| The Devastator | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Cirio H. Santiago |
| Written by | Joseph Zucchero |
| Distributed by | Concorde Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 78 minutes |
| Countries | United States Philippines |
| Language | English |
The Devastator is a 1986 American-Philippine film starring Rick Hill and Katt Shea directed by Cirio H. Santiago. The film was also known as The Destroyers [1] and Kings Ransom. [2]
A Vietnam veteran investigates the death of his former commanding officer in a small Californian town. He soon discovers his old friend was involved in a local crime syndicate who dominate the down. The gangsters attack the veteran, who then returns with some of his former comrades to take revenge.
Rick Hill and Katt Shea had previously appeared in Deathstalker . The film was shot on location in Los Angeles.
It was one of the first eight films distributed by Roger Corman's new company, Concorde Pictures, along with Wizards of the Lost Kingdom , Naked Vengeance , Wheels of Fire , Loose Screws (Screwballs II), School Spirit , Barbarian Queen , and Streetwalkin’ . [3]
The film has been described as follows: "The Lousy acting and writing ravage this movie about an evil marijuana plantation owner." [4] A review on the German website Action Freunde stated that the film "remains solid standard action with a run-of-the-mill plot and stereotypical standard characters, which, after a somewhat bumpy start, escalates with the hero's attempted solo revenge campaign when he and his Vietnam buddy give the villains a hard time. The action is in the middle range in terms of staging, but there is plenty of it and after less than 80 minutes the horror is over..." [5] A similar appraisal can be found on the specialised website The Action Elite: "The Devastator is a fun low budget 80’s actioner but there are better movies with similar stories and bigger budgets." [6]
Roger William Corman was an American film director, producer and actor. Known under various monikers such as "The Pope of Pop Cinema", "The Spiritual Godfather of the New Hollywood", and "The King of Cult", he was known as a trailblazer in the world of independent film.
A B movie, or B film, is a type of cheap, poorly made commercial motion picture. Originally, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, this term specifically referred to films meant to be shown as the lesser-known second half of a double feature, somewhat similar to B-sides in recorded music. However, the production of such films as "second features" in the United States largely declined by the end of the 1950s. This shift was due to the rise of commercial television, which prompted film studio B movie production departments to transition into television film production divisions. These divisions continued to create content similar to B movies, albeit in the form of low-budget films and series.
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Cirio Hermoso Santiago was a Filipino film producer, director and writer. He used the screen names Cirio Santiago, Cirio H. Santiago, Leonardo Hermoso, and Leonard Hermes.
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The 1960s and 1970s marked the rise of exploitation-style independent B movies; films which were mostly made without the support of Hollywood's major film studios. As censorship pressures lifted in the early 1960s, the low-budget end of the American motion picture industry increasingly incorporated the sort of sexual and violent elements long associated with so-called ‘exploitation’ films. The demise of the Motion Picture Production Code in 1968 and coupled with the success of the film Easy Rider the following year fueled the trend throughout the subsequent decade. The success of the B-studio exploitation movement had a significant effect on the strategies of the major studios during the 1970s.
Cinematic exhibition of the B movie, defined as a relatively low-cost genre film, has declined substantially from the early 1980s to the present. Spurred by the historic success of several big-budget movies with B-style themes beginning in the mid-1970s, the major Hollywood studios moved progressively into the production of A-grade films in genres that had long been low-budget territory. With the majors also adopting exploitation-derived methods of booking and marketing, B movies began to be squeezed out of the commercial arena. The advent of digital cinema in the new millennium appeared to open up new opportunities for the distribution of inexpensive genre movies.
Deathstalker, also known as El cazador de la muerte, is a 1983 Argentine-American sword and sorcery film directed by James Sbardellati, and starring Rick Hill, Barbi Benton, Bernard Erhard and Lana Clarkson.
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