Yor Hunter from the Future

Yor Hunter from the Future (1983)

The world is a primitive place, dominated by cavemen and dinosaurs. In this setting we are introduced to a tribe of humans. When a dinosaur attacks a beautiful young woman of the tribe named Ka-Laa the mysterious and heroic Yor jumps into save her. After slaying the beast he is welcomed into the tribe as a hero and friend. But before anyone can settle in the evil cavemen attack the tribe, killing everyone except Ka-Laa, her guardian, and Yor. This event and the mysterious medallion that Yor wears around his neck set the three on an epic quest to discover the mysteries of the world. This journey pits them again the evil fire tribe and a technologically advanced society lead by the evil overlord. What is the mystery of Yor’s medallion? What other secrets does the primitive world hold?

This is a terrible movie that manages to actually be somewhat entertaining because of how bad it is. The story is very predictable and suffers from every “fantasy adventure” stereotype that there is. When the rival to Yor’s love interest shows up I turned to my lovely wife (who sat thru part of this with me) and said, “Well she isn’t going to be living for much longer”. And of course I was correct, they kill her off as quickly as possible. Later in the movie when Yor and crew meet up with a village of friendly natives I again said out loud (the wife had bailed by then), “well that is one screwed village”. Again I was correct. Damn what should be the biggest “twist” of the film is spoiled in the freaking title! But on some twisted sort of comfort zone I kind of enjoyed the predictable and goofy story. Now lets talk about the cast. Well I guess the only nice way of putting this is that I’m pretty sure that the filmmakers chose the actors based solely on how well they looking in the skimpy costumes. I can only speak for the female cast, but they fill them out nicely, so big kudos to the casting department.

The special effects in this movie are something to behold. We are treated to not one, but two rubber and papier-mâché dinosaurs that Yor has to kill. Also the laser guns and clothing of the “advanced” culture is a combination of bad sci-fi, disco and forgettable 80’s fashions. If this is how they will dress in the future then we are all doomed. Oh and the cavemen aren’t much better. From goofy looking makeup to “savage” the actors up to the “Flintstones” style wardrobe the whole thing is laugh out loud funny. Throw in some bad synth music and a theme song by someone that so wants to sound like Freddy Mercury and you have a movie.

I’ve already stated that this is a bad movie. But the utter incompetence combined with it’s uber cheesiness makes this a movie that is worth checking out at least once in your life.

2 out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer