Devil Hunter (1980)

A Vietnam veteran heads to an island inhabited by cannibals to save a kidnapped model not only from her kidnappers, but also from the cannibals' lurking Devil god.

Director:

Jesús Franco (as Clifford Brown)

Writers:

Julián Esteban (story) (as Julius Valery), Julián Esteban (screenplay) (as Julius Valery)

Stars:

Ursula Buchfellner, Al Cliver, Antonio Mayans

Cast

Cast overview:
Ursula Buchfellner	...	Laura Crawford (as Ursula Fellner)
Al Cliver	...	Peter Weston
Antonio Mayans	...	Jack (as Robert Foster)
Antônio do Cabo	...	Thomas (as Antonio de Cabo)
Bertrand Altmann	...	The Devil (as Burt Altman)
Gisela Hahn	...	Jane
Muriel Montossé	...	Girl on Yacht (as Victoria Adams)
Werner Pochath	...	Chris
Melo Costa	...	Pablito (as Leonardo Costa)
Aline Mess	...	Cannibal Priestess (as Lynn Mess)
Claude Boisson	...	Cannibal Chief
Tibi Costa
Óscar Cortina
Ana Paula

Storyline

After World War 2, Senior Japanese Officials and their followers were killed and buried together in China, after being defeated and forced to give in. The Japanese Evil People of Nine Chrysanthemum have sworn revenge and are secretly plotting against China after sealing the graves of the Officials. Before their conspiracy can come to an end, Chinese police Captain Li and Taoist master Mao Yuan Feng discover the conspiracy and kill some of the Japanese Evil People. The members who survived used then their blood to call them back from Hell and became Devil Masters. But before their Japanese Imperialist Agressive Ambition can succeed, Captain Li and Taoist Master Mao Yuan Feng kill them and defeat their plot of revenge for good.

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Plot Keywords:

female nudity | erotica | bare butt | bare breasts | bouncing breasts | 

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Taglines:

Hunted, raped, and tormented out of her mind...

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Genres:

Horror

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Did You Know?

Trivia

Writer Julián Esteban came up with the idea for this film.

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Goofs

A woman is chained to a tree in, supposedly, the jungle. The tree is completely covered in carved names of lovers and was here people.

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Quotes

Jack: [having a flashback] Peter!
Peter Weston: What's the matter, Jack?
Jack: It was just like this place... all those bombs. Oh! Oh my poor head. I hate the jungle and its humidity.
Peter Weston: Come now. It's all over now.
Jack: ...and these shadows...
Peter Weston: We're not in Vietnam now.
Jack: This heat...
Peter Weston: Come on!
Jack: The blood was all over the place. I can't take it. Not again. Get me outta here. I can't get these painful memories out if my head
Peter Weston: Calm down. Come on... you most control yourself
[...]

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Alternate Versions

There were two videos that were banned in the UK as 'video nasties'. Both were released by 'Cinehollywood'. Both are uncut.

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Connections

Referenced in Call Him Jess (2000)

User Reviews

More exotic, hugely padded-out crap from Jesus.

When a man who doesn't have Alzheimer's can't remember how many films he's made, he probably is the world's most prolific director after all. That man is Jesus Franco, the king of so-called 'eurotrash'. His 1980 flick Devil Hunter is as rushed, opaque, stupid, lazy and exploitative in the truest sense of the word (the film's title is misleading, for starters) as any other Franco film I've seen. That makes it sound pretty awful, and it is... Yet Franco does have some kind of inimitable sensibility, a generous way with the baldly outrageous, with nudity and sleaze and violence, and even with his stupid cheap editing which tries to pave over the extreme haste with which all his films were made. The mix of all these elements causes you to ride his films out, even while you're mostly waiting for them to end because they're so very tedious.

Devil Hunter is nigh on incomprehensible for the first half an hour. The kidnap by strangers of a white woman who seems to be a model or film star is intercut with a bunch of native action in South America. There's lots of naked writhing, dancing, and endless repeated zoom-ins on an ugly totem pole. You need to get used to the repetitive zoom-ins and the technique of cutting back to the same shot about three times in a row right away, as these are Franco's main methods of extending a film out to feature length.

The monster who looks like the totem pole is actually kind of scary. He has raw bug eyes and his presence is always signalled on the soundtrack by cacophonous groaning, apparently recorded in an echo chamber. Early in the piece he chews on a native lady strapped to a tree, and it's hard to know what really happens here but I think he ate her stomach (or her genitals, sweet Jesus!).

Anyway, the adventure begins properly when a studly guy and his freaked out Vietnam vet pal are sent to the island to recover the white girl from the kidnappers. The flakey guy has an accent which, as dubbed, is half Brooklyn-American, half English-Liverpudlian and all retarded. All of the dialogue and dubbing is ridiculous and laughable, making for another layer of the film which can somehow hold your interest.

Not too much really happens from here on in, and it happens pretty sluggishly, studded with the odd bit of outrage like a rape. The nebulous action is fleshed out (haha!) by acres of 360 degree nudity from the natives and the two female leads, and even from the monster himself. That he walks around with his penis exposed makes wrestling him an unappetising prospect for the tough guy hero, but it's gotta be done at some point, and it's nice to note that the director will show anyone's genitals on camera.

The best feature of Devil Hunter is the location filming. Franco can be extremely cheap with the structural and story aspects of film-making, but he doesn't muck around with sets. You get real islands, jungles, helicopters and mountains, all in widescreen. This is something that is really cool to experience in these days of crappy CGI sets and backdrops ad nauseam.

Ultimately, issues of recommendation where this film is concerned seem moot. If you're trying to see all the Video Nasties, you will have to watch this at some point, and you'll be made as restless as I was. If you like Franco, you'll watch this anyway. If you fall into neither of the above categories, the odds are you'll never come across this film. Copies of it aren't just lying around, and I could hardly recommend the seeking out of it. It's Franco. Lazy, crazy Franco.

Details

Country:

Spain France West Germany

Language:

Spanish

Release Date:

5 December 1980 (West Germany)

Also Known As:

Sexo Cannibal

Filming Locations:

Archena, Murcia, Spain

Company Credits

Production Co:

Eurociné, J.E. Films (Julian Esteban Films), Lisa-Film

Technical Specs

Runtime:

102 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1