A trail-blazing titillator, if, perhaps, not always tasteful; that perfectly prurient, Euro-cult polymath, Jess Franco, not infrequently makes the kinda' wilfully artsy-fartsy, frequently artless, always transgressive weirdness that by its very ribald, uncompromising nature will strongly trigger the vociferous oratory of any mondo movie fan curious enough to dip into the morally murky movie miasma of Spain's premier, pop-cult sexualist extraordinaire. Even amongst ardent Franco-philes, 'The Devil Hunter' aka 'El Cannibal' (1980) is usually given brusque, short-tempered shrift, perhaps being due to the curious lack of gore, and the film's relatively mild sexploitation. So, why on earth do I love it so unreservedly? Because it is absolutely hilarious, a screamingly silly, sinfully stupefying, blissfully taste-free, trash-movie classic! A gloriously shambolic, Ed Wood Jr/Al Adamson /Andy Milligan cinematic tour de farce!
Viewed purely as schlocky, monobrowed comedy it's a titanically tasteless, full-blooded hootenanny, but for those hoping for a sensationalist, sicko-splatter 'Video nasty, are in for an unpleasant surprise, since it is a dismally plasma-light, B-Movie blight, no doubt wholly deserving of censure, but, happily, a 'Cannibal Holocaust-wannabe' it surely 'ain't, since it's a freaking laugh-riot of stumble-bum, diabolically-dubbed hilarity! Hell's onions! Even the hypertensive, Teutonic tantrums of boggle-eyed, B-Movie misanthrope, Werner Pochath are absolutely worth the price of admission alone, and any sliver of doubt about the vastly comedic potentialities of 'Devil Hunter' are resolutely expunged by the less than dynamic arrival of our morbidly myopic, sightlessly-stumbling cannibal stooge, and while his recently enslaved, ex-Playboy pin-up, Ursula Fellbuchner, has all the vacuous, celluloid charisma of a mildewed shower curtain, the stalwart presence of Italian exploitation stud, Al 'Endgame' Cliver, makes for an entirely stolid, if somewhat somnolent, heroically-moustachioed, damsel-delivering hero! While I readily accept that my absurdly enthusiastic appreciation of this cretinous, cannibal crap-out will do little to endear me to the online hipster B-Movie cognoscenti, but, whether anyone else likes this salaciously silly film isn't going to keep me up at night, but viewed askew, I'm quite sure others of a similarly 'twisted bent' might find some grimy edification in Jess Franco's long-derided, beautifully bungled, Jungle jackanapes!
Viewed purely as schlocky, monobrowed comedy it's a titanically tasteless, full-blooded hootenanny, but for those hoping for a sensationalist, sicko-splatter 'Video nasty, are in for an unpleasant surprise, since it is a dismally plasma-light, B-Movie blight, no doubt wholly deserving of censure, but, happily, a 'Cannibal Holocaust-wannabe' it surely 'ain't, since it's a freaking laugh-riot of stumble-bum, diabolically-dubbed hilarity! Hell's onions! Even the hypertensive, Teutonic tantrums of boggle-eyed, B-Movie misanthrope, Werner Pochath are absolutely worth the price of admission alone, and any sliver of doubt about the vastly comedic potentialities of 'Devil Hunter' are resolutely expunged by the less than dynamic arrival of our morbidly myopic, sightlessly-stumbling cannibal stooge, and while his recently enslaved, ex-Playboy pin-up, Ursula Fellbuchner, has all the vacuous, celluloid charisma of a mildewed shower curtain, the stalwart presence of Italian exploitation stud, Al 'Endgame' Cliver, makes for an entirely stolid, if somewhat somnolent, heroically-moustachioed, damsel-delivering hero! While I readily accept that my absurdly enthusiastic appreciation of this cretinous, cannibal crap-out will do little to endear me to the online hipster B-Movie cognoscenti, but, whether anyone else likes this salaciously silly film isn't going to keep me up at night, but viewed askew, I'm quite sure others of a similarly 'twisted bent' might find some grimy edification in Jess Franco's long-derided, beautifully bungled, Jungle jackanapes!