Seen for the first time in August 2012.
Jess Franco’s films can be judged along two axes. One, they can be judged on their eroticism. He was very prolific during the heydey of exploitation and even his films today still feature a heavy amount of nudity. They almost seem like they are the sort of movies that are made with complete prurient intent.
But they can also be judged on their uniqueness as Franco movies, which is a sort of cult movie or midnight movie. Similar to something like The Room, these films are notable for a very offbeat weirdness. The dialogue is dubbed, as was once common in european exploitation. The apparent inanity of the dialogue (or at least strange translation of it) along with the dubbing produces a very strange effect. Again this accounts for much of the weirdness in The Room as well, but unlike Wiseau, Franco has produced hundreds of films like this in all sorts of exploitation categories and believe it or not has developed in some circles a sort of reputation.
But to continue, characters in Franco movies don’t have conversations so much as they respond to the most immediate line of dialogue of the person they are speaking to, irrespective of the continuity of the conversation. Examples in Devil Hunter:
Jess Franco’s films can be judged along two axes. One, they can be judged on their eroticism. He was very prolific during the heydey of exploitation and even his films today still feature a heavy amount of nudity. They almost seem like they are the sort of movies that are made with complete prurient intent.
But they can also be judged on their uniqueness as Franco movies, which is a sort of cult movie or midnight movie. Similar to something like The Room, these films are notable for a very offbeat weirdness. The dialogue is dubbed, as was once common in european exploitation. The apparent inanity of the dialogue (or at least strange translation of it) along with the dubbing produces a very strange effect. Again this accounts for much of the weirdness in The Room as well, but unlike Wiseau, Franco has produced hundreds of films like this in all sorts of exploitation categories and believe it or not has developed in some circles a sort of reputation.
But to continue, characters in Franco movies don’t have conversations so much as they respond to the most immediate line of dialogue of the person they are speaking to, irrespective of the continuity of the conversation. Examples in Devil Hunter:
- Tell your friend that if he doesn’t show himself, I’m going to blow your head off.
- And if I don’t?
- I’m going to blow your head off.
- Alright…(pause)… Hey our friend says if you don’t come out he’s going to blow my head off.
OR
[Guy indicates he wants to trade money for hostage]
- You mean you want to make a trade?!?!?!?
- Not if I can help it.
- Oh. Why not then?
The helicopter pilot in this is particularly great for his strange accent and weird off-putting dialogue. But the weakness of this as a Franco film is that the content of the film places it squarely in the mondo-cannibal tradition. A film tradition that I have no enthusiasm for, nor does it seem to be a tradition, unlike say women in prison movies, that Franco enjoys himself. The inherent weakness of the genre is that the eroticism and the humor is undercut by the mutilation and the gore.
Nonetheless, the film does have some good eroticism. The most notable quality of Franco as a director is such that even in a 70’s-80s cannibal movie, he’s not going to destroy the pervy beauty of nubile nudity with the grossness and ugliness of too much blood and gore. Not to say that there isn’t blood and gore, but it never undercuts the pervy appeal of watching a Franco movie.
As a cult type movie, it is not as good as other Franco, hurt by cannibal genre conventions, but I would still score it a B+. As far as exploitation, I would also grade it a B+. A couple of naked blondes plus some naked tribal women. It’s well worth checking out, even as an intro to Franco, but it’s definitely not Franco’s best. Overall grade B+.
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