Bullet Points: Trapper County War
I don’t think I will ever tire from discovering the hidden gems of the action entertainment universe. There is something so satisfying about sitting down to watch a movie you never even heard of before and when it is all said and done realizing you just witnessed something special.
My latest hidden gem discovery was buried somewhere in the backwoods of North Carolina, it is 1989’s Trapper County War…
- Welcome to Trapper County: Ryan Cassidy (Rob Estes, Silk Stalkings) and Bobby Kael (Noah Blake) are two best friends/musicians from Hoboken who are on a road trip to Los Angeles where they hope to land a recording contract. The two Jersey natives apparently decided to take the scenic route to get to L.A. as they find themselves in the backwoods of North Carolina, more specifically Trapper County. After spending the night in a barn, Ryan and Bobby decide to grab some breakfast before they hit the road again. When they get into town they quickly realize that all the businesses have the name Luddiger on it. When they go to the diner, Lacey (Betsy Russell), the waitress working the counter is the adopted daughter of Mom and Pop Luddiger. There is instant chemistry between Ryan and Lacey and despite objections from Bobby, Ryan agrees to go to a dance later that night with Lacey. When they finish their breakfast and return to their car, the two city boys see Deputy Walt Luddiger taking an unusual interest in their out of state vehicle… Walt makes it clear that he doesn’t want them in town and that they should get out of town ASAP. Walt being pissed that Ryan and Bobby stopped in his town is not a good sign of what is to come when Walt finds out that Ryan and Lacey are going to the dance together.
- Meet the Luddigers: Walt Luddiger is played to perfection by Don Swayze. Swayze oozes creepiness as Walt, a guy who wants to take full advantage of the fact that he and Lacey are not actual brother and sister, although you get the feeling being actual siblings would not be a deal breaker for Walt. It is also clear that Walt is really not qualified to be one of the deputies in Trapper County, but got his position because his parents basically own the town… And speaking of his parents, Mom Luddiger (Sarah Hunley) is one of the BEST movie villains I have ever seen. She is a horrible, horrible human being, who has built herself a world of her own along side her raging alcoholic husband… Rounding out the Luddiger clan is Elmore Luddiger. Elmore is the actual brother of Lacey, the two were adopted by the Luddigers after their birth parents died while working for Mom and Pop Luddiger. Elmore finds himself caught in the middle of things, with his sister Lacey wanting to get out from under the Luddigers roof but Elmore having a sense of loyalty to the people who took him in after the death of his parents.
- Let’s Dance: As expected the issues between Ryan and Walt escalated when Ryan meets Lacey at the dance. Before the two lovebirds could get jiggy with it, Ryan and Walt do some dancing of their own in the parking lot. Ryan beats Walt convincingly and humiliates him in front of the onlookers. Lacey is absolutely head over heels for Ryan after Ryan kicked the ass of the creepy bastard who has been tormenting her for years, so it is no surprise when Lacey decides that she wants to go to California with Ryan and Bobby. But before the trio can get out of Trapper County, they are stopped by the police and Ryan and Bobby are charged with kidnapping (Lacey is only 17). Mom Luddiger is none too pleased that her boy was humiliated in front of the town OR that Ryan tried to take Lacey away from her but knows that the Sheriff will want to do things by the book… so the Luddigers arrange for Ryan and Bobby to be released but once again, they don’t quite make it out of Trapper County…
- Battle Lines: The Luddigers decide to dole out some backwoods justice and they stop the Jersey boys before they get out of town and take Ryan and Bobby out to the woods with every intention of killing them both, but things get crazy… Bobby is shot and killed by Mom Luddiger, Elmore dies after he is hit in the head with a shovel intended for Ryan also by Mom Luddiger and Ryan finds himself on the run in the woods. The Luddigers immediately concoct a story that it was Ryan who hit Elmore with the shovel and killed him and the townspeople, who don’t want to get in on the bad side of the powerful Luddiger family, form a posse to hunt down the Yankee murderer. Fortunately Ryan gets some help from Sheriff Sam Frost, who is not a fan of the Luddigers taking justice into their own hands and Jefferson Carter (Ernie Hudson) a recluse who moved out of town and into a shack on a mountain after he came back from Vietnam and was disrespected by the Luddiger family. Carter has a whole arsenal of weapons from his time in Nam, which is pretty convenient because as the title of the movie states, we are about to witness a Trapper County War!
The final battle between Ryan and his allies and the Luddiger clan had me literally cheering out loud as I watched… that is a testament to how well the finale was built up and the pure evil that Mom Luddiger exuded on the screen. I am confident if Rob Estes wanted to he could have made a go of it in the action entertainment genre. The fight between Ryan and Walt proved to me that Estes came into the film with some legit fighting skills of he was extremely teachable… in either case I was impressed.
Will you be impressed by these Bonus Bullet Points? Only one way to find out…
- Familiar Faces: Pop Luddiger was played by veteran character actor R.G. Armstrong who I will always associate with Predator…. Sheriff Sam Frost was played by Bo Hopkins. Hopkins played Crazy Lee in the Peckinpah classic The Wild Bunch and made the rounds on some classic 80’s TV series including The A-Team and The Fall Guy.
- Directed By: Trapper County War was directed by Worth Keeter. Keeter also directed actioners Unmasking the Idol, The Order of the Black Eagle and Memorial Day starring Jeff Speakman.
- AKA: Trapper County War was released as Dirty War in Germany.
- Address Unknown: Trapper County is a fictional place and not an actual county in North Carolina. Trapper County War was filmed in both Buncome County, North Carolina and Madison County, North Carolina.
- Reunited: Rob Estes and Noah Blake would work together again when Noah made a guest appearance on the third season of Silk Stalkings, which starred Rob Estes and Mitzi Kapture.