Duo pour une mort noire

"Pete Giullani" (Wayne Crawford) and "Katherine Hall" (Kay Lenz) are two Miami detectives who are partners and are given an assignment to investigate a series of brutal murders among the small Nigerian community in their city. At the same time Pete has just learned that his wife is having an affair and because of that he has decided to move out of the house. Not knowing where else to turn he goes to the only person he can trust-who happens to be Katherine--and asks to move in temporarily with her. She reluctantly agrees even though she has a boyfriend and a private life of her own. Unfortunately, if that wasn't enough, the murders begin to increase and soon both Pete and Katherine begin to suspect that the person responsible for these grisly murders may not be human after all-and it has now targeted them. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that, although the plot certainly seemed interesting enough, I found this film to be somewhat disappointing overall. For starters, the demon wasn't depicted until the end of the film and when it was finally shown it looked quite ridiculous. Likewise, too much time was spent on the subplot involving Pete's marriage which wasn't even remotely interesting. Additionally, other than Kay Lenz, none of the actors really stood out and for that reason it was hard to get overly enthused about this movie at all. That said, I have rated this movie accordingly. Slightly below average.

A forgettable little horror ditty involving two cops in Miami (Wayne Crawford and Kay Lenz) investigating some bloody murders which prove to be the work of an African demon which has pursued some refugees there. Headhunter is actually kind of plodding and uneventful and not the cheesefest the gaudy cover promised (How many times have I been let down by a dull movie with a cheesy VHS cover). There is little in the way of suspense, gore or action until the end of the movie when we finally get a look at the titular nasty which is actually a rather impressive, if rubbery, looking nasty. The dialogue is dull, the acting is decent and the plot is a little muddled (Something about the creature killing those are unfaithful to the African religion involved the movie and those who know its secret but it is unclear and underdeveloped and comes across as somewhat nonsensical and random given the events of the movie). There is some attempt at characterisation but it is of the clumsy, awkwardly inserted background personal life stuff that just eats up running time instead of seeming part of the movie – Your wife left you for a woman, boo-hoo, go and sit in the sitcom corner with George Costanza and that big nosed schlub from friends. There are some weak attempts at black humour such as an aborted baptism scene and one amusing scene involving a spontaneous late night visit to a hardware store by the films male protagonist to grab a chainsaw to do battle with the headhunter. A good sense of place and atmosphere is actually created in the seamy back blocks of Miami but it is not enough to make the film work any better. Not really terrible but mot really worth watching unless you're really stuck for something.

A cop (Wayne Crawford) whose wife is having an affair on him finds himself facing off against an African demon that has just arrived in the USA and is cutting off everyone's head. Kay Lenz is his partner and love interest. This film is very crudely made and lifelessly acted, but somehow or another it manages to move along at such a fast pace and also manages to be very entertaining and exciting the entire running time that you really don't care.

"Headhunter" is a low-budget horror movie shot in Cape Town but set in Miami. It's a little flick with a good and intriguing premise but a sloppy script. Director Francis Schaeffer counterbalances that by trying to make the movie as stylish as possible. You can definitely see the influence movies such as "The Evil Dead" had on this one. The cinematography in general is pretty good, provided you're watching the movie on Blu-Ray (the disc is out-of-print and I had to retrieve it on eBay myself about 10 years ago). Despite the director and the camera team using every trick in the book, the very low-budget prevents the movie from having a great-looking monster and decent gore: had they spent a bit more on the FX and fixed the script, it could've become a cult classic. I personally still love it as an obscure flick from the video rental days.

The constant bad swipes this low-rent South American horror film receives might be justified, but I didn't think it was entirely terrible. Mostly wooden, and more often vapid you could say, with the occult idea being push aside for lame (and oddly placed) soapy domestic quibbles of the two police detectives (likeably played by Wayne Crawford and Kay Lenz) who are chasing a killer that unusually decapitates its victims, and might be something supernatural of African origins. Cool! No not cool. This offbeat angle is left high and dry, and just frustrates with its sloppy pace and bland script. Quite a drag! Well up until the frenetic climax. Having the two leads being fully developed is fine, but still it leaves us with too many questions about our ugly looking demon. The underwritten premise is randomly disjointed and terribly unclear and inconsistent in its motives. Never does it become much fun, as its light on suspense, action and gratuitous splatter. Nor does it have any sort of camp value. It needed to go out on a limb to achieve excitement, because it sadly underplays itself and goes about things seriously. The convincing location choices however, seemed to invoke an effective atmospheric tenor, and Hans Kuhle's free-flowing camera-work is well done. Julian Laxton's howling music score has a thumping, menacing tone that won't let up. The rubber demon looks tacky and bulky, but decent for such a budget. Watchable fluff, but not one to lose your head over.