Devil Hunter 1980

(a.k.a. Il Cacciatore di Uomini/Jungfrau unter Kannibalen/Sexo Cannibal/Chasseurs d’hommes/Man Hunter/Mandingo Manhunter)

Italy/West Germany/Spain, JE Films/Lisa Films.

Starring Al Cliver (Pierluigi Conti) Ursula Buchfellner, Gisele Hahn, Werner Pochath, Robert Foster (Antonio Mayans). Written by Clifford Brown (Jesus Franco) and Julian Esteban. Directed by Clifford Brown (Jesus Franco).

Color, running times vary (75-86 mins)
Luminous Film and Video Wurks

Starlet Laura Crawford (’79 Playmate Buchfellner) arrives in an unnamed country to shoot a film and is promptly kidnapped by hotwired degenerates Pochath and Antonio de Cabo, who are in cahoots with her assistant Jane (Hahn). The trio drags Laura to a remote jungle that is also home to a primitive (and very multi-ethnic) tribe that sacrifices naked women to a bug-eyed monster (the towering Burt Altman in ludicrous make-up). Laura’s producer calls in recovery man Peter Weston (Zombie’s Cliver/Conti, looking tranquilized as usual) to get Laura; an attempted exchange goes awry when Pochath and de Cabo take potshots at Weston and his Vietnam vet sidekick Foster/Mayans (re-dubbed with a wildly fluctuating Southern accent).  All parties spend the remainder of the film stalking each other through the jungle, unaware that they are being followed (very slowly) by the flesh-eating man-god…

Made after Franco broke with Erwin C. Dietrich (the last producer to get anything decent out of him) and shot apparently back-to-back with 1981’s Cannibal Terror (which features much of the same cast) Devil Hunter will not please fans of his best work (Awful Dr. Orlof, Venus In Furs, etc.). It’s a nonsensical, slapdash attempt to cash in on the Italian cannibal/zombie movie craze of the period, yet has neither the doomy energy of Fulci’s best efforts nor the putrid special effects work. Franco can only offer ragged zooms into the naked crotches of Buchfellner and tribeswoman Aline Mess, but those really don’t pay the rent, especially after you’re asked to maintain interest in the monster’s stumbling POV (Vaseline smeared on the lens) or the sight of a shirtless and paunchy Cliver throwing beer bottles into the ocean.

However, if you believe that like pizza and sex, Franco offers a good time even when he’s just okay, Devil Hunter is frequently amusing and short enough to avoid being truly tedious. The cast of Franco regulars gives valiant performances (save Cliver), with special notice going to the late Pochath, whose pent-up irritation frequently explodes into an infantile conniption fit (“Damn-shit!”).  Action and dialogue seems largely improvised, which turns the jungle-adventure storyline into an expensive backyard film experiment. And Franco simply can’t rein in his voyeuristic jones—Hahn watches the skeletal de Cabo molest Buchfellner (a repulsive scene), the tribesmen watch Altman munch on a sacrifice, and Franco’s camera seems most energetic when it’s creeping up on the characters. Again, it’s light years from Succubus, but if you like Franco warts and all, it’s big dumb fun.

Devil Hunter was one of three Franco films to make England’s notorious “video nasties” list (along with Cannibal Terror and Bloody Moon) due to its tame and silly flesh-eating scene, and according to melonfarmers.co.uk, remains banned in the UK. I don’t want to be placed in the position of defending this movie, but good grief.

—Paul Gaita