Devil Hunter

Director - Jess Franco (Zombie Lake, Hellhole Women)
Starring - Ursula Buchfellner (The Story of Linda), Al Cliver (Zombie, The Beyond), and Antonio Mayans (Oasis of the Zombies)
Release Date - 1980
Genre - Horror
Tagline - "Hunted, raped, and tormented out of her mind..."
Format - Bluray (Personal Collection) (Screener)

Rating (out of 5):

     I love horror as a collective genre.  The genre as a whole has so much to offer from slashers, to zombies, to even period pieces.  The genre is home to so much.  As a collective it is amazing but when you pick the genre apart and put it into sub-genre then you will find sub-genres that at not so entertaining.  For me, giallo and jungle cannibal flicks are the weakest of the genre.  Last night I was able to review the first film in a double feature released by Severin on blu.  The second on this set is Devil Hunter from director Jess Franco.  Me and Franco have a love/hate relationship.  His films are either extremely entertaining or downright boring.  Where did Devil Hunter fall under?

     The film follows a young woman who is kidnapped by a group of goons and taken deep in the jungle to wait for their ransom.  The young girl is a model and her agent brings in a war vet to deliver the money and get the girl.  The man agrees and heads into the jungle unaware that the jungle is inhabited by cannibals that want to turn them all into cannibal shit.


   Devil Hunter is a film I wanted to like.  Not because Franco directed it but because it starred Fulci regular Al Cliver.  Cliver can be seen in Zombi, The Beyond, and The Black Cat.  All three are amazing films and he does a fantastic job in his roles in all three but Devil Hunter was just nowhere near the same level.  The acting in this one is not as good as Cannibal Terror.  Most of the cast tries way too hard and their performances are almost laughable.  This makes Cliver and his performance feel out of place and awkward to watch.  He was handed the clean side of a shit stick with his role in this one.  The story for this one is the exact same as CT with the exception that the kidnapped woman is older and a model instead of a little girl wanting her daddy.  The film still follows the same plot where a group finds themselves in a cannibal's jungle and are forced to fight for their lives.  Nothing new and nothing entertaining.  Finally, the film has several kills on screen but they are painfully dull and lack all imagination.  Cannibal movies need guts and gore not 15 minutes of primitives primal dancing around their huts.  Overall, Devil Hunter was the one film out of the two I was looking forward to and the one that let me down the most.  The film is bland and has nothing that sets itself apart from the rest.  I cant recommend this one and suggest checking out another flick if you are wanting something to fill your cannibal fix.