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Jack Cutter (The Dragon) comes from a long line of vampire hunters. When he was just a kid, vampires attacked his family farmhouse. The Cutter family has a sacred book all about vampires and how to combat them. His family tells him "don't trust anyone", and he is sent off to be on his own. In 1995, now an adult, Cutter has tracked and killed every vampire in existence - except an elite underground club of nine multiracial vamps, led by the sinister Brit Bruno (Guest). Cutter teams up with Raimy Baker (Smith), a reporter for the "National Inquisitor". But can he get over his deep-seated trust issues? Can he avoid the cops and exterminate the last vampires on earth before the solar eclipse when they will gain maximum power? Will Jack live up to his nickname of "The Hunter"? Night Hunter is a Ring of Fire (1991) reunion of sorts, as Don The Dragon, Maria Ford, Ron Yuan and Vince Murdocco all return in front of the camera, and Rick Jacobson and Art Camacho behind it. However, there seems to have been a conscious effort to do something totally different and not repeat themselves. They succeeded in that, and it is a nice novelty to see Don in a different kind of role: a dark, horror-tinged storyline instead of a sunny, romantic one like Ring of Fire. Two sides of a coin I guess. Maria Ford is always welcome, and Melanie Smith will be instantly recognized by Seinfeld fans as Jerry's girlfriend in a story arc on that show.

Don doesn't say anything until 20 minutes into the movie, and his character and dress are very clearly influenced by The Crow (1994) and Brandon Lee. It's also one of the better Don performances we've seen, as his wooden delivery is hidden well by a character that doesn't talk much anyway. As this is a Corman production, and he is known for "borrowing" ideas popular at that time, the film also borrows the flamenco music of Desperado (1995) and some ideas from From Dusk Til Dawn (1996). Interestingly it predates Blade (1998) in the fact that it has Vampire POV and Ford's character is similar to Traci Lords'.

As far as the fights are concerned, it seems to be a mix of gunplay and martial arts, and highlighted by Don's punishing finishing moves and death blows. A positive for Night Hunter is that it seems to have created its own vampire rules and mythos. For example, vampires may come out during the day, especially if they wear special sunglasses. Vampires shoot guns, and there is a gunshot-cure serum. Notably, you can only kill them by breaking their neck. So that sets the stage for some violent moves. But there is a major downside...

You've heard of "shaky cam" but during the fight scenes, they seem to have initiated something we called "earthquake cam". The screen violently shakes, so much so you begin to feel ill. The attempt to be stylish is somewhat appreciated, but you can't sicken your audience by sticking the camera in one of those paint-shaking machines at the hardware store and not expect a reaction. If this was done to cover up the moves of the actors, there's no need for that as Don's moves are excellent. They really should have reined in the earthquake cam. And sometimes they added a strobe light on top of it! For a Don The Dragon movie with more of a professional sheen, and featuring Don in an unorthodox role, by all means try Night Hunter...but beware the earthquake cam.

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NIGHT HUNTER is a godawful foray into the action horror genre from martial arts specialist Don "The Dragon" Wilson. To say that it's a dud is an understatement; this is a film with absolutely terrible action choreography and direction, the nadir of which is the decision to shoot the fight scenes with what can only be described as an "earthquake cam", constantly trembling which makes the scenes unwatchable. Thankfully director Rick Jacobson has improved in recent years with his work on various episodes of the SPARTACUS TV series.

The plot is very light and features Wilson (who's made up as a goth, much like THE CROW) going after a vampire gang who were responsible for the death of his family. A seemingly innocent woman gets involved in the mess, and there's a lot of killing, although few special effects. However, this truly is one of the poorest-directed of all the B-movies I've sat through, and anybody who claims to enjoy this stuff must be a real glutton for punishment.

I usually enjoy a good "Slay the vampire" movie, but this was not one of them. Don the "Dragon" Wilson brings his dark brooding image to the sceen, but the writers forgot to bring an original idea to the script. Also someone had the idea to shake the camera during each fight to give the scene a earthquake effect. I fell asleep three times during the first half hour of the film. It would have been better if I had just kept on sleeping.

It's got Don "The Dragon" Wilson kind of playing Lorenzo Lamas from Renegade, kind of playing Brandon Lee from The Crow.

And it has Maria Ford who... kept her clothes on, which makes one instantly wonder how that went down in the casting call. "Listen, Maria, we really want you for the role, but are you OK with not doing full frontal?"

Anyway, this movie would have been something with a higher budget wouldn't it? The start of the film was solid... SOLID... for any independent horror/action flick....

... and then the unnecessary subplots failed. They attempted to give a little too much character to Don Wilson and, honestly, this time it would have been better if they left him underdeveloped and made him more the vampire boogeyman.

No one would have complained if Ford took her clothes off again... no one.

And, seriously, the attempts to flesh out the story weren't necessary. It had a great start, it should have fallen back on mindless action, but the plot just kept getting in the way of that.

It was a B-Movie that thought it was something more and that is where things fail....

... but, Don "The Dragon" Wilson was really trying his best to be more than a kickboxing machine, so... credit. And the opening alone spoke of real potential.

But, sometimes, you just have to understand that you are making a B-Movie and roll with it.

Pun intended. This low budget action/horror vehicle for Don Wilson's ability to kick things is the stuff direct-to-video fare is made of.

The plot: Wilson is a humorless vampire hunter who comes under fire from local law enforcement after he is forced to slaughter creatures of the night in view of the public. Police chase him, vampires chase him, he responds by kicking...a lot.

There is a little more to the story, but it is so inconsequential that I honestly can't remember it; I think people actually spoke in the movie, but that's up to debate. The plot is nothing more than a set-up for Wilson to kill as many vampires as possible in the running time, usually by kicking them.

The technical specs are, in a word, anemic. Little color treating, amateurish use of lighting, simplistic use of camera and angle. Blood and gore is noticeably limited, odd for this type of film. The most hurtful of the filming foul-ups is the jarring shift to super-shaky cam during each and every fight scene. If the camera begins to bounce around like a reese monkey on speed, then you know Don is about to start kicking everything in sight.

All in all, this is the kind of bad movie that can be made good with a few friends and a lot of cynical humor. Otherwise, do not watch, unless you really like to watch things get kicked.

3/10

This movie is very bad but a slightly interesting curiosity as a very low budget, very badly acted, proto BLADE (1998). It could have been so much butter with better acting, better effects and less shaky cam or as I like to call it: Earthquake cam, during fight scenes!

Don Wilson stars as Jack Cutter (Ooh real tough name!)a vampire slayer who goes up against a vampire army, you see the story is a little different because vampires can't be killed with silver, crosses or sunlight but rather through snapping their necks (How convenient as it cuts down on the budget) and it's here Cutter runs into a reporter (Melanie Smith of Trancers III fame) Night Hunter's action sequences shake for no reason during the fight sequences and although it's meant to emphasize the mood, it just makes the movie more jarring. What is worse is that these fight sequences are botched beyond belief as Wilson's martial artistry is disguised by disjointed editing. Of course the most interest comes from the fact that indeed this predates Blade, however the problem is that this was done on a small budget and that it had Don Wilson in it. It's from Roger Corman and basically this turkey is a movie most people would pay NOT to see. I unfortunately am a bottom feeder and I cater to the section of the store looking for gems, in this line of work you always run into turds. With Night Hunter, I just may have the world's stinkiest turd.

1/2* out of 4-(Awful)

This is one of those films which (like most straight to video/DVD fodder!) sadly, unfortunately DOES NOT live up to its poster! I remember years ago in the late 1990s, seeing a VHS (yes that long ago!) copy of it in my local video rental store, picking it up, reading the cover and thinking (as other reviewers have already mentioned) that in this film Don Wilson had a similar look to that of Brandon Lee in The Crow. And that it sounded like quite a fun film and also a bit of a change for Don Wilson, I believe it's the only slightly Horror themed film he has appeared in. However I didn't bother renting it at the time (1998/99) and it wasn't until many years later (2013) that I actually saw the film when someone kindly uploaded it for free on Youtube (In fact most crappy straight to DVD/video films should be uploaded on Youtube, because they certainly aren't worth paying to see!). And when I eventually did see it I thought to myself "That was crap and it didn't live up to its poster" and furthermore "I'm glad I didn't pay to see that all those years ago in the video rental shop". Like most low budget, straight to DVD films, the film is hampered by budget limitations, poor acting and a lame script. And as everyone else has mentioned, I really do not understand that earthquake camera effect?! William C Martell, the man responsible for the poor script usually blames the failure of films he wrote on the cast and crew involved and never seems to take his fair share of the blame! He often claim that the cast and crew changed almost every word he wrote! Martell said that Don Wilson did not actually want to do a horror/vampire themed film and when he eventually agreed to it, he wanted to control every damn part of the film? Well that may be true but from the looks of things Martell probably wrote the script in a couple of weeks, if that? He really needed to spend more time on it and made sure he sold it to a better production company as well! Don Wilson claims that ALL of the films that he "starred" in "made money" by that I assume he means that they broke even? But I find that hard to believe, because more expensive Wilson films such as the Cybertracker films had a few million spent on them (from the look of them) and how does a film that did not get a cinema release make a few million to break even? They couldn't have made that much on video, because it's the films that were previously at the cinema that make the most on video, not a film that's been released straight to DVD/video and "stars" a cast of nobodies.

I'm not much a Don "The Dragon" Wilson fan as others who've seen his movies over the years, so when I decided to check this out, the movie's concept was what hooked me. Vampires walking during the day and can die from simple everyday circumstances isn't explored that often in mainstream media. Vampires were always depicted as these nocturnal creatures of night but, here they're easily out and about like normal humans which to me makes them more dangerous and rational.

THE GOOD 1. The vampire lore is written differently and explored in a more interesting way. That's about it.

THE BAD: 1. The martial arts in this isn't very interesting or exciting enough to get into for a movie that centers around a martial artist. Don Wilson sadly just happened to break into movies with the likes of Van Damme, Speakman, Bernhardt, Seagal, Rhee, Lundgren, Brandon Lee, Rothrock, G. Daniels, M. J. White, and Dacascos that they all make him lower tier in option.

2. The acting. I'm not going to be picky here. You got to work with what you got, but this was some entertaining improv by the talent they've hired. Expected for most of the Direct VHS market in the 90's.

3. The set pieces have much to be desired. From abandoned hallways, to open ended warehouses not much else was used or explored when it came to the vampires and their gothic roots. Maybe there was a purpose to it? Who knows.

All in all, It was ok for its time and me just now seeing it at the age that I'm at makes it more of a nostalgia watch for a time that I miss in action cinema. D-

Every single fight scene (and there was a ton of them - this is a Don Wilson film) was ruined by shaking the camera. What's the point? Not only that, but most fight scenes included flickering the light intensity. And to insure complete dizziness a few scenes put the camera on a carousel to spin the action in a circle. It's crude, unpleasant and kills the film.

Otherwise this would have been a decent non traditional, vampire, time wasting film for people who may like hand to hand combat.

Right, well I have to admit that when I stumbled upon this 1996 horror action movie titled "Night Hunter" here in 2023, and seeing that the movie had both Don Wilson and Maria Ford on the cast list, of course I was immediately interested in watching the movie. I had never actually heard about this, but I figured that a vampire-themed movie with Wilson and Ford had to be interesting.

Boy was I wrong. The storyline in "Night Hunter" was bland and boring. Writer William C. Martell put together a script and storyline that failed to entertain me. And the movie felt incredibly amateurish and sluggish in the hands of director Rick Jacobson. It most definitely wasn't the usual hard-hitting action that one would assume from Don 'The Dragon' Wilson.

The acting performances in "Night Hunter" were adequate enough for what they turned out to be. But you're not in for anything grand or memorable here.

I have to say that "Night Hunter" will just as quickly fade into oblivion as it snuck in under the radar.

My rating of "Night Hunter" lands on a very generous three out of ten stars.

....and by different, I mean that he plays what you could call an older male Buffy in this one! (Or maybe you could say a white Blade, but he came later). "Night Hunter" scores novelty points for combining vampires with martial arts: of course traditional vampire elimination methods simply won't do, according to this mythology the only way to conclusively kill one of them is to break his (or her) neck! There are two main problems with this film: a) it is quite slow-moving, b) the camera-work employs what could be described as an "earthquake effect" during some of the fight scenes - the restaurant one in particular almost made me nauseous! But the fights themselves are tightly choreographed in a mostly grounded style by the experienced Art Kamacho, and Wilson's fight with Ron Yuan is good by any standards. Glad to see Maria Ford and Sophia Crawford as sexy, high-kicking bisexual vampires, but they are both underused - they never even share the screen together. **1/2 out of 4.

More exciting than the Wesley Snipes film, and with better characters, too. The last vampire hunter must save Los Angeles from a coven of vampires out to conquer the city, aided by a tabloid journalist. Lost of fun... and the names of the characters are great!

As far as video fodder goes, this movie is okay, with its mix of modern-days-vampires action and fights ; in a way, it can be viewed as a forerunner to Wesley Snipes' "Blade". In fact, with his long hair, black clothes and somber look (well, as far as a non-actor can convey), Don Wilson, looks very much loke Brandon Lee in "The Crow" ! From Crow to Dragon, there's only one

Night hunter is a sold B style action movie. Get a life and grow up people. Don "the Dragon" Wilson is a kick boxer, (hall of fame) and not an actor. If your looking for an Oscar, it's not here brother. Looking for kick ass action movie with lower then low budget, this is it.The plot line may have been a little thin, but what B movie isn't. I understand everybody is a critic and how one man's junk is another man's treasure. Get real people, judging every movie like it is an Oscar contender, just silly. Awesome fight scenes, mixed with a new twist on vampire moves. See it if your a fan, rent something else if your a hater.

Night Hunter is a vampire movie that is set in modern times. The film comes up with some innovative ideas about vampirism that are at odds with the traditional vampire movies. The traditional way of killing a vampire is abandoned as well as how, or I should say when, are new vampires made. I like the old traditional ways but for one movie it's alright. The most bothersome things in this movie are the fight scenes and there are quite a few. Actually the fight scenes are the movie. Anyway, during the filming of the fight scenes, they shake, wobble and spin the camera to make it look more hectic and presumably to give it more action. It was a bad idea. It failed and they should have realized it and tried something else. All it does is ruin the scene. Since there are so many fight scenes, this annoyance is quite frequent. There are numerous mistakes, and unanswered questions throughout the film. Not enough time was spent on the details. This movie is watchable but only if you have nothing better to watch and you don't expect too much. There are much better choices out there.