The Cajun Hunters are the main antagonists of the 1981 thriller film Southern Comfort. They are a group of nameless Cajun hunters who opposed the Louisiana Army National Guard.
They are portrayed by Sonny Landham, Allan Graf, and Ned Dowd.
Biography[]
The hunters were among the Cajun community and were often living and hunting in a swamp. They disliked outsiders, mostly soldiers from the Louisiana Army National Guard who were often trespassing their territory. In 1973, a nine member squad of the National Guard were out on patrol in their territory but soon got lost. In order to continue, they found an abandoned campsite that belonged to the hunters and stole some pirogues to cross the lake.
The hunters arrived and saw the soldiers crossing the river with their own pirogues but didn't shoot at them. Some of the soldiers shouted at them that they left a letter explaining themselves and that they'll bring back the pirogues. Some of the soldiers though, mostly Corporal Reece and Private Stuckey started to insult and make fun of the Cajun hunters. In order to have some fun, Stuckey shot blanks (unknown to them) with his machine gun at them, causing them to take shelter, a mistake that the soldiers would soon pay. Just as Staff Sergeant Poole ordered his men to get to the other side fast, one of the hunters shot him in the head, killing him instantly.
Soon, a man-hunt started in the swamp with the hunters wanting to eliminate the soldiers. Later the soldiers took an one-armed Cajun and a friend of the hunters as prisoner mistakenly thinking that he was the one who shot Poole causing the hunters to become even more hostile. They set up a number of traps for them, such as sending some of their hunt-dogs to attack them and putting a spear trap that ended up killing one of the soldiers, Private Cribbs. The hunters arrived again in the next day, setting up another trap by chopping up some trees and started to shoot at the soldiers killing them one by one minus Corporals Hardin, Bowden and Private Spencer. They also fetched the dead bodies of Poole, Cribbs and Lonnie Reece (who got killed by Hardin) in a tree in order to psych-out and torment the soldiers even more. The next morning, Spencer and Hardin heard the sound of a train and went there only to find Bowden hanging dead from a bridge and their Cajun prisoner who escaped above him. As Hardin and Spencer never abused him and tried to protect him, he didn't kill them but told them how to get out, warning them that his friends aren't nice like him.
Hardin and Spencer were soon given a ride by a Cajun couple to the closest village where a feast was taking place. Hardin, who was paranoid and didn't feel more safe, noticed the three hunter arriving and asking some fellow Cajuns something. Feeling that he and Spencer would be executed by them he stole a knife and tried to escape only to be noticed by one of the hunters. Hardin took shelter into a shed but was followed by thr hunter who shot him in the arm. As he was about to finish him off, Spencer appeared behind him and shot blanks at him to distract him. The hunter attempted to shoot him, but Hardin stabbed him in the groin. Soon, the other two hunters arrived and chased Spencer across the room, but Spencer knocked out one of them with his machine gun and then Hardin grabbed the last one, giving Spencer the chance to stab him to death with bayonets. It's unknown if the other two hunters died offscreen.