Horror Extreme Movie Review - Devil Hunter (Sexo Canibal)

If you like "sleaze for the sake of sleaze" exploitation flicks then Jess Franco is a director delivered by angels. Another of Uncle Franco's entries in the DPP Video Nasty list is Devil Hunter (along with Bloody Moon and Women Behind Bars). Devil Hunter (also known as Sexo Canibal) is simply an excuse to display boobies, lady builder cleavage, the forbidden lady triangle and the occasional "from behind" man-bag peeping between the valleys. It is also an excuse to display terrorized and distressed damsels, a cannibal tribe fit for a Benetton advert and more blood and gore that the national osteoporosis hurdles championships. This movie is bad... badly acted, badly dubbed and with a weak (yet still confusing) story... which of course allows the sleaze to shine, although in this instance it doesn't shine as bright as Bloody Moon. This movie is so bad that it's entertaining but is quite easily forgettable with no outstanding gore scenes to stain the brain with burgundy for the evening and only terrible voice-overs for entertainment.

Devil Hunter, directed by Clifford Brown (also known as Jesus Franco's homage to the jazz musician of the same name), follows the bad day of model Laura Crawford who gets kidnapped by a gang of criminals whilst working in South America. Not being the sharpest pencils in the box, the slapdash criminals decide that the ideal place for a ransom transaction is a secluded island inhabited by a multi-cultural looking tribe of people led by a bulbous eyed, loincloth-less cannibal dude who eats human hearts and takes eating pussy to the next level.

With Laura being such a sought after commodity in the showbiz industry, some guy sends some other ex-Vietnam veteran guy (played by Al Cliver) to rescue her (the storyline isn’t one that sticks with your memory for very long) with a bag of money, although industry guy wants Laura and the money back. Transaction goes wrong, Laura escapes and runs screaming through the forest, everyone gets split up and Cannibal god gets back from a long weekend in Amsterdam (judging by his eyes and eyesight) hungry for human flesh and pink blancmange (although blancmange-like flesh will suffice as long as it feels good when rubbed on the teeth for long periods of time whilst staring into the camera). It doesn't really get much more complicated than that.

Unfortunately the highlight of this movie has to be Werner Pochath's character Chris and his badly dubbed fits of rage. I was in stitches partly due to his inappropriate accent and the way he reminded me of Eoin McLove from the Father Ted Night of the Living Dead parody episode. Everything else is done really cheaply and lazily, "The Devil" has painted ping-pong balls for eyes, the severed head scene is achieved by conveniently placed vegetation (and the head blinks) and the blood color and consistency is all wrong (at least Argento makes it look artistic).

In case it hadn't been mentioned before Devil Hunter is just a reason to cram as much sex, gore and depravity into a movie sized time period. Whereas usually this concept is all that is needed to draw the attention of an exploitation movie freak there was too much emphasis on naked parts and not enough effort made with regards to gore, if you want to watch porn you watch a porno not a video nasty (or am I weird). Even the camera man was just there for the genitals as he spent most of the movie zooming in to beaver and butt-sack. This needs to be finished with a quote from the DVD cover as the marketing person needs to be sacked if this is the best compliment they can come up with to sell the brilliance of this flick – “Uncle Jess unleashes a deluge of relentless nudity, dubious anthropology and his own brand of cut-rate carnage”.