▶ watchobscureMacon County Line
1974 · USA · 89m
One of the most profitable independents ever made. Nastier than its reputation.
Hicksploitation
1972–1983 · 10 films catalogued
Moonshine, backroads, and city people who took a wrong turn. The American South as a horror setting.
Two strands sharing a setting and almost nothing else.
The cheerful one
Southern car-and-moonshine comedies: White Lightning, Moonrunners, drive-in staples that eventually turned into Smokey and the Bandit, then The Dukes of Hazzard, then nothing resembling exploitation at all.
The other one
Backwoods horror, where urban outsiders enter rural America and are destroyed by it. Deliverance (1972) is the respectable ancestor. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) and The Hills Have Eyes (1977) are the cycle proper.
Worth noticing
Poverty itself is the monster in most of these, and they were made largely by outsiders for audiences outside the region. That sits uncomfortably in films which are, in several cases, very well made.
Where to start
All 10 →▶ watchobscure
▶ watchobscureRituals
1977 · Canada/USA · 99m
The Canadian Deliverance, and grimmer than the nickname promises.
▶ watchcultSpider Baby
1964 · USA · 84m
Jack Hill's first, Lon Chaney Jr's last good role. Very odd and very fond.
▶ watchcultWhite Line Fever
1975 · USA · 90m
Trucker versus the cartel. Earnest, blue-collar, better than expected.
▶ watchcultWhite Lightning
1973 · USA · 101m
Burt Reynolds, moonshine, and the blueprint for a decade of Southern comedy.
▶ watchknownTwo Thousand Maniacs!
1964 · USA · 87m
H.G. Lewis, a Southern town, and gore effects that predate everyone.
▶ watchknownWalking Tall
1973 · USA · 125m
One sheriff, one hickory club, and the blueprint for every Southern vigilante picture after it.
▶ watchknownThe Hills Have Eyes
1977 · USA · 90m
Craven's meanest. The suburban family turn out to be the better killers.
▶ watchcanonDeliverance
1972 · USA · 109m
The respectable ancestor of the whole backwoods cycle, and still the best of it.
▶ watchcanonThe Texas Chain Saw Massacre
1974 · USA · 83m
Almost bloodless, and still the most upsetting film here. The heat is the horror.