle. A few search party members had stumbled upon the kidnappers' camp, one was shot in the face and killed, while Swenson was shot and left for dead. It wouldn't be until four hours later that the critically injured Swenson was located. Her attackers were tracked down months later, convicted and spent many years in prison, while injuries forced Swenson out of the sport she had already set several records in (she was the highest ranked American biathlete for decades) for awhile, though she was able to recuperate and compete again in 1986. Afterward, she became a veterinarian.
This bizarre true life tale was a top news story nearly four decades ago and thus spawned endless newspaper and magazine articles, as well as books and several film adaptations. The "official" recount of the story was the made-for-TV movie The Abduction of Kari Swenson (1987), which starred Tracy Pollan as Swenson and M. Emmet Walsh and Michael Bowen as her abductors, Don and Dan Nichols. Swenson herself served as technical advisor on that version to keep it as accurate as possible. However, exploitation cinema isn't so keen on the details so there were a number of other Swenson-inspired films hoping to cash in. This Canadian effort managed to beat the TV movie version to the punch by a year. It takes major liberties with the actual story whilst still boasting its "true story" credentials.
College student and long distance runner Renee Aldridge (Roberta Weiss) is out jogging in the foggy woods when she senses someone is watching / stalking her. Before she knows it, armed, grizzled, mentally-unhinged mountain man Vern (Lawrence King-Phillips) jumps in front of her, grabs her by the hair and yanks her into forest. When she puts up the slightest bit of resistance, he slaps her in the face, ties a rope around her neck and keeps plodding along. Vern drags Renee deeper into the woods, threatens her with a knife, whips her with a rope, sniffs her, pats her on the ass and hog-ties her when it's time to sleep so she can't run away. By the next day, there's already a large search party with hunters, dogs and a helicopter out scouring the mountains looking for her.
Vern dishes out psychological torment to his captive while also trying to train Renee for her new life living in the wild. An attempt to run away is foiled when she gets lost in the woods at night, basically circles around to where she ran away from and falls asleep. When she awakens, an amused Vern is sitting there waiting for her and informs her he was tracking her the entire time. He makes her climb up a steep cliff, feeds her raw eggs and even allows her to hold his gun while he scours for food; all in an attempt to build up some kind of trust with her while at the same time proving she's basically fucked out there in the middle of nowhere without him and his survival skills. He even saves her from going over a waterfall after she falls into some rapids.
The two eventually make it to Vern's cabin, where she's tied up, forced to lay on animal skins, is taught how to gut and clean their food and informed she's now in her new home and will eventually learn to like it (and him). When he attempts to rip her clothes off and rape her, he has a premature ejaculation issue and cries afterward. In a major deviation from the actual story, Vern's kindly, crippled, nature-lovin', God-fearin' daddy Joe (Dan Haggerty) shows up insisting they immediately return the girl to her parents. We learn a little about Vern's past in foster homes, prisons and institutions, which have all clearly failed him. And we learn a little about Joe, who is guilt-stricken for failing Vern himself when he abandoned him as a child and left him with his promiscuous, neglectful, alcoholic mother to raise. A high school dropout whose own father died at a young age in a logging accident, Joe is now trying to atone for the sins of his past helping his now-deranged son the only way he knows how: removing him from society altogether.
Haggerty's character has a true disdain for wealthy trophy hunters who rent helicopters just so they can gun down endangered Stone sheep, whom he feels a kinship, and an almost spiritual connection, with. On their way to take Renee back to civilization, they cross paths with one such group of "hunters." Renee panics, tries to run to them for help and a frantic Vern shoots and kills one of the hunting party. Later that night, Vern tries to rape Renee yet again, but is run off by Joe. Their journey toward civilization continues with Vern trying to stake his claim over Renee ("You're mine... I killed a man for you!") and becoming increasingly more angry, paranoid and violent.
This is a bizarre film in that it's pure exploitation by the very definition of the word (trying to cash-in on a real-life crime case) yet one that consistently shies away from being overtly exploitative in ways that may engender it some kind of cult following. It's not accurate enough to cut it as a true crime film, not quite tense, exciting or thoughtful enough to entirely work as a serious movie and not lurid or sleazy enough to work as a guilty pleasure trash flick. It is, however, a solidly-crafted film that manages to be entertaining in spite of its shortcomings and has sincere performances from the cast. Weiss is adequate (though her role is insufficiently developed compared to the male leads), Haggerty is actually quite good here and King-Phillips is mostly effective, though he does slide into camp overacting toward the end.
The film's best attribute is lots of gorgeous Canadian scenery, which is wonderfully framed and shot by Robert McLachlan, who'd eventually move on to a prolific career shooting top TV shows like Game of Thrones and Ray Donovan. The unfortunate part is all that's currently available are dark, murky VHS copies. One hopes that this will be cleaned-up and better presented one day.
Abducted received very wide global video distribution in the late 80s and there were video releases all over North and South America (the U. S. release was from Prism), Europe and Japan. Since then, it's been all but completely forgotten.
King-Phillips and Haggerty both returned in the same roles in the easier-to-find and more exploitative sequel; Abducted II: The Reunion (1995), which was made by the same director and writers (Collins and Lindsay Bourne) and was also shot in British Columbia. In that one, Vern kidnaps and terrorizes three former school chums, played by pouty Italian sexpot Raquel Bianca, real-life martial artist Donna Jason and, most notably, Debbie Rochon in an early starring role before she solidified her status as a B-movie horror queen. Both films were shown on USA Up All Night.
★★1/2
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