★ 8 / 10
Exterminate, Exterminate! How wonderfully tacky and exploitive, The
John Chard
Exterminate, Exterminate! How wonderfully tacky and exploitive, The Exterminator rides in on the coat tails of films like Death Wish and has a bloody good time…
Exterminate, Exterminate!
How wonderfully tacky and exploitive, The Exterminator rides in on the coat tails of films like Death Wish and has a bloody good time doing so. Plot sees Vietnam veteran John Eastland (Robert Ginty) embark on a crusade of vigilantism when his best buddy is left paralysed by scumbags.
Pic is relentlessly bleak, as Eastland goes about his business, offing serious low-life's in a number of gruesome ways, director and writer James Glickenhaus revels in saying that all around us is a rotten apple. Of course vigilantism is wrong, but Glickenhaus makes it virtually impossible to not be on The Exterminator's side, such is the vile stench that circles the seamy underbelly of the city.
Trying to stop The Exterminator is world weary Detective James Dalton (Christopher George), well when he is not having sex with Samantha Eggar in the local hospital that is! He's a great character is Dalton, stoic and scuzzy, a throwback to the halcyon days of film noir gumshoes. And of course, he will be tinted with a conflict of interest.
The pace sometimes plods, but this is off set by the action that is guaranteed to arrive in the next passage of play, and the kills, graphic for the time, are not without grotesque ingenuity. Eggar is pretty much a token offering and really serves no purpose other than to give Jimmy some sugar, while some of the editing and photography leaves quite a bit to be desired.
Cheap independent problems be damned though! The Exterminator is in your face, it shows it all and doesn't cut corners or soft soap its theme. It be a splendid slice of Grindhouse Grue for those with a kink for such glorious excess. 8/10
★ 6 / 10
Grindhouse Classic
Falconeer
This is not a great film, in fact it can't even be considered a "good film," when you take into account the poor, confusing editing, ugly cinematography and…
This is not a great film, in fact it can't even be considered a "good film," when you take into account the poor, confusing editing, ugly cinematography and some bad acting. What makes "The Exterminator" a valuable movie, is it's "grindhouse credibility. This is one of the few movies of it's kind that actually makes me a little sick when I watch it, and similar films like "Death Wish" and "Vigilante" don't succeed in doing that. Yes, they are both way superior films, but they don't pack the punch that this sleazy movie from 1980 achieves in spades. You have the Vietnam Vet, still feeling the effects of one jungle, when he is thrust into another jungle, the urban jungle of New York city at the very end of the 1970's. The film's anti-hero is hunting the true filth of the Earth, mafioso, child molesters and murdering gang members. At the heart of the story is an ongoing struggle between him and "The Ghetto Ghouls," a hyper violent gang that is terrorizing New York. Offering some great, vintage location scenes of New York landmarks, like the West Side's meat packing district, the crime ridden Central Park, and the slime ridden Times Square. For these qualities the movie has value. It's a rough movie, but this one should be appreciated by fans of violent revenge movies from back in the day. The version I saw on Bluray appeared kind of choppy, like some scenes were missing. If there is an even nastier version of this one in existence, I can't even imagine what they cut..
•••
Unapologetic & hard hitting vigilante thriller. An all-time classic. ;-)