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"The Exterminator", James Glickenhaus' second feature film after the way obscure "The Astrologer" ('75), is for sure a product from its time, a modestly budgeted exploitation / vigilante flick, showed in the glory days of the lost Grindhouses of Times Square and 42nd Street, where the low-budget New York filmmakers could display their harsh works.
Reusing elements from cult movies that worked also as social commentaries such as John G. Avildsen's "Joe" ('70) starring Peter Boyle; Michael Winner's "Death Wish" ('74) starring Charles Bronson and Scorsese's "Taxi Driver" ('76) and the extreme psychological horror films in vogue during the late 70's (the so-called 'video nasties') such as Joseph Ellison's "Don't Go in the House" ('79) starring Dan Grimaldi, "The Exterminator" is a grim tale about a Vietnam vet, John Eastland (played by Robert Ginty from "Coming Home", released 2 years before and also related to the Vietnam war), who works in a warehouse with his best friend, Michael Jefferson (Steve James from "American Ninja" fame), a tough soldier, but now a family man responsible for saving his life during the war.
When a group of street thugs, "The Ghetto Ghouls" sadistically, paralyze Jefferson, Eastland becomes a vigilante, embarking on a mission to cleanse New York of all the criminals and perverts, but a quick witted veteran cop, Det. James Dalton (Christopher George, a notable character actor from classic westerns such as "El Dorado" and "Chisum", both starred by John Wayne) is given the mission to stop the activities of the unknown vigilante who calls himself "The Exterminator"...
This movie became notorious back in the day for his gruesome scenes such as an explicit on-screen decapitation and the shot via poisoned bullets straight to the liver of a pervert, which resulted being cut in some countries and banned in others.
Unfortunately, besides those infamous scenes the movie has very little to offer, it moves at a snail pace, the editing is kind of messy and the script is severely underdeveloped, consisting of ghastly vignettes in which Ginty is taking on the thugs who crippled his friend, then the Mob Boss, two repugnant pedophiles and more thugs that assaulted an old lady in Central Park (echoing Bronson in "Death Wish").
In terms of performances, Ginty fares well in some scenes and looks terribly awkward in others, but he looks and feels like an average joe (besides his tall stature) and gives some credibility and realism to his vigilante, showing vulnerability and even some kind of humanism, instead of a machine type taking on criminals.
Christopher George and the unnecessary love affair with the nurse played by Samantha Eggar (from David Cronenberg's "The Brood") which adds nothing to the main plot, both give satisfactory, yet routine performances.
Steve James, in an early appearance on-screen, started to prove here that he deserved much more than the sidekick part which he went doing for his entire acting career until his way premature death at age 41 in '93.
Even with its flaws, after all it's a low-budgeted Grindhouse flick, "The Exterminator" rules nowadays as a piece of nostalgia from the late 70's more realistic and depressing popular culture, showing the dark side of New York City (full of low lifes, street criminals, drug dealers, drug addicts, underage prostitution, disgusting pedophiles and slimy perverts), better (and cleverly) explored in the aforementioned "Joe" and "Taxi Driver", but not as gritty and explicit as Glickenhaus showed us here.
"The Exterminator" is a cult classic among the exploitation cinema and deserves to be respected for what it is, but like the other flicks from this genre it's not indicated for the general audience...
score 7/10
DeuceWild_77 22 May 2018
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw4174406/ |
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23-2-2021 18:07:17