Shotgun – 1989 – A truly gruesome flick

Ok, let’s not kid ourselves. This is a horrible movie. The acting is so bad you could use this as a discouragement for how to not make a movie. The story itself is very shallow and I had no time figuring out what was supposed to be the end twist of it all. Maybe that’s not so far-fetched since many of these low-budget flicks from the eighties are less than good and more than nostalgic at the same time. Shotgun is probably no worse than anything else from this time period.

But even if the movie sucks and the story is stupid it’s a truly gruesome film. It centers around two cops who are pretty violent to the criminals. So violent that they in fact are being subjected to internal affairs. At least one of them. Eventually, he gets suspended and takes a job as a bounty hunter. He’s really good at collecting those that have skipped bail but he also earns a new nickname on the streets. Shotgun Jones. You can take a guess if he likes to use a shotgun when he’s catching the bail skippers? Yes, you guessed right, he does!

Sadistic Son of a Bitch

But let’s go back a bit in the plot. Before this cop eventually gets suspended he and his partner are tracing a  sadistic son of a bitch that gets a kick out of whipping and hurting prostitutes. He is dressed in a leather mask and enjoys the beating very much. One thing leads to another and this cop’s sister, who’s working as a prostitute gets involved with this maniac. She gets beat up so badly that she passes away from her injuries. Now it’s personal. But before anything can come out of it Jones gets suspended.

Once he gets the chance he sets after the one lead they had during the case. He’s out for revenge!

The truly gruesome part of it is that the violence seems very realistic. You don’t get to see very much of it but what is implied off camera is enough to make it crawl in me. I can imagine the sadism at work. This is what makes me remember the movie. The revenge is nothing and the rest is really bad as I stated above. But Shotgun has this element to its advantage. If that’s your thing you might like it. If not, you better stay away.