Survival Quest (1988)

Director: Don Coscarelli

Writer: Don Coscarelli

Composers: Fred Myrow, Christopher L. Stone

Starring: Lance Henriksen, Mark Rolston, Steve Antin, Michael Allen Ryder, Paul Provenza, Ben Hammer, Dominic Hoffman, Traci Lind, Dermot Mulroney, Catherine Keener, Ken Daly, Reggie Bannister, Ken Smolka

More info: IMDb

Tagline: In the wilderness you can't dial 911

Plot: A bunch of city slickers from different backgrounds go into the wild mountains to be one with nature, but basically to have a good time. However, a paramilitary group has chosen the same time to go camping. When one of the soldiers thinks their boss has been killed by one of the city slickers, he coaxes his team into exterminating all of them. They will have to rely on their wits and on each other in order to survive.

My rating: 6.5/10

Will I watch it again? No.

 After watching Don Coscarelli's THE BEASTMASTER (1982), I was looking at his credits and came across this one.  I digs me a good wilderness survival (as in hunted by humans) kind of picture and it's got Lance Henriksen so why not.  It's a pretty good picture.  It's shot better than THE BEASTMASTER and more tightly edited.  The Angeles National Forest, CA location shooting is beautiful and well utilized.  It's a good story with a couple of good-but-not-expected turns.  You'll have to give some folks some slack for being a shitty shot with a gun but that's nothing new in movies.  They're only good when the plot calls for it.  Lance is fun and part badass.  If you've ever been hiking and/or camping for any length of time you'll start to pick it apart.  You'll notice that they don't have sleeping bags on their backpacks but they sleep in them. Shit like that.  But it's not going to ruin the picture.  It's actually a pretty good flick although a little too upbeat for my taste.  I could have used more pain and death but I'm funny that way.