DEVIL HUNTER

DEVIL HUNTER

(A.k.a. SEXO CANIBAL; THE DEVIL HUNTER; THE MAN HUNTER; MANDINGO MANHUNTER; JUNGFRAU UNTER KANNIBALEN; CHASSEURS D'HOMMES; CHASSEUR DE L'ENFER)

Deep in the jungle, several tribesmen chase a native woman through the trees. They capture her and tie her to a log, then carry her to a huge tree where she's tied up and left as sacrifice for their god - a muscular black man with flapping penis and googly red eyes.

The god (or devil) appears and tucks into the woman as the native men watch from behind trees.

Meanwhile, pretty blonde actress Laura (Ursula Buchfellner) arrives in the same part of the world for a fashion shoot. She frolics on the beach during the afternoon while her assistant Jane (Gisela Hahn) conspires to have her kidnapped.

This happens later in the day, when Laura is drugged unconscious while taking an afternoon bath.

When she next awakes, she's been flown to a remote part of the jungle on Puerto Santo Island, where Jane and the rest of her kidnappers - including the increasingly edgy Chris (Werner Pocath) - get in touch with Laura's producer to demand a ransom.

Laura is a rising star so the producer is keen to get her back. But he's not so keen to part with his cash, so he hires mercenary Peter (Al Cliver) to fly to the island and return with the girl … and the ransom money.

Peter and his aide Jack (Antonio Mayans) arrive on the island by helicopter and make their way on foot to meet the kidnappers. Naturally the handover goes tits up and a shootout ensues. This leaves the kidnappers fuming, Laura on the run and alone in the scary jungle, and Peter and Jack with a broken helicopter.

On top of all this, the natives have been alerted to the foreigners' presence by the noise, and there's something googly-eyed and heavy breathing, lurking in the trees …

Flights to the Spanish location must've been this film's entire budget could stretch to, as everything else about DEVIL HUNTER screams "cheap".

It's an ugly-looking film (even the scenic exteriors are framed in such a way that you can't appreciate them), and the performances range between the seriously coked up and the half-asleep. The natives look more like Harlem globetrotters than cannibals. No one involved, it seems, is remotely interested in what they're doing there.

The FX are insultingly poor, consisting largely of either the "devil" slobbering fake blood onto victims' breasts or close-ups of pig intestines being squished around.

Elsewhere, Jess Franco indulges in his usual mixture of painfully slow pacing, confused storytelling and random zoom shots at various female backsides, breasts and hairy fannies. Oh, and with it being Franco, is there a rape scene in place? But of course.

And yet the film is very tame by today's standards. The fact that it was ever banned in this country as a video nasty is laughable now. There's nothing any sane person could ever take seriously in this mess.

Having said that, DEVIL HUNTER is best approached as a ridiculous mess. Watch it with this understanding, and it's hard not to succumb to it's overall "so bad it's good" vibe.

Working better as a crime thriller than a cannibal film (that's a begrudging compliment!), DEVIL HUNTER is much like this month's BLOODY MOON release, in so much as that if you're familiar with it of old, you'll sail through this on pure nostalgia. Newcomers will laugh, yawn and no doubt switch off at some point before the finale.

Severin's disc offers the film uncut in a nice anamorphic 1.78:1 transfer. Colours are a little muted and images a tad soft, but this is still umpteen times better than the film ever looked on video. It's a lot brighter, and you can actually see how crappy the devil FX is now!

Audio is available in two mono languages: English dubbed and French. There are English subtitles available, but these can only be enabled if selecting the French audio option. Both tracks offered reliable playback.

The animated main menu led to static sub-menus including a scene-selection page allowing access to the film via 16 chapters.

The only extra on the disc is an enjoyable 16-minute interview with Franco. Presented in English with burned-in English subtitles whenever Franco speaks (he's difficult to understand otherwise), he discusses the gymnast who played the role of the devil in some detail.

We also get Franco's thoughts on the rest of the cast (some of whom he's less than complimentary about), and the fact that he was opposed to making a cannibal film. This leads to him pausing for thought on CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST, and recollecting his own meeting with Ruggero Deodato.

DEVIL HUNTER isn't good. It's a Jess Franco film. Furthermore, it lacks the finesse of some Franco films. But it's part of our video nasty history and deserves to be appreciated as such.

Review by Stuart Willis


 
Released by Severin Films
Region All - NTSC
Rated 18
Extras :
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