Abducted

Despite the best efforts of Collins to make this film bad, he accidentally made an interesting movie. Renee (Roberta Weiss) is out in the forest jogging and within the first minute of the movie finds herself captured by Vern (Lawrence King-Phillips). Vern appears insane at first, with his crazy sunglasses and aggressive nature. Events unfold and we come to realize that Vern has a dad (in a very convincing performance by Dan Haggerty) who is exactly the opposite of Vern, calm and level-headed. Above all this movie explores some interesting ideas, like what happens to the abductee after the initial shock of being abducted. Vern and his dad (Joe) are only in the forest because Joe loves his son and society wants to lock him up. Unfortunately, it seems that not much thought went into the last fifteen minutes, but the rest of the movie is definitely worth a watch. Rating: 25/40

This is an uneven film that is definitely worth seeing. In expressing women's secret fears and fantasies it goes farther than others and is quite frank about the villain's (King-Phillips) sexual frustration. Any woman watching this film is going to ask herself, as I did, what she would do in the same situation, and perhaps imagine differing scenarios. The irony is that the physically adorable but repulsively abusive Vern picks an insipid snob, one he constantly criticizes ("You wouldn't last out here alone," "City people are soft," etc.) despite seething with passion for her.

As Renee, Weiss is perfectly cast and gives an understated performance that may not seem like acting, since she is playing a an ordinary college student, incurious about the wilderness and unskilled at both survival and ingratiating herself to her captor. Being tone-deaf in her dealings with him ("My family has money,") her character is not very sympathetic either. Her attitude toward the lifestyle of both Vern and his father (Haggerty) literally wrenched a gasp from my throat. Her character reminded me of girls I had gone to college with - knowing only society's straight line, not interested in true freedom or the discovery of being desperately wanted by a man, even if he is not her dreamboat.

Unfortunately, the film shies away from the natural consequences of the intriguing situation it has set up, and veers into cliché and sensation. The ending is simultaneously absurd and hilarious, due to a bravura performance by King-Phillips, while Weiss and Haggerty fall into their steps as stock characters. The depth built up in the male characters is lost in the film's rush to its ending, and feels like a betrayal.

King-Phillip's portrayal of Vern apparently has a cult following, and it is justified. It's just too bad that some of the scenarios that I imagined between Vern and Renee (or me) were not expressed for me in this film.

My review was written in May 1986 after a Cannes Film Festival Market screening.

"Abducted" is a modest little picture, which achieves its goal of presenting a simple story of survival in the mountainous wilds of British Columbia. Tameness of treatment indicates its best market will be for tv audiences.

Shot on handsome, treacherous locations, the story ironically recalls the strictly claustrophobic tale "The Collector". Renee (Roberta Weiss) is a beautiful, young student out jogging in the woods who is kidnapped by primitive backwoodsman Vern (Lawrence King-Phillips). He forces her to climb steep rock faces and trek for several days with him to his remote mountain cabin where he plans to live with her.

Though Renee gradually comes to understand Vern and even pity him, she resists his frequent attempts to assault her and is finally saved from a fate worse than death by the appearance of Vern's dad, Joe (Dan Haggerty) on the scene. Joe warns his son not to hurt the lady and agrees to return her safely to civilization.

After an altercation with some hunters (out to kill the mountain sheep Joe loves and protects), Vern runs off. An Oedipal conflict occurs when he returns, savagely bashes his father with a rifle butt and leaves Joe for dead. Ever the rugged survivor, Joe manages to recover and track Vern down in a predictable conclusion that spells freedom for Renee.

Director Boon Collins smoothly handles this basic material, pulling his punches in the frequent scenes that promise some sex or nudity but never delivers. Robeta Weiss is easy on the eyes even under such a tasteful approach while Lawrence King-Phillips chews the woodsy scenery as a young villain reminiscent of John Drew Barrymore. Haggerty is perfectly cast as a kindly mountain man not too distantly related to his Grizzly Adams persona.

Tech credits are modest but effective, with an assist provided by nice wildlife photography by Tommy Tompkins.

I saw this movie late one night on a movie channel here in Canada. It has received some medicore reviews here, but I think the movie is slightly above average, all things considered.

Yes, it was a low budget movie and that's quite obvious. The beautiful scenery of the Canadian wilderness is breathtaking. The characters played by Haggerty, and his son were quite well-developed and believable. Haggerty and Weiss also have some great dialog on their trip back to civilization. Roberta Weiss looks great too, and that doesn't hurt.

You won't be able to find this one DVD yet, your only hope is to catch on TV one night, or find a used copy of the VHS.

I was pleasantly surprised by this movie. It turned out to be better than I expected. It comes across like a Lifetime movie (which is why my wife liked it). Those who rent this movie hoping for your typical exploitation "crazy mountain-man kidnaps innocent girl" movie will be disappointed. There is no nudity, a little adult language, and some mild violence.

What I liked about this movie is that it was better than it had to be. The "villain" actually had some depth to his character, as did the character played by Dan Hagerty. The acting by the female lead could have been better, but isn't so awful that it makes the film unwatchable. The scenes between the female and Dan Hagerty are nice and sometimes rather touching.

I recommend this movie for rising above its genre. Its nice these days to be pleased and suprised by a movie, rather than disappointed.