The Last Hunter

Italy/Philippines (1980)
Italian title: L'Ultimo Cacciatore
Director: Antonio Margheriti (as Anthony M. Dawson)
Reviewed release: Code Red blu-ray (2016)
Cast: David Warbeck, Tisa Farrow, Tony King, John Steiner, Bobby Rhodes, Margi Eveline Newton, Massimo Vanni, Alan Collins, Dino Conti, Gianfranco Moroni, Edourado Margheriti, Jim Gaines, Ron/Romano Kristoff

Antonio Margheriti's THE LAST HUNTER is without a doubt one of my favourite Vietnam War flicks from the Philippines. Well, from any country actually. I rewatched the film recently on the cool reg. 1 DVD from Dark Sky that I bought a couple of years back. The presentation was as awesome as I remembered it. Cool picture quality, anamorphic letterbox and cool extras. Well, I've just got hold of Code Red's blu-ray (that came out in 2016) and it basically blows the DVD out of the water! The picture quality is that good!

THE PLOT. David Warbeck's character is an ex-draft card burner who's now fighting the Viet Cong in the Vietnam War. He gets assigned to go deep into territory behind enemy lines to blow up a radio transmitter. To help him on the journey he hooks up with a group of badass tough guys, Tony King, Bobby Rhodes, Edourado Margheriti (Antonio's son)  - and a female reporter that they're assigned to escort thru the jungle. She's played by Tisa Farrow. And yeah she's Mia Farrow's lesser known sister. She was also in a few other legendary Italian genre films among others ZOMBIE FLESH EATERS (Zombi 2) and BLAZING MAGNUM (Una magnum special per Tony Saitta). According to Wiki THE LAST HUNTER was her last film. She's dubbed in the film for some reason.

Anhoo, the road thru the Viet Cong jungle is paved with death and gore (old-skool practical effects fortunately!). At some point they make it to an American division located in a cave in a mountain. The commander is John Steiner who is always great fun to watch in Italian genre films (the blu-ray has a new interview with him and Tony King). At some point the cave is attacked by the evil VC but Warbeck's character makes an escape. He thinks his friends are all dead but, well, that would be a spoiler if I told you. Enough plot details. THE LAST HUNTER is full of shootings, violence, gore, and action.

Margheriti made two Vietnam War movies that star Warbeck (he made more than two Vietnam War flicks but, alas, the rest sans Warbeck). The other one is TIGER JOE which, unfortunately, hasn't been released on neither DVD nor blu-ray (the fully letterboxed Japanese VHS is currently the best release anywhere). THE LAST HUNTER is the better of the two films, though.

I highly recommend the new Code Red blu-ray but if you either stumble over the Dark Sky DVD on the cheap - or you just have money to burn I highly recommend you get hold of the DVD as well as it has a pretty good doc presented by Antonio Margheriti's son Edourado Marghetti. Filipino film regulars Jim Gaines and Ron Kristoff are also in the film but uncredited.

PS: John Steiner is now a real estate agent in California. Check out his website here.


Danish trailer:

Danish ad-mat:

THE LAST HUNTER played in Denmark as "Junglebrigaden".

Code Red's second post-apocalypse film is... EQUALIZER 2000!!!

...and Bill says it's the fully uncut print!!!

A couple of weeks back I posted the news about Bill Olsen and Code Red's deal with Roger Corman to release two or Corman's post-apocalypse films that were shot in the Philippines in the mid-1980s.

At the time Olsen only released info on the first film, WHEELS OF FIRE, but not the second film. I'm not the only one who's basically creaming himself over this latest announcement. In my previous post I speculated in whether or not the second film might be EQUALIZER 2000 and indeed it is that film. Also directed by Cirio H. Santiago. Wauw. Just fucken w-a-u-w!!!

There's been a bit of worry among fans about which print Code Red are going to release, as there are cut versions out there, but Bill Olsen has stated on the CR facebook page that it is indeed the fully uncut print we'll be getting. Yay!!!

And also good to see the upcoming cover for this film is (like with WHEELS) basically the old poster art. Good on ya, Bill'o!!!

VHS ex-rental from Holland

I found a UK site dedicated post-apocalypse films that you might wanna check out. In good style with the subject the site is pretty... dead. But the old info on the films is there so give it a gander. Post-apocalypse

CODE RED to launch CORMAN post-apocalypse line

Bill Olsen has just announced Code Red is going to release two of Roger Corman's post-apocalypse films. Great news indeed!!!

The first title has already been revealed and it's Cirio H. Santiago's WHEELS OF FIRE (USA/Philippines, 1984) No info on the second film yet. Could we perhaps hope for a fully uncut version of EQUALIZER 2000 (also directed by Santiago).

There is no release date yet, nor any info on whether the films will be DVD only. Blu-ray was mentioned on Code Red's facebook page but nothing in cement.

Bill Olsen shaking hands with Roger Corman (December 7, 2013)

In the red!

Ahhh, just ordered a handful of dvd's from CODE RED. At New Year's Eve I made a New Year's resolution of not buying any DVD's in 2013. I guess with this order that resolution is now down the toilet!

New cool stuff from CODE RED

Check this rad shit out!! The new release from CODE RED is here and it's a cool Spanish horror double bill; THE VAMPIRES NIGHT ORGY and DR. JEKYLL VS. THE WEREWOLF both by Leon Klimovsky. And if that wasn't enough... I'm told that they are the UNCLOTHED versions!!! The versions that came out from the folks at Mondo Macabro a few years back were the clothed versions!! This is great news. JEKYLL is taken from a 16mm print and carries the English dub (if I remember correctly the MM dvd is in Spanish with subs) and NIGHT ORGY is from a 35mm print (I don't know what the old dvd is as I only have an old vhs). The dvd is up for grabs at the Code Red store now.

Trailer for ORGY (I couldn't find one for JEKYLL):

New stuff from Bill Olsen

Bill Olsen and CODE RED have just released their latest DVD, a double feature with SEEDS OF EVIL (1972) and TOUCH OF SATAN (1971). Both films are presented in 1.78:1 (16x9). I haven't watched either of them and word is neither is a masterpiece but, hell, they're horror movies from the early 70s and one of them has "Satan" in the title. How could you not want to check them out (yes, I've already placed an order).

My two cents on the covers; Maria Karellis looks nice and all but I wish Bill Olsen would make proper covers instead. How about putting each film poster on each their side, i.e. using the back cover as a front cover as well (and lose the chick entirely). This way each poster would cover a full cover. As it is you can hardly see the details in the pictures. And then use see-thru cases and print the info on the inside of the cover. Much better (as these dvd's are only available via direct sale anyway it's not like there's a risk of losing the potential customer at stores due to their not being able to be grabbed by the spiffy cover text on the back).

Now, Bill, are you going to release LEGACY OF SATAN or not???

"It could hurt your brain"

I watched Code Red's DVD release of NIGHT OF THE DEMON (James C. Wasson, USA, 1980) last night. It's been described as the goriest Bigfoot film ever and sure enough it is definitely pretty gory. Not least the scene where Bigfoot rips off some poor biker's wang. Ouch!

Code Red couldn't find a real film print so they used a 1 inch video tape master for their DVD. It looks pretty good and, well, you gotta take what you can get. For some reason they didn't include the trailer on the DVD but at least we get a music video by Maria Kanellis who also introduces the film. I couldn't care less but if it sells some more copies then good for Bill Olsen and Code Red. The version I bought is a reprint with a different cover. The first one had Maria on the front. The one I got has Bigfoot and the poor feller with the missing wiener on the front. Haha.

Since I couldn't be bothered to do a proper review here's a link to a better one. It's pretty fun too (and the headline quotation is from there). If you look up the film make sure you find the right one, there's a bunch of other films that use the same title (and similar).

The DVD is available from Code Red's store.

No severed arm for you! Now go to your room!

Am I the last person in the world who's gonna get CODE RED's new double DVD release of THE SEVERED ARM / SO SAD ABOUT GLORIA (aka Visions of Evil)?? Hmm, maybe. I've ordered it, I've paid for it, and I'm hoping to receive it soon. The DVD was released recently and pulled back almost immediately. The reason? The cover promises an uncut release. Unfortunately, what the good people at Code Red didn't know is that the British print they used was indeed a cut print!

Apparently, not cut for violence mind you (all the gore is reportedly still in the film) but dialogue etc. is cut simply to make the film shorter (???). Code Red pulled the DVD off their website and have announced they're gonna chuck out their remaining stock - and they won't be re-releasing an uncut version.

I must admit I'm puzzled over this decision not least as it means you won't be able to get hold of the other film on the disc, SO SAD ABOUT GLORIA (but who knows, maybe they'll re-release that one later). (and check BLEEDING SKULL's review here)

If I were head of Code Red I would simply choose to sell the DVD as a direct sell only release with an info note on the website about the print's cut status. Members at DVDMANIACS who have already received the disc say the print looks great. SEVERED ARM has only been released once in its uncut form, on VHS in the US from Video Gems in 1981.

I got the video scans from BE KIND, REWIND where you can read more about the VHS release.

PS: if you need to see the Maria Kanelli cover in a much bigger size to, uh, read the text then click a couple time and you'll get it in mega size.