Deadly Daphne's Revenge

How easily “good times” can degenerate into living hell, if you’re not wise

Four middle-aged guys in the Los Angeles area are set for a weekend of partying and hunting at a remote vacation home. They pick up an alluring blonde hitchhiker on a whim to spice things up, but the unbridled celebration results in life-changing events.

“Deadly Daphne’s Revenge” starts and ends as a cabin-in-the-woods flick, but it’s also a crime thriller and legal drama (minus a court room) with a little horror/slasher. Despite the 1987 copyright, the production can be traced to 1981 and looks like it was shot in the 70s with its Columbo movie aura; just edgier with slight nudity, racial slurs and so forth.

The title is eye-rolling and unfitting in a way, but no one can argue that it’s totally irrelevant. It was called the more ambiguous (and superior) “Hunting Season” during shooting, not to mention released to video as such in at least four countries.

The male protagonist, played by Richard Gardner, looks like a taller, more rugged version of Lee Majors. Gardner also cowrote and directed the film, based on a book. His only other screen credit is as the writer of the novel that “Scandalous John” (1971) was based on. Except for a glorified cameo by James Avery, the other key actors don’t have many movies to their credit and, usually, only this one.

Some critics call it a “snoozefest,” perhaps because they were expecting a rape/revenge flick, like “I Spit on Your Grave,” yet that’s not what this is. Sure, there’s a rape, and revenge does fit into the story, yet this is way more creative and unpredictable, as well as thought-provoking.

Being low-budget, it’s clearly a ‘B’ flick with melodramatic portrayals, particularly shapely Cindy with her ‘troubled brow.’ Nevertheless, I found the characters true-to-life in an exaggerated way. I also found the story compelling throughout. The closest comparison would be Peter Fonda’s “Open Season” from 1974, which had a bigger bu...