Horror Movie Review: Devil Hunter (1980)

A nomination for one of the worst video nasties we’ve covered on this site, Devil Hunter is as boring as it is sleazy and trust us, it’s incredibly sleazy. After all it was directed by the infamous Jesús Franco under the pseudonym of Clifford Brown.

If you’re familiar with his work, then you pretty much know what to expect here. An eye-widening amount of nudity, predominantly female and unashamed in how gratuitous it is. That is Devil Hunter in a nutshell. A ton of nudity wrapped around a very loose story, dragged out to excruciating lengths alongside a hilariously bad villain.

Ursula Buchfellner stars as Laura Crawford, a beautiful star who is kidnapped by a group and held for ransom. The group take her to a remote island and await payment unaware that the island has a dark secret. The local tribe worships a demonic zombie like being that eats the flesh of its victims.

Peter Weston (Al Cliver) is tasked with taking the money to the kidnappers and taking Laura off the island. However, he’s also been promised a cut of the money if he can return with both. Of course, the trade goes wrong resulting in Peter being stranded on the island but Laura escapes into the jungle.

After a lifetime of her running (with her breasts mostly exposed) she is grabbed by the tribe who plan to sacrifice her to their god. Will Peter be able to save the girl, get the money and stop the beast?

It’s so boring and so dragged out that staying awake is a real problem. Unlike many other movies that got the ‘nasty’ tag, Devil Hunter doesn’t even manage to snap you out of the malaise with sudden bouts of gore, It’s here, but nowhere as visceral or violent as you might expect. In fact, in many cases the effects are so bad, you just have to laugh. One look at the beast’s facial make-up will have most in fits of laughter.

No, what everyone will remember is just how sleazy this movie is. From a completely unnecessary rape scene to Franco zooming in and focusing on the naked body parts of his female cast. It’s funny how he doesn’t do that with the one naked male though.

This is a bad movie.