User reviews

The constant bad swipes this low-rent South American horror film receives might be justified, but I didn't think it was entirely terrible. Mostly wooden, and more often vapid you could say, with the occult idea being push aside for lame (and oddly placed) soapy domestic quibbles of the two police detectives (likeably played by Wayne Crawford and Kay Lenz) who are chasing a killer that unusually decapitates its victims, and might be something supernatural of African origins. Cool! No not cool. This offbeat angle is left high and dry, and just frustrates with its sloppy pace and bland script. Quite a drag! Well up until the frenetic climax. Having the two leads being fully developed is fine, but still it leaves us with too many questions about our ugly looking demon. The underwritten premise is randomly disjointed and terribly unclear and inconsistent in its motives. Never does it become much fun, as its light on suspense, action and gratuitous splatter. Nor does it have any sort of camp value. It needed to go out on a limb to achieve excitement, because it sadly underplays itself and goes about things seriously. The convincing location choices however, seemed to invoke an effective atmospheric tenor, and Hans Kuhle's free-flowing camera-work is well done. Julian Laxton's howling music score has a thumping, menacing tone that won't let up. The rubber demon looks tacky and bulky, but decent for such a budget. Watchable fluff, but not one to lose your head over.

A forgettable little horror ditty involving two cops in Miami (Wayne Crawford and Kay Lenz) investigating some bloody murders which prove to be the work of an African demon which has pursued some refugees there. Headhunter is actually kind of plodding and uneventful and not the cheesefest the gaudy cover promised (How many times have I been let down by a dull movie with a cheesy VHS cover). There is little in the way of suspense, gore or action until the end of the movie when we finally get a look at the titular nasty which is actually a rather impressive, if rubbery, looking nasty. The dialogue is dull, the acting is decent and the plot is a little muddled (Something about the creature killing those are unfaithful to the African religion involved the movie and those who know its secret but it is unclear and underdeveloped and comes across as somewhat nonsensical and random given the events of the movie). There is some attempt at characterisation but it is of the clumsy, awkwardly inserted background personal life stuff that just eats up running time instead of seeming part of the movie – Your wife left you for a woman, boo-hoo, go and sit in the sitcom corner with George Costanza and that big nosed schlub from friends. There are some weak attempts at black humour such as an aborted baptism scene and one amusing scene involving a spontaneous late night visit to a hardware store by the films male protagonist to grab a chainsaw to do battle with the headhunter. A good sense of place and atmosphere is actually created in the seamy back blocks of Miami but it is not enough to make the film work any better. Not really terrible but mot really worth watching unless you're really stuck for something.

Plots revolves around an evil voodoo spirit terrorizing a neighborhood in Miami which is mostly populated by Nigerian refugees, chopping off and stealing their heads. Police detectives Crawford and Lenz are given the unenviable task of investigating the murders, and soon find out for themselves that they are in WAY over their own heads.

Sometimes creepy, sometimes boring, but its sense of humor perks things up throughout and helps hold your interest. Unfortunately when you do finally get to see the killer is a big let down, and it most resembles what you'd expect a living-dead pro-wrestler with a machete to look like, except made out of foam-rubber. Crawford and Lenz do an excellent job in their roles and help hold things together despite this films serious weaknesses, with Crawford delivering some pretty good one-liners.

5 out of 10, not for everyone but a passable time killer.

Detectives Katherine Hall (Kay Lenz) and Pete Giullani (Wayne Crawford) are investigating a bizarre series of beheadings in Miami. With Christopher Lambert nowhere to be seen, they focus on a small community of Nigerian immigrants who believe they are being haunted by a vengeful spirit from their homeland. Before you can say THE BELIEVERS, our heroes find themselves targets and their personal lives attacked. This is a pretty average 80s horror flick that loses points for being boring. It is too bad because director Francis Schaeffer stages some effective scenes (all of the kill scenes are well done), but then bungles the human drama. The end has Crawford chasing the main beast - that looks kind of like Rawhead Rex - around a tiny backyard with a chainsaw. The movie needed more crazy stuff like this, and less stuff like Crawford arguing with his wife. The film ends with Headhunter being resurrected back in Africa, but no sequel arrived.

"Pete Giullani" (Wayne Crawford) and "Katherine Hall" (Kay Lenz) are two Miami detectives who are partners and are given an assignment to investigate a series of brutal murders among the small Nigerian community in their city. At the same time Pete has just learned that his wife is having an affair and because of that he has decided to move out of the house. Not knowing where else to turn he goes to the only person he can trust-who happens to be Katherine--and asks to move in temporarily with her. She reluctantly agrees even though she has a boyfriend and a private life of her own. Unfortunately, if that wasn't enough, the murders begin to increase and soon both Pete and Katherine begin to suspect that the person responsible for these grisly murders may not be human after all-and it has now targeted them. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that, although the plot certainly seemed interesting enough, I found this film to be somewhat disappointing overall. For starters, the demon wasn't depicted until the end of the film and when it was finally shown it looked quite ridiculous. Likewise, too much time was spent on the subplot involving Pete's marriage which wasn't even remotely interesting. Additionally, other than Kay Lenz, none of the actors really stood out and for that reason it was hard to get overly enthused about this movie at all. That said, I have rated this movie accordingly. Slightly below average.

My review was written in February 1990 after watching the movie on Academy video cassette.

"Head Hunter" is a less than engrossing horror film set in Miami that was filmed in South Africa in 1988.

Kay Lenz and Wayne Crawford are Miami cops stuck with the case of gory murders breaking out in the city's Nigerian community (if such a subculture actually exists there). Victims have their heads cut off, and our sterling heroes trace this to an ancient voodoo-style ritual. Predictable climax has the heroes' friends possessed by a demon.

Poor shot matching fails to meld convincingly the Miami locale with the African-lensed principal photography. Worse yet, this is a screen portrayal of Miami with no Latin Americans in sight.

Adding to the insult of pic's premise is the set of bored walk-throughs by the cast, plus unconvincing makeup effects for the demon's final reel appearance.

Compared to what you might think, it's really easy to make a movie. Here's what you do: You take a tribe somewhere in Africa. You film the village witch-doctor while he's doing some kind of ritual. you place some candles around him and BANG! All of a sudden appears a hideous demon. You transfer the whole thing to Miami and you're done. All the rest are details. Bad acting, huge mistakes in the script ? So what ? You got to give the makers of this film some credit: they were obviously very enthusiast and they did create an interesting demon. I don't mind films like this being made, but the problem with this kind is that they take themselves too serious. There's ain't much humor in this story.

Could have been a cult classic. Everyone and anyone who gravitates to these type of movies knows what they are getting, gore and lots of it. Sadly, there was not enough. The "action scenes" are choppy and, having seen worse movies, done poorly. This is just a majority of the scenes, however. There are some scenes done very very well. If the action scenes were as up front and to the point as the final scene, or the dream sequence, the movie would just make more sense. Period.

I happened upon this movie in a goodwill store and i am, although a little disappointed with the gore, glad that i bought it (probably being the only one in the world with a copy on VHS...hehe). The scenes that are done well, almost bring it to cult status. Overall, i would advise to see it because of a little bit of b-movie humor and some b-movie horror. Hopefully there is a remake, one that will heed this advice and become a cult classic!

Headhunter is is good horror movie that stars Kay Lenz and Wayne Crawford! The killings are gruesome! It has good music and the Headhunter demon is very neat! it wasn't suppose to be funny but I thought the scene with the preacher was funny and it seemed like his voice was dubbed! I was funny when he said "I'm never coming back to this (curses) river again!I feel this movie needs more attention that it has received! I don't want to spoil it for you in case you haven't seen the movie and if you haven't rent it because its a good horror movie!

A cop (Wayne Crawford) whose wife is having an affair on him finds himself facing off against an African demon that has just arrived in the USA and is cutting off everyone's head. Kay Lenz is his partner and love interest. This film is very crudely made and lifelessly acted, but somehow or another it manages to move along at such a fast pace and also manages to be very entertaining and exciting the entire running time that you really don't care.

This looks nothing like Miami to me. I know it says this was partially shot in Miami, but this doesn't feel like it is set in America, or populated by Americans for that matter. The scene in the meat processing plant doesn't strike me as anything like what you would see in America, even in the 80's in a bad neighborhood. Maybe they thought setting this in America would make it easier to get it distributed.

Nothing happens until the last 10 minutes of the movie, for the rest it just drags on and on and on......... skip this one the demon at the end was pretty cool but you see so little of it.

I guess one of the primary interest factors with this one was that it was made in South Africa during the Apartheid years. I have heard some detect a racism in it but I am not so sure - the one racist character was the police chief who everyone thought was an idiot. If this had been American, nothing would be said. In actual fact, it is trying to pass itself off as American to help its commercial appeal, setting its action in Miami. But you can tell this sure isn't Florida - unless the Sunshine State resembled a third world country in the late 80's! It would have been better if like Dust Devil, they had just set the movie in Africa, as it would have given it a more distinct flavour. Anyway, this horror is about a Nigerian demon who goes around decapitating folks when it is unleashed in 'Miami'. The voodoo angle is quite effective and there are some well-staged sequences, including a fun/ridiculous finale replete with chainsaw. Generally, it's a fairly standard bit of late 80's horror but the context is everything.

"Headhunter" is a low-budget horror movie shot in Cape Town but set in Miami. It's a little flick with a good and intriguing premise but a sloppy script. Director Francis Schaeffer counterbalances that by trying to make the movie as stylish as possible. You can definitely see the influence movies such as "The Evil Dead" had on this one. The cinematography in general is pretty good, provided you're watching the movie on Blu-Ray (the disc is out-of-print and I had to retrieve it on eBay myself about 10 years ago). Despite the director and the camera team using every trick in the book, the very low-budget prevents the movie from having a great-looking monster and decent gore: had they spent a bit more on the FX and fixed the script, it could've become a cult classic. I personally still love it as an obscure flick from the video rental days.