Don't listen to the negative reviews

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Obscure but reasonably solid exploitation effort from the early 70's with a plot and character drawings that actually qualify as disturbing. Undeniably influenced by a number of gritty contemporary survivalist- thrillers, such as for example "Deliverance" and "Straw Dogs", the film narrates the compelling plot about three seemingly ideal and loving family men and their rather unusual annual tradition. Once a year Ken, Greg and Art – three college football buddies and Vietnam veterans – go on a "camping trip"; basically only to do all the nasty stuff their wives and fellow community members would never see them capable of doing. We're talking rape, kidnapping, humiliation, vandalism, extortion and a virulent game of hunting-humans. In the opening sequences already, some college accused the trio of gang-rape, but the school principal made it clear to the girl's mother that the reputation of the trio is stainless and undisputed. During this year's trip, they abducted an adulterous couple and got rid of their car. The unsuspecting victims are subsequently taken to an island in the middle of giant lake, toyed with for some more time, and then 'released' for the hunt. Although influenced by the aforementioned backwoods-survivalist thrillers, "Open Season" is primarily another re-working of the classic and legendary film "The Most Dangerous Game". It's a tense and disturbing film, for sure, but I'm under the impression that it could have been even better. The middle section is slow and even somewhat dull, only because director Peter Collinson insists on emphasizing the anxiety and troublesome position of the hostages. There's also quite a lot of pointless footage of the three anti-heroes boozing and hunting, apparently just to state clear once more that they're mean and ruthless guys. Okay, we get it now! Luckily enough, the wholesome is saved by the virulent climax (hooray for William Holden, as he shows up as one of the previous victims' father out for revenge) and the outstanding acting performances from the entire cast. Peter Fonda, John Phillip Law, Richard Lynch, Alberto de Mendoza and William Holden together in one and the same film makes it absolute priority viewing for every self-respecting cult cinema fanatic.

Get some decent Americn actors on the cheap, film in the mountains outside of Madrid to cut expenses, play it for the U.S. market and you end up with this film. I think that is the main reason so many male reviewers on this site think this is a terrific film. Because of the European sleaze factor of one pretty single woman in a mountain cabin with men with guns. The plot has been explained by many others but (Spoiler alert) most missed the fact that Fonda had fathered a child years earlier when he and his "clean-cut" pals gang raped Holden's daughter and got away Scot-free. That's why Holden shows up at the end to exact revenge and to stop these guys. I just watched a tape of it and am selling it fast and cheap so it won't contaminate my library of films.

This was one of the first really well "designed-to-disturb" movies that I ever watched. The impact to the viewer is not achieved through overly-graphic violence, although it is violent in nature, but by craftily inducing empathy for the desperate situation of the hunted, juxtaposed with the bleak portrayal of raw and unrelenting evil exhibited by the group-thinking hunters. This is well done through a meandering sequence of action shots and brilliantly framed by the contrasting peaceful and beautiful North American scenery and a curious and intriguing score. This is not a movie of memorable dialogue but one of highly disturbing action sequence in a sustained act of cruelty. Unfortunately the evil and its impact are far too believable for comfort. The Vietnam allusion and vigilante character (Holden) are peripheral to the essence of the movie and if anything detract, seemingly there to provide an excuse for the exposure of the evil and some end resolution for good, respectively. Whilst this may have been at one point central to the message in the creator's mind, as it worked out neither is warranted given the core impact of the film.

This film was actually not bad, for it's genre! A group of hunters abduct a couple, (A young female and middle-aged guy) They take them up into the wilderness and subject them both to humiliations and abuse. The girl is coerced into having a night of sex with the men. She becomes a sexual toy for them as she tries using her womanly charms to avert what she slowly begins to realize is a deadly game unfolding. Before too long, the men turn the couple loose in the woods and tell them they will be hunted like animals. Seems the men, all Vietnam vets who having returned from the war, no longer get a thrill hunting animals after hunting "The real thing!" The plot has been done before, but it works here, the film is enjoyable, suspenseful and at times titillating! I am really hoping this comes out on DVD. I watched this on late night TV years ago, and later found a badly done pre-recorded copy. It's not a classic film! But it's well worth a look if you like this genre!