The Vindicator

Maybe I was expecting a little too much from it, but 'The Vindicator' was a so-so Canadian low-budget get-up of a half-human / robot on the rampage for revenge against those who did him wrong. While being tacky, junky and trashy all rolled into one, it just didn't rally up the thrills like it could have done. The story is pure comic-book stuff with some outrageous inclusions and can be loosely tied to the 'Frankenstein' story. But the main cause of interest, and it's been thrown around was how it could be seen as a minor blueprint for Paul Verhoeven's superior 'Robocop (1987)'.

Comparisons aside (which on the other hand James Cameron's 'Terminator (1984)' could've been an influencer to it), it's standard b-grade ho-huh that I didn't find it all that exciting or gripping in it's bland story-telling (which had too many daft moments in a wonky script) and uniformed visuals. Director Jean-Claude Lord's (who was also behind the 1982 slasher 'Visiting Hours') handling is crudely makeshift and the pacing can get blotchy, but the grimy atmosphere and cold-blooded violence (at least the deaths are creative) seems to fit. However the premise had something original to work with, but the way Lord went about it wasn't. At times it seemed to get too mushy with some unwanted details, where I wished it kept to a more straight-forward, but harrowing revenge exploitation path.

Iconic cult actress Pam Grier appears as a hired gun to destroy the cyborg, but even her firebrand presence isn't all that flammable. David McIlwraith cruises through his part as the scientist turned machine. Richard Cox is perfectly snake-like in his performance, but the pick of the bunch is Teri Austin's gallant turn. The always dependable Stan Winston vividly crafts out the space-suit wearing cyborg and make-up FX with great care, and is one of the film's major highlights. Paul Zaza's music score starts off effective, to only go on to be mainly forgettable.

Going into this movie, I was expecting a Robocop rip-off, what I got was a fairly entertaining Robocop rip-off that also reminded me of Darkman and The Guyver in equal amounts. Imagine my surprise then, to learn that this fairly obscure little movie actually predates all of those films by a good few years, and the only films that are blatant influences on it are The Terminator and Frankenstein.

A brilliant Scientist is killed by his boss to be recreated as an invulnerable Cyborg who will obey his every command. However, when the control chip for him is detached, he escapes, visiting his mourning wife, while being hunted by a Bounty Hunter(played by Pam Grier) and the company's scientists and hired muscle, before he decides to put an end to their schemes.

It's not brilliant, and all of the aforementioned movies, barring maybe the first Guyver, are better than it, but that doesn't mean it's not a fairly good B-grade Sci-Fi movie that never bored or failed to entertain me. The effects, done by Stan Winston, are actually pretty good, although the Cyborg's design could have been better, it's actual creation is excellent. Acting in the movie is fairly divided, with the main players all doing very well, but the supporting cast are pretty dreadful.

Worth watching to see a sort of Pre-Robocop Robocop.

A scientist working on a top secret experiment is killed in an explosion but the corporation that funds his experiments transforms him into a robot.

A resurrection science fiction film that despite being a B-low budget affair has a grander 80's film quality feel thanks to some gritty, raw and rough round the edges special effects from Stan Winston. Richard Cox and Pam Grier are watchable and some performances are above average. Written by Edith Rey and David Preston, the dialogue is sometimes a little clunky, yet their story fairs better exploring some moral dilemmas.

Jean-Claude Lord's Vindicator was of its day. Although it predates Robocop (1987) in retrospect I remember the main draw to watch it was because of The Terminator (1984). That said, the Vindicator shares more with Frankenstein and the Wraith (1986). It has some nice visual moments, simmering violence and emotional clout. It has a certain off beat charm, a nostalgia that has stayed in my mind since watching the VHS. On revisiting The Vindicator it's not as fast paced as I remembered, but it's entertaining, worth viewing if for comparable curiosity only.

You probably have never heard of this movie but it's a real find. It's a mixture of science-fiction/action and revenge themes. It has a comic book plot but it's presented in a fast paced, razzle-dazzle way. The cast is in pretty good form too. Chaykin really steals the show in an interesting plot twist. It doesn't have much to do with the original Frankenstein legend so The Vindicator is a better title than Frankenstein 88. It was shot in Montreal but you'd never know it. Unlike many Canadian films made at the time, it does not have an ultra-slow, cheap look about it. In fact, the special effects and sets are highly impressive. It only had a minimal release and then turned up on Pay-TV and video. If you like sci-fi even a tiny bit, check this out and tell a friend. You won't be disappointed!

My review was written in May 1986 after a Cannes Film Festival Market screening.

"The Vindicator" is an extremely strange horror/sci-fi film with too many plot twists for its own good. Filmed in 1984, feature has sat on the shelf for over a year at 20th Century Fox and is, unfortunately, not crazy enough to give Fox a follow-up to its midnight hit "The Rocky Horror Picture Show".

As its alternate title "Frankenstein '88" implies, pic is yet another update of the Mary Shelley classic. For the space program, scientist Alex Whyte (Richard Cox) is working on creating a nearly indestructible cyborg using a human brain, metal body and special computer hookup with programming from his Primates Lab's "rage reinforcement" experiments on chimpanzees. This hookup causes the cyborg to react violently and lethally to any threatening stimulus, unless ordered off by a remote control device.

Whyte's colleague Carl Lehman (David McIlwraith) is angry at Whyte for diverting research funds to his own experiments, and Whyte has a henchman kill Lehman in a lab explosion. Using Lehman's corpse, Whyte creates the first of his Frankenstein monsters, but the creature escapes before the remote control unit is attached to it, making it a deadly monster that will attack anything that approaches it.

Although a ruthless killer, the creature still has Lehman's memories, making it a self-divided, rather pathetic being. Lehman's pregnant wife Lauren (Terri Austin) tries to help it while Whyte hires a talented and ruthless female bounty hunter (guest star Pam Grier) to track it down and destroy it.

This familiar story provides the springboard for a dizzying array of mostly unconvincing plot twists, particularly in the final two reels when one is never certain who is going to pop up and get the drop on whom next. Because the artificial (post-synchronized) dialog is so cliched and silly, the net effect of rather well-staged action sequences is a horror parody.

Earnest cast, especially the pretty but unpersuasive leading lady Terri Austin, is laughable, with even Pam Grier making very little of a patented macha role. Tech credits are okay though the lab facility looks more like a shopping mall than a high-security installation. The Frankenstein monster designed by Stan Winston Studio has a new look, in its tattered state (and backlit) closer to The Mummy than the original Karloff makeup job.