Hunting Ground (1983) Online

"Code of Hunt" is an extremely rare Spanish thriller that left me disturbed and speechless.This is one of the hardest to come by titles that existed in only two video releases,one Spanish(it's country of origin)and the other Greek.Both are now long deleted many years ago and both are ultra-rare.A famous Spanish actress Assumpta Serna plays Adela,a defender of poor criminals.Unfortunately her latest defendants steal her car and find the keys to her country villa.During the robbery her husband is killed and three of the criminals run away.The youngest criminal(who is the brother of one of the villains)is captured by the police and dies in prison.For Adela this is the beginning of pure nightmare..."Code of Hunt" is a very gritty and bleak film that has to be seen to be believed.The acting is excellent and the violence is ugly and brutal.The climax is incredibly vicious and sadistic in its cold depiction of sexual violence and revenge.This little gem seems to be forgotten by fans of European cult cinema,but if you get a copy treasure it.10 out of 10.

This slow-paced crime thriller was seen by some critics as a plea by Jordi Grau in favour of the death penalty. He categorically denies that.

Generally this film is uncomfortable to watch. In many ways the outcome is predictable, as is the ordeal Ms Serna's character is going through, but the predictability and the slow pace somehow make it worse. It is like falling out of an airplane at ten thousand feet without a parachute. You know what is going to happen and the anticipation of the inevitable gruesome outcome makes you wish that it is over sooner rather than later.

Interestingly, the film has much stronger female than male characters, an unusual attribute for movies (not counting TV movies) of this genre. The film centers around the lawyer played by Assumpta Serna, and she amicable pulls off the performance required to hold everything together.

Coto de Caza is an obscure Spanish gem and one that is well worth seeing. The film is a bit like exploitation flicks such as The Last House on the Left and The House on the Edge of the Park, although the point this time is not just to see innocent people put in danger. Let Sleeping Corpses Lie director Jorge Grau takes the helm and the film is clearly taking a swipe at the legal system that often lets criminals get away with their crimes. For this reason, it might not appeal too much to exploitation fans as there's not a great deal of sleaze or nastiness, but those who are looking for a little more than just exploitation will find plenty to like here! The plot focuses on Adela, a defence lawyer for criminals. She gets a couple off the hook and they repay her by stealing her car. After finding the keys to her country villa, they naturally decide to rob the place; but trouble starts the lawyer's family turn up, and in the struggle; the husband ends up getting killed. However, this is just the start of the unfortunate lawyer's ordeal...

The point of the film is actually very well expressed as, at its heart, Coto de Caza is a depiction of the idea that if you don't put criminals in jail, they will commit more crime. This film was made over twenty years ago in Spain, but its social commentary is certainly relevant to modern day Britain and probably elsewhere in the world too, making the film poignant even today. The plot moves rather slowly and not a great deal happens in the first half of the film. However, the film is never boring and the scenes at the beginning succeed in building the characters and setting the scene which does benefit the story later on. As mentioned, there not a lot of sleaze in the film; but that doesn't hinder it too much as there's enough going on elsewhere and the action we do get treated to is generally very good; a sequence involving fire towards the end is certainly worth the wait too. Overall, Coto de Caza is an excellent little film and really is well worth seeing. It's also a shame that it's so hard to get hold of as this film is ripe for re-discovery!

It's very rare ambition for a low-budgeted European exploitation movie to, apart from to shock and repulse its target audience, also make a point and even attempt to provoke a socially engaging moral debate. I don't immediately claim that director Jorge Grau (director of the almighty "Let Sleeping Corpses Lie" fully succeeded in this courageous design with "Hunting Ground", but it's definitely a remarkable effort and it is most unfortunate to establish that the film is so obscure and nearly impossible to track down. The concept is basically a variation on the commonly known and numerously imitated "Last House on the Left", in which the relatives of a brutally killed individual take the law into their own hands and seek bloody vengeance against the culprits. The main difference in this film, however, is that the lead character is actually a devoted attorney and usually defends the rights of these low-classed rapists and relentless killers; supposedly because "society" forces them to revert to committing these vile crimes. Adela (splendid performance by Assumpta Serna) one days obtains the acquittal for a trio of thugs, but they promptly repay her by stealing the keys to her Christmas holiday resort and killing her husband in a fight. Adela remains behind with her two children but still she doesn't betray her moral principles, much to the disgust of her rancorous mother-in-law and even her own youthful son. But the criminals return and when one of them gets apprehended by the police and dies in prison due to medical circumstances, all hell truly breaks loose.

The pacing of "Hunting Ground" is very uneven. The fascinating plot and detailed character drawings unfold rather slow and atmospherically, but then the climax is suddenly extraordinary sick, repellent and most shocking. Especially when you carefully and attentively followed the elaboration of the story, the finale will hit you in the face like a ten ton hammer and leave you near speechless. I don't want to reveal everything, but it involves explicit rape scenes with penetration through torches and an almost equally grisly retaliation. Admittedly the moralist discussion evoked during the first 80 minutes of the movie suddenly don't mean much anymore after this, but – seriously - what a climax! "Hunting Ground" suffers from extremely poor productions values, like bad lighting and shoddy cinematography, but Jorge Grau's skilled direction keeps everything on track. The film has its flaws and shortcomings, but it's a hidden gem to treasure and certainly one you won't forget lightly.

Exploitation - that it is, but director Jorge Grau tells it in a dramatically sensible manner, slowly building up to what is unavoidable in these films - a brute finale. Still, with plenty to think (and shudder) about afterward.

The portrayal of both sides of the same coin that is society - a woman and her family and a poor family and a few befriended criminals - begins with the main characters together in the same room, a courtroom. The woman is a lawyer defending a criminal with compassion, and two misfit type guys are in the crowd making jokes amongst themselves. After her elaborate plea, the camera zooms out slowly while the judges, lawyers and audience leave the room - finally it is pretty much empty... The lawyer then drives home, followed by the duo, who waited outside for her. They steal her car when she stops to buy groceries and find out she has a chalet on a large hunting ground. They intend to rob the place, but things go horribly wrong, and that is only the beginning...

There are all kinds of sidelines going on (the innocent brother of the main criminal being innocent but is incarcerated, the son of the lawyer couple who reads comics about a masked hero and is fascinated by dad's shotgun, the lawyer who at first intends to forgive the assailant) that make this much richer and deeper than your average revenge / home invasion flick, making this a unique feat - though still you'll have to be able to stomach some pretty nasty violent actions.

A big 8 out of 10, maybe more in the future.

Methodical Spanish thriller from Grau, (Let Sleeping Corpses Lie) takes the time to develop character and motivation of both villains and protagonist before an extremely graphic finale.

A very young Assumpta Serna is a criminal defense attorney who is confronted not only by the mother of her husband's killers, but by the vengeful mother of her murdered husband as well. Midway through the proceedings, she asserts that she doesn't want to live in a world where the only rule is the code of the hunt.

The setup could have easily been one for typical revenge fare, but this does not take the simple path of having her immediately hardened by misfortune and bent on vengeance. Instead, she tries to return to normalcy at every turn, until finally forced to do otherwise. Grau has some interesting shots during the initial home invasion, as well as the final confrontation and breaks up the interim routine by showing the impossibility of regular life.

This is a better film of the genre, in that it takes a more even tone and pace than is typical and does not provide simplistic fan-baiting violence every 15 min. Grau fulfills viewer expectations, but not in the most expected manner.