Review by Stuart Barr
Stars Robert Ginty, Christopher George, Samantha Eggar,
Steve James, Tony Di Benedetto, Dick Boccelli | Written by James Glickenhaus
UK certification 18 | UK RRP £24.99 | BD Region B | Runtime 97 minutes | Directed by James Glickenhaus
After street punks mug and paralyse his best friend, Vietnam veteran John Eastland (Ginty) sets out to get revenge. This turns into a crusade as Eastland widens his scope to neighbourhood gangsters, pimps and pederasts. Seen-it-all detective James Dalton (George) sets out to track the activities of “The Exterminator” as Eastlands actions attract the attention of the authorities.
While plot of The Exterminator really does not hang together the film has other virtues. Firstly a terrific sense of place. New York has only looked this seedy in Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver. This is the pre-Giuliani big Apple, rotten but delightfully tart. There is a great sequence of Eastland walking down 42nd Street past Grind-house cinemas and porno stores, surrounded by pimps, hoes, hustlers and johns. In the new hi definition transfer, you can practically smell the moral turpitude.
Added to this as several standout sequences of pure hi-octane exploitation goodness. The film opens with a Vietnam prologue which is genuinely amazing. Without musical accompaniment, the screen explodes with fire, bodies fly through the air balletically, and there is one of the best decapitations in cinema history. There is also a quite incredible scene in which Eastland threatens a gangster by dangling him over an industrial meat mincer. He wants information, when he gets it he utters the classic line “if you’re lying, I’ll be back”.
As with any revenge thriller, there is an underlying moral conservatism that some viewers may not be able to get past. This is an undeniably seedy and voyeuristic film that goes beyond the likes of Dirty Harry (1971), although it stops short of the ethical hypocrisy of a later entry in that franchise, Sudden Impact (1983).
EXTRAS ★★★ Introduction by writer-director Glickenhaus; Fire And Slice: Making The Exterminator – an interview with James Glickenhaus; 42nd Street Then And Now – a tour of New York’s former sleaze circuit with director Frank Henenlotter; audio commentary by Mark Buntzman, producer of The Exterminator and writer-director of The Exterminator II, moderated by Calum Waddell.