Nightmare At Bittercreek (1988)

Four women (Lindsay Wagner, Joanna Cassidy, Constance McCashin, Janne Mortil) accompanied by a guide (Tom Skerritt) are backpacking in the Sierra mountains when they stumble upon a white supremacist paramilitary group. As they are hunted by the terrorists, it becomes a battle to survive. Directed by the Australian director Tim Burstall (ELIZA FRASER), this plays out like a female driven DELIVERANCE with Wagner in the Jon Voight role and Skerritt in the Burt Reynolds role. It's a routine "women in peril" thriller with the novelty of the women taking on what is usually a masculine domain. Instead of man against nature, it's women against nature as they climb rocks, fall off mountains, go over waterfalls and fire machine guns. For what it is, it's serviceable although it still plays into cliches like the hysterical woman (in this case, Joanna Cassidy), who's a burden to everyone else. The wilderness of Vancouver, Canada stands in for the Sierra mountains and there's an effective score by Arthur B. Rubinstein. With Dwight McFee and J.C. Roberts.