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DEVIL HUNTER (1980)
Jess Franco (as Clifford Brown)
Severin Films

Director Jess Franco, a guy who hasn’t needed an introduction for decades, dabbled briefly in the “cannibal” genre when Ruggero Deodato’s CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST became something of a sensation. In 1980, Franco gave us CANNIBALS (aka MONDO CANNIBALE, WHITE CANNIBAL QUEEN), one of the more asinine jungle gut munchers of the bunch, as well as this effort, which really doesn’t fit the category at all, even though everything on the surface would dictate otherwise. Also known as SEXO CANNIBAL, MANDINGO MANHUNTER and a handful of other exploitive titles, DEVIL HUNTER unveils another mind-numbing Franco sex and sadism parade, which looks like another excuse to vacation in exotic Spain.

Blonde bimbo actress/model Laura Crawford (Ursula Buchfellner, here billed as Ursula Fellner) is checking out locations for a new film and seems totally blissful, staying in a fancy city hotel. During a relaxing bubble bath, she is double crossed by her assistant Jane (Gisela Hahn), allying with two thugs (Antonio de Cabo and Werner Pochath) who proceed to abduct her. Laura is taken to some ruins on a jungle island, is chained up and molested, and the kidnappers demand a ransom be paid: $6 million. A movie producer hires brave Peter Weston (Al Cliver, ZOMBIE) to rescue her for the sum of $200,000 and promises him 10 percent of the $6 million if he returns with the loot and the girl. Peter takes along his pal Jack (Antonio Mayans, aka Robert Foster), a timid Vietnam vet, and they flee from their helicopter before it crashes – the kidnappers double crossed the would-be rescuers with a surprise attack, but Peter had it coming as he handed them a bag full of phony cash. Since no one can make a civilized exchange of girl for money, Peter and Jack have to thwart the gun happy kidnappers and locate poor Laura, now kidnapped by dark-skinned natives who want to sacrifice her to their monstrous cannibal god (Burt Altman), known as “The Devil.”

Because of some spattering of the red stuff (which looks like bright house paint) and several brief scenes of human organs being torn out, DEVIL HUNTER managed to get on the infamous British “Video Nasty” list, but after viewing it, you’ll scratch your head as to why. This is not at all a cannibal film since the natives here don’t indulge in that kind of carnal activity. Rather, the monster god of the piece (played by giant black actor Altman, naked and sporting bloodshot ping-pong ball eyes) likes to eat the hearts of the victims sacrificed to him. With such a perilous plot as just described, you would think DEVIL HUNTER would at least be somewhat tense and captivating, but it’s tediously paced and so poorly edited, that it just drags from one silly scene to the next, with long stretches void of dialog. At the beginning, Franco intercuts Laura’s abduction with scenes of a native girl being seized, tied to a tree and sacrificed to the hungry Devil, but again, the poor, dragged out editing fails to make any impact and the film is wholly another exercise in bad filmmaking, but thankfully, with a lot of female nudity on display.

The unintentional laughs are largely caused by the English dubbing, which has Antonio Mayans’ character of Jack sounding like a dim-witted southerner, and his arrival on the island, bringing on a flashback to the Vietnam War (helicopter noises and all) is an absolute riot. The German-born Ursula Buchfellner, who was all of 19 when this film was shot, is totally nude for much of the running time and she is absolutely stunning to gaze at. The very Anglo looking Al Cliver is at least fun to watch as the hero who gets to battle the giant pong-eyed naked menace during the climax. There’s a clever bit of him a climbing a rocky mountain, done in the style of the “Batman” TV series, where the actor is on the ground and the camera is tilted to make it appear as if he’s ascending upwards. With an kooky eccentric score (credited to Franco himself) which mixes haunted house piano clinks, jungle drums and ghostly whaling, and a large tiki idol (left over from “Gilligan’s Island”?) which bounces as it hits the ground, DEMON HUNTER is ripe for bad movie enthusiasts and Franco completists alike.

Severin Films has remastered DEVIL HUNTER in hi-definition, and it shows. The print source is extremely clean and blemish free, and the film has been presented in a 1.66:1 aspect ratio with anamorphic enhancement. Detail is sharp and colors are stable, though the cheap production values shine through in a lot of badly lit scenes, even if most of the show was shot outdoors. The English and French language options are provided, both post-synced affairs. During the English version around the 1:12:48 mark, the dialog goes to Spanish for about a minute, but then quickly returns to English. This could be that no English track was available for the brief scene (which involves two trackers tracing footsteps). Since English subtitles are only an option for the French track, you can find the translation for the scene there. Both mono audio options are serviceable. The print here runs a whopping 1 hour and 42 minutes(!) even though the back cover states 89 minutes.

Franco sits down for a camera interview, and you can sense that even he writes off the carnal shenanigans of DEVIL HUNTER, as he smirks while answering questions. As he reflects on the film, it’s obvious that the director has no love for the “cannibal” genre, and only dabbled in them briefly when they were popular. Franco claims that Altman, the actor who played the monster, was something of an athlete and he describes the great beauty of his star Buchfellner as “impossible.” (George R. Reis)

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