Exterminator

The Exterminator (1980)

This is a well-known movie to the fans of exploitation and action genres. Though somehow I just hadn’t gotten around to checking it out until recently. But thanks to a good friend that hooked me up I have rectified that situation. Man was I missing out!

The movie opens with our main character John and his friend Michael in Vietnam. They have been captured by the Viet Cong and are about to be tortured when Michael breaks free. This part of the movie is basically an introduction to the characters and what they owe to each other, as well as an excuse for some good wholesome violence. The action then moves back to New York City where they are working at a warehouse. When they find a gang stealing beer the beat the holy hell out of them. This backfires when the gang comes looking for them and paralyzes Michael. This pushes John too far and he becomes the vigilante called the Exterminator. The rest of the movie is John taking out bad guys with the cops and Feds coming after him.

The Exterminator has so many things going for it. The story is solid, though I’ll admit it makes a few jumps here and there, but overall it is very entertaining. There is never a dull moment. Even when the movie is just John walking around the city I found it interesting seeing how the director, James Glickenhaus, captured New York of the late ‘70s and early ‘80s. I paused a couple of times just to read the marques of the theaters in the background. If you are a big fan of 42nd street and the sort of sleazy environment that went along with it then you will dig The Exterminator for this alone. It is one of those movies that makes use of the city itself as another character.

Even if you ignore this The Exterminator is still a great movie. This is a typical vigilante revenge movie. You have the vet that still hasn’t gotten over the war, who suddenly finds the world making sense as he takes out the hoods and perverts that are over running his neighborhood. For a low budget movie that was shot on the sly in many cases the action sequences are well done and look great on screen. What we do get to see of the “kills” are very gruesome (the decapitation in the beginning is crazy good!) and when we don’t the movie still delivers. The cops at the crime scene are used to give a great “play by play” of the action that we didn’t’ see directly. There is a bit with a gang member and some hungry rats that is terrible to think about. This is a good example of a movie letting the audience come up with the images in their minds, which will probably be far worse then what they could pull off with effects.

You know I could go on and on about the Exterminator. For example Robert Ginty is perfectly cast and does a killer job in the role of John aka. The Exterminator. Hell one of my favorite drive-in actors, Christopher George, has a big role in the movie. The ending really delivers an unexpected punch to the gut. See there really is so much to recommend this movie.

Until recently the only way that you could track down yourself a copy of the Exterminator was on a VHS or crappy bootleg of one. That is until the fine folks over at Synapse put it out in a DVD/Blu-Ray combo pack. On the discs you get some great special features like an audio commentary with James Glickenhaus and some fun T.V. spots. Head over to their site at http://synapse-films.com/ for more info.

3 ½ out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer