Not wishing to go down the road of the late eighties Italian haunted house films of Lamberto Bava, Umberto Lenzi, Lucio Fulci, Marcello Avallone and Fabrizio Laurenti, Bruno Mattei instead relocates the slasher film to the jungle, and instead of screaming teens pits a bunch of muscle bound soldiers against an unstoppable killing machine. Believe me, you haven't seen anything like this before.
Reb Brown (Strike Commando) stars as Reb Brown (Strike Commando), leader of the Big A*s Muthf*ckas, a squad of soldiers hired to go into the jungles of Venezuela to stop guerrilla activity. What a line up! You've got Romano Puppo (Street Law, Bronx Warriors 2), Jim Gaines (After Death), and a buffed up Massimo Vanni (Street Law, Bronx Warriors 2 and After Death). Some other guys too, including an ethnic guide in touch with nature (Where does Bruno get these ideas?), a doctor and a mysterious gentleman along for the ride that Reb is suspicious of, but judging by the skin tight, half-t-shirt Reb's wearing when he gets off that boat, I'm guessing Reb doesn't think about things too deeply so he lets him come along anyway.
Things get strange for our macho mo-fos the moment they discover a pile of human bodies torn to bits. What we the audience know but Reb and co don't is that there is an experimental soldier/robot on the loose, killing everything in sight, and that guy who's joined them is its creator. I know, it sounds a bit like Robocop, but Bruno has the insight to inject a bit of originality to the film, including Reb going head to head with a bunch of guerrillas and picking himself up a chick sidekick into the proceedings.
The lads start to get the idea that they're being stalked, which leads to several scenes of Massimo et al firing wildly into the foliage, no doubt a satiric remark on Mattei's part regarding the futility of US military might versus guerrilla warfare in Vietnam. Also, Reb (and Jim Gaines!) scream like girls every time they fire their machine guns, a reference to Strike Commando. Reb also gets in a couple of quips, saying 'Don't move' to a guy he's impaled with a machete, complete with a wink to all the ladies out in the audience. Hollywood take note: this is how you do an action horror film.
Okay, okay, I'll level with you. This film bears a lot of similarity to another film you may have seen, set in the jungle and involving marines facing something they've never encountered before, being picked off one by one in various gory ways. And that film of course is After Death. Not only does the hospital from that film turn up here in an unforgettable home made napalm set piece, but the very soundtrack from that film turns up at various times. As an even more glaring example of the intricities of Bruno Mattei's conceptual continuity, the director of that film here plays the killer robot. Vast legions of fans devote themselves to finding all these 'clues' in Mattei's film.
So, although Massino, Romano etc put up a good fight, you know the film is going to boil down the Reb being the Final Girl. There's a few twists at the end I won't reveal here, and I'm sure Mattei's making some comment about the faceless terrorist threat the West faces every day by having the Venezuelan extras played by Filipino actors, but that's just the multi-layered complexities of a Bruno Mattei film (hell, I'm still finding things in Zombie Creeping Flesh after all these years).
This film is crying out for an American remake, probably starring someone weedy and terrible, like Adrian Brody. I can't think of single person who could replace Reb in such a role. Also, check out the mixed up credits for Jim Gaines and Massimo (Alex McBride) Vanni – another little in-joke for us uber-fans.
Reb Brown (Strike Commando) stars as Reb Brown (Strike Commando), leader of the Big A*s Muthf*ckas, a squad of soldiers hired to go into the jungles of Venezuela to stop guerrilla activity. What a line up! You've got Romano Puppo (Street Law, Bronx Warriors 2), Jim Gaines (After Death), and a buffed up Massimo Vanni (Street Law, Bronx Warriors 2 and After Death). Some other guys too, including an ethnic guide in touch with nature (Where does Bruno get these ideas?), a doctor and a mysterious gentleman along for the ride that Reb is suspicious of, but judging by the skin tight, half-t-shirt Reb's wearing when he gets off that boat, I'm guessing Reb doesn't think about things too deeply so he lets him come along anyway.
Things get strange for our macho mo-fos the moment they discover a pile of human bodies torn to bits. What we the audience know but Reb and co don't is that there is an experimental soldier/robot on the loose, killing everything in sight, and that guy who's joined them is its creator. I know, it sounds a bit like Robocop, but Bruno has the insight to inject a bit of originality to the film, including Reb going head to head with a bunch of guerrillas and picking himself up a chick sidekick into the proceedings.
The lads start to get the idea that they're being stalked, which leads to several scenes of Massimo et al firing wildly into the foliage, no doubt a satiric remark on Mattei's part regarding the futility of US military might versus guerrilla warfare in Vietnam. Also, Reb (and Jim Gaines!) scream like girls every time they fire their machine guns, a reference to Strike Commando. Reb also gets in a couple of quips, saying 'Don't move' to a guy he's impaled with a machete, complete with a wink to all the ladies out in the audience. Hollywood take note: this is how you do an action horror film.
Okay, okay, I'll level with you. This film bears a lot of similarity to another film you may have seen, set in the jungle and involving marines facing something they've never encountered before, being picked off one by one in various gory ways. And that film of course is After Death. Not only does the hospital from that film turn up here in an unforgettable home made napalm set piece, but the very soundtrack from that film turns up at various times. As an even more glaring example of the intricities of Bruno Mattei's conceptual continuity, the director of that film here plays the killer robot. Vast legions of fans devote themselves to finding all these 'clues' in Mattei's film.
So, although Massino, Romano etc put up a good fight, you know the film is going to boil down the Reb being the Final Girl. There's a few twists at the end I won't reveal here, and I'm sure Mattei's making some comment about the faceless terrorist threat the West faces every day by having the Venezuelan extras played by Filipino actors, but that's just the multi-layered complexities of a Bruno Mattei film (hell, I'm still finding things in Zombie Creeping Flesh after all these years).
This film is crying out for an American remake, probably starring someone weedy and terrible, like Adrian Brody. I can't think of single person who could replace Reb in such a role. Also, check out the mixed up credits for Jim Gaines and Massimo (Alex McBride) Vanni – another little in-joke for us uber-fans.