Review #204: 'The Exterminator' (1980)

New York in the late 1970's was a grim and dangerous city to dwell. The city was bankrupt, both financially and morally. At one point in 1978, New York's electricity was shut down, causing incredible amounts of looting and other forms of violence (greater than the London riots of this year). So, inevitably, New York folk (if they weren't the pimps, drug pushers, and other assortment of criminals) were pissed off. Which brings us to The Exterminator.

John Easton (Robert Ginty) is a Vietnam veteran, back in his home town - a city so derelict, he probably wonders what has happened to his beloved country during his time "defending" it. His best friend is attacked by street thugs - a claw-trowel is gauged into his spine - and ends up in hospital. This obviously angers Easton who, seeing the lack of progress by New York's finest, takes it into his own hands to hunt and kill the attackers. With a pseudo-serial killer on the loose on the streets, it is down to detective James Dalton (Christopher George) to discover his identity.

The pissed off Vietnam vet film was relatively prevalent around this time - from Taxi Driver's (1976) Travis Bickle to First Blood's (1982) John Rambo, - the war veteran was understandably angry at the America they came back to. Whilst Eastman's character is essentially good (he seems very pleasant when not murdering the murderers), he does carry the angry-young-man ethics of a Bickle or Rambo. They are collectively fighting the injustices they see on their countries streets.

This film however, is not on a par with even First Blood, but it does have that late-70's and early 80's New York grime that I personally love. It's certainly not as charming as Basket Case (1982) - a very different "animal", and does not have the exuberant gravitas of Scorsese's Taxi Driver, but I enjoy the New York movie of these years. I do love a good bit of urban disintegration, decay, and the inhabitants of these kinds of environments. I just wish I could have been in that city at that time - the rise of American punk, the dirty cinema of transgression that made it's mark (quietly), with the films of Richard Kern, Nick Zedd, Lindia Lunch et al. I also probably would have had a shorter life, as I would have more than likely been shot or stabbed. But hey, it would be worth it to have those brutal nights in on 42nd street and the lines of grindhouse cinemas that adorned that street, where I could have watched those exploitation films that we here at 'The Wrath of Blog' just adore.


Directed by: James Glickenhaus
Starring: Christopher George, Samantha Eggar, Robert Ginty
Country: USA

Rating: ***

Marc Ivamy

Review #62: 'Pieces' (1982)

With a title such as Pieces, you know what to expect from an 80's horror film such as this. Low-budget, bad acting, cheesy dialogue, and lots of gore. On that front, the film truly delivers. The film is, though, as ugly and as badly put together as the grisly composition our killer here is creating. Starting with a small child piecing together a jigsaw puzzle of a naked woman, his mother arrives and goes mad, accusing her child of being perverted and twisted. This is obviously no ordinary child, as he commences butchering her with an axe. Forty years later, the pupils of a campus university start getting murdered in increasingly horrific ways as a madman with a chainsaw stalks the place. Lt. Bracken (the legendary Christopher George, who also appears in Fulci's City Of The Living Dead (1980)) is called in, and with the help of undercover agent Mary Riggs (Lynda Day George), and pupil Kendall James (Ian Sera), he starts to investigate the murders.

If I was to ask the majority people who the most bumbling police officer in cinema history is, I would expect to hear cries of Inspector Clouseau, Frank Drebin and the characters from Police Academy (1984). My vote would be for Lt. Bracken in Pieces. When beginning his investigation, Bracken strikes a deal with the dean of the university, who by normal means would be a suspect, not to tell anybody about the murders occurring. Why, oh why, would you fail to tell a campus of young students that a madman is wandering the premises and butchering everyone in his path? This just utterly bewildered me, and practically ruined the whole film. It is such a lazy and simplistic decision that is simply there to help progress the narrative, it renders the film utterly pointless.

On a positive note, the gore is wonderfully horrific. The first murder I was expecting a red herring, or one of those moments where a shadow creeps up to a girl, only for her to turn around suddenly and it to be her annoying boyfriend. Nope. He brutally chainsaws her head off, in broad daylight. Also, the films camerawork and mise-en-scene has a certain elegance that most giallo horrors do, and director Juan Piquer Simon is something of a cult legend, having directed crap-fest Jules Verne 'adaptations' Mystery On Monster Island (1981) and The Fabulous Journey To The Center Of The Earth (1978). It is just a pity the film ends on a cheap shock moment that jars with everything that came before. Overall a pretty crappy 80's horror with some enjoyable chainsaw massacring.


Directed by: Juan Piquer Simón
Starring: Christopher George, Ian Sera, Lynda Day George
Country: USA/Spain/Puerto Rico

Rating: **

Tom Gillespie