Fleshburn (1984)

 

 

 

We go to 1984 for our next film with a thriller titled Fleshburn.  Sonny Landham (48 hrs., Lock Up, and Predator) portrays Calvin Duggai, a Vietnam vet who deserts the military due to religious beliefs.  Shortly thereafter he is sentenced to a mental institution to serve out his sentence for desertion.  Four doctors are responsible for putting him there and he escapes in order to go looking for revenge.  He kidnaps all four of the doctors and takes them out to the middle of the desert and leaves them there.   

 

 

 

Playing the doctors is Steve Kanaly (The Sugarland Express, The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean, but mostly for playing in TV's Dallas as Ray Krebbs), Macon MaCalman (Comes a Horseman and Carbon Copy), Karen Carlson (The Candidate and The Student Nurses), and Robert Chimento (Follow the Prophet).  Of course they all get left out there and then they begin pointing fingers and arguing over what is the best way to survive their punishment.  This then begins an even lower budget version of Wolf Creek.  

 

 

 

The movie is average (at best) survival horror at least as far as surviving the elements is concerned.  Nobody does a horrible job of acting but then again I watched this just a few hours before writing this and I actually don't remember any one of the actors portraying the doctors doing anything memorable.  Landham is slightly better but maybe not in a good way.  As an actor he is quite stiff and awkward which is fine for this type of roll.  See him in 48 hrs. as Billy Bear for a very similar role which was filmed nearly at the same time.  I honestly have nothing positive nor negative to say about this one.  It is forgettable and one of the most average film I've seen.  Two and a half rattlesnakes out of five.