A genre of movies most popular in the 1970s but stretching from the 1950s to modern
day in which the setting of the film was the American Deep South aka the Heart of Dixie. While this could range anywhere from
Virginia to West Texas, Mississippi,
Georgia, and West Virginia were the most popular
Hicksploitation films are NOT simply films set in the South but featured certain aspects that made them true hicksploitation. Most notable of these is the appearance of backwoods folks, the notorious hillbilly, and usually (but not always) in a negative context, typically as a foil against the "citified" interloper. Hicksploitation saw its zenith with the release of Deliverance in 1972. Hillbillies in these films are typically shown as shamelessly ignorant, sexually degenerate, and prone to violence. Other hallmarks of the hickspolitation films are sweaty, sweaty men, references to moonshining (though illegal production of
marijuana has replaced bootleg liquor in some modern films), incestuous relations, deformed
children of
incest, and frequent appearance of the Confederate Battle Flag aka Stars and Bars.
Some of the best known examples of hicksploitation would be Deliverance, the Walking Tall series and the recent remake of Straw
Dogs.
"Some people like
classy depictions of rural poor like
Winter's Bone, I prefer my white
trash in gritty, nasty hicksploitation films. Give me Wrong Turn!"
