Nasty Hunter

Nasty Hunter
Directed by; H. Tjut Djalil [as Jalil Jackson], Indonesia, 1987
Horror/Thriller, 82min
Distributed by Midnight Video

Story:
A long long time ago the Queen of the South Sea, who’s sexual demands couldn’t be satisfied or else she would die, was tricked to an orgasm by a brave man and swears that she one day will claim her revenge. 100 year later young anthropologist Tania Wilson [Barbra Anne Constable] working on her thesis about the Legend of the South Sea Queen finds herself in deep trouble when she is possessed by the curse. This revenge has Tania turning into a violent sexual predator killing of her lovers by clipping off their dicks as they climax. When Erica [Claudia Rademaker], the great-granddaughter of the brave young man, has a sudden pop star career on the go the demon inside Tania will stop at nothing to kill her and seal the curse. Unfortunately good guy cop Max [Christopher J Hart] won’t have anything of it and the chase is on. The only question is how many innocent bystanders have to die before they can stop Tania?

Me:
This is an excellent piece of exploitation cinema from Indonesia; it’s got an incredible story, the opening sequence when the Queen of the South Sea kills off her lovers and then is tricked by a guy and an eel is hilarious and is guaranteed to keep you watching. The transformation that Barbra Anne Constable, who even did her own make up for the movie, pulls off works quite well to, from chirpy student in a frock to a hard faced killer first semi naked and then bicker chic. The amount of shooting in this movie is outrageous, in every scene there’s machine gun fire hammering away so much that it’s easily more than half the movie’s play time. It’s also quite interesting that Djalil has us one third into the movie before he shifts focus from Constable as the lead character to Rademaker and Hart instead. Hart’s soppy cop is side-splitting, and there’s an awfully long concert scene with Rademaker, which just keeps on and on and on, but when Constable and her machinegun walk into the room the shit gets going again. It’s a very entertaining movie indeed, bad acting, over the top violence, a fair bit of nudity, gory effects, all the right ingredients for a cheesy exploitation flick. It’s no wonder it became one of the most controversial Indonesian films ever.

The movie is quite often compared to, and refered to as a cheap rip off of Cameron’s Terminator 1984, probably because there is an eye gouging scene almost identical to the on in that movie and Tania blasts her way through a police station in her hunt for Erica, but I still feel that it is wrong to compare it to Terminator, and I’m glad that Midnight released this one under the more appropriate title Nasty Hunter, because nowhere in the film is there any references to Tania being a cyborg. The rays that she shoots out of her eyes at the ending are just common elements of Asian folklore and the usual Asian horror movie attributes. Just check out Djalil’s earlier movie Leák 1981 [Mystics in Bali] if you want to see what I'm talking about, or any random Shaw Brothers Hong Kong horror, fantasy flick. If I where to compare the version that Midnight Video present with the Mondo Macabro edition, I’d have to say that the only advantage with the Mondo Macabro edition would be for their documentary on Indonesian exploitation cinema, but the Midnight print is more complete when it comes to the movie, and it's a movie you'll remember for a long time.

Image:
Presented in 1.78:1 Widescreen. Taken from Japanese source materials the image is remarkably sharp and crisp but this is just proof of the care and respect Midnight Video put into their Collector’s DVDs.

Audio:
Regular 2.0 stereo. All you really want for these kinds of movies.

Extras:
The Japanese trailer, Japanese trailer for Krai Thong, and a promotional trailer for other Midnight Video Collector’s DVD titles.