MarkinTempe

THE EXTERMINATOR is a cheap urban exploitationer whose success probably yielded the DEATH WISH sequels. Being how those Charles Bronson sequels were just as cheap and grimy(and bad)as this film is, maybe the quality to profitability ratio was sensible from Michael Winner's standpoint. Then again,I have no doubt that THE EXTERMINATOR also spurred the obviously much better and more successful FIRST BLOOD. Michael Winner doesn't make movies anymore, he is a restaurant critic. Draw your own conclusion. Hint:Winner takes fall. Cannon Group fodder.

You have to love the cut-rate approach that a film like THE EXTERMINATOR takes. Here you have an opening shot that I swear could parody the one in APOCALYPSE NOW if this movie didn't use it to serve it's genre hook. Since the opening setting is in Vietnam,you need it to be at night to veil the sound stage, you also need little palm trees, an interrogation scene that can be used later for inducing cold sweats and flashbacks and of course, last but not least you got your squad running to the ubiquitous Huey taking fire.

Flashforward a decade and you have your protagonist alive and well with his 'Nam buddy who literally saved his head. They work at a meat packing plant which will come in handy for "the man they pushed too far". Afterall,he fought in the Far East and his name is John Eastland. Apparently,the detective (Christopher George)is the only one who picks up on that kind of karma.

To play the main character,you have Robert Ginty who played a 'Nam buddy in COMING HOME. How convenient and economical! You'll also notice that he'd play Vietnam vets in most of his later films as well. American typecasting;always so reliable.

THE EXTERMINATOR could have been at least enjoyably bad had it went along more of the lines of a slasher/vigilante pic. Yes,the The Exterminator uses a blowtorch. But it is not the trademark weapon as you are lead to believe. He uses it only once or twice but it isn't the cool flamethrower gun on the poster. 2004's THE PUNISHER makes a nod to this film in one torture scene. Nor is the Exterminator outfitted like on the poster either.Although there are other cool gruesome deaths to satisfy gorehounds, this film miserably failed to align itself with the Friday THE 13TH crowds of that same year. Maybe that's why this movie is out of print.

The opening company credit appears before a grainy, blood red screen that tightly pulls back to reveal a shot of a woman lying on a carpeted lounge deep in nightmare. So begins DAWN OF THE DEAD; Sequel to the 1968 cult classic NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD. Dawn has also attained cult status as well though it is not as familiar a title as Night to the average viewer. Night shocked many an audience with its pure rawness of tawdry filmmaking depicting disembowelments and flesh-eating in black and white film that was just as bleak as the film's ending. DAWN OF THE DEAD deliberately lightens up the continuation of the blood-soaked saga of an apocalypse of the Undead in vibrant color to encompass a grotesque spectrum. It takes place sometime after the events of the first film. How long I am not sure,but it doesn't seem like those militia rednecks had the situation under control after all. The film centers around four people who have escaped the city engulfed in wide-spread panic,chaos,anarchy and plague. They find refuge in a large shopping mall which they must fortify in order secure an ideal haven,only to discover all too ambiguously, that with creature comforts there still comes a price. Upon first seeing this film awhile back,and after being terrified with Night,I was impressed with its ambition of being The satiric horror film. However,I felt and still do now that the movie has no business being as long as it is. Looking back,I think the film's stab at America's consumer frenzy would've been that much more effective had it been made during the 1980's Reaganomics era. As a horror film it is not that frightening,nor do I think that it is meant to be. The Gore EFX are very impressive, the Make-up EFX are not, but the film's tight editing of action scenes is some of the best I have seen, which helps smooth over that gap accordingly and believably(Film editor Pasquale Buba would later work his cutting magic in the memorable shoot-out scene in 1995's HEAT) Overall,DAWN OF THE DEAD is a very good piece of independent filmmaking. Though like one of its zombies,it might bite a little bit more than it can chew.

If Jason Voorhies can't be killed,why shouldn't the sequels be just as invincible? Even diminishing audiences to this futile series can't bury the hatchet on this guy. If you can't beat 'em, enjoy 'em. That's the attitude of this self-spoofing tenth FRIDAY THE 13TH sequel. Upon seeing JASON X, I expected to see a plethora of possibilities in its sci-fi setting in the vein of a parody since the scare element has long been unavailing in this type of horror. Then again, they couldn't put any entertainment value in the last nine tries why would the tenth be any different? The movie starts out in the near future with Jason Voorhies being kept in Camp Crystal Research Facility where he is being prepared to be cryogenicized until it can be figured out how to kill him. He escapes impoundment not even 10 minutes into the movie and kills everyone in sight except for the scientist who throws him and herself into the freeze chamber. They are discovered a few centuries later by a group of nubile students who inhabit a spacestation,which is where most of this movie will take place. They manage to thaw out the scientist and her arch enemy. Bad idea. Jason soon awakes to find his machete and more salacious teens to slaughter. The gory killings retain the same style as before and there are a couple of funny scenes that poke fun at slasher cliches. I saw this film at a midnight showing. The audience consisted mostly of kids who weren't even born when FRIDAY THE 13TH first came out. Maybe that's why the studio thought that this movie could work. But they can't even get that right. They can't even spoof the right movie! You'd think that after SCREAM, I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER and URBAN LEGEND etc., that JASON X could at least take full advantage of trying to top all those flicks by having its own series to freshen up scares and laughs. But no,it mostly goes the way of ripping off the ALIEN movies. The last couple of scenes even directly rip-off from ALIEN RESURRECTION. Shame on me for giving a bad slasher series a tenth chance.