The Final Executioner

I saw this movie way back in 1985, one of many Italian post apocalyptic movies around that time (think Endgame,2020 Texas Gladiators and 2019 After the Fall of New York) A piece of absolute crap, with unsympathetic characters (excluding Woody Strode and William Mang) The rape scene was too much and the depraved lifestyle of the 'rich' was sickening.

The best part in this film was when William Mang's character took his revenge, and on the plus side, Harrison Muller displays some talent in his portrayal as one of the villains. Can't say the same for the other cast members and for the life of me I can't understand why Woody strode even did this film. Give this turkey a miss!

Following a nuclear holocaust the upper class hunt the expendable contaminated.

Director Romolo Guerrieri offers a choppy late in the game Mad Max 2 and Escape from New York (1981) cash in, akin to Escape from the Bronx (1983), The Exterminators of the Year 3000 (1983) to name a few. Compared to the other B-movie Italian film around at the same time this one is pacer than most.

The Final Executioner has all the clunkiness you'd expect from these low budget and Italian productions. Guerrieri delivers a little motorcycle and car action, shootouts, fights, an electronic field with codes, even a training montage. To writer Roberto Leoni's credit it tries to to be a little different borrowing The Most Dangerous (1932) concept of human hunting humans. It also has a hint of The Prize of Peril (1983), predating the Running Man (1987). Cheesy, intruding and odd drum beats aside, Carlo de Nonno's synthesiser score is at times on the money.

Stubbly lead William Mang does his best Kurt Russell and Clint Eastwood impression as Tanner as he picks off the bad guys one by one. The male supporting cast wrestle with the script more than the fight scenes. With a number of actresses, including stunning Maria Romano (Thor the Conqueror's Ina) as Magda doing their best with the thin dialogue, Margit Evelyn Newton (Zombie Creeping Flesh (1980)) appears as Diane and gets naked as the screenplay dictates. Bearded sword wielding Harrison Muller as hunter Erasmus is notable along with memorable Marina Costa as mean sharpshooter Edra. With limited screen time Woody Strode steals every scene as Sam, a hard-nosed mentor type character.

Overall, far from the bottom of the barrel addition to the genre, worth checking out thanks to the concept, cast and score.

My review was written in December 1985 after watching the movie on MGM/UA video cassette.

"The Final Executioner", also known as "The Last Warrior", is a subpar 1983 Italian science fiction film set after a nuclear holocaust (represented by lowercase stock footage of volcanic eruptions and bombed out neighborhoods). Cannon pickup wisely bypassed U. S. theaters in favor of home video release.

Story vaguely borrows from classics such as "The Most Dangerous Game" and "The Tenth Victim", postulating humanity divided into two groups, the rich, privileged few and the radiation contaminated masses. The rich olk hunt down teh contaminated population for sport.

Cybernetics expert Alan (top billed William Mang) discovers that after 80,000,000 people have been killed in hunts there are no more contaminated folks to shoot down. To keep their privileges, however, the rich class continues to designate people as "target material" and kill off healthy folks, perpetuating the system.

Alan teams up with a tough, excop Sam (Woody Strode) to launch an assault on a hunters' headquarters. It takes many reels of filler, punctuated by extraneous sex scenes, until the good guys make some headway.

With no special effects, little atmosphere and a one-joke script, pic is science fiction in name only. Poor dubbing negates the cast's efforts, though Strode is an impressive screen presence convincingly beating up multiple young guys in hand-to-hand combat.

I cannot explain how terrible this movie is. I would normally not waste my time writing a review of something this bad, but people need know one thing: DO NOT WATCH THIS MOVIE. This is not one of those "so terrible it's funny to watch and make fun of" movies, no siree. Instead this movie is awful in every sense of the word, for not only is the acting, plot and directing awful, but there is one particular scene which nearly made me vomit each time they showed it (3 times). In the scene a girl is raped and killed while people watch on, obviously turned on by this, and we're not just talking males, it is the female leader who commands the man to rape and kill the girl. I've seen and read American Psycho, and that is not disturbing - this is.

I really don't know what else to say. This movie should have a much lower rating. Luckily for you, you'll probably never be able to find this god-awful movie, and please don't try. It has no redeeming qualities what-so-ever. None. So please don't try.

Here's a decidedly average Italian post apocalyptic take on the hunting/killing humans for sport theme ala The Most Dangerous Game, Turkey Shoot, Gymkata and The Running Man.

Certainly the film reviewed here is nowhere near as much fun as the other listed entries and is furthermore dragged down by poor voice over work, generally bland action sequences, a number of entirely tasteless scenes such as a prolonged rape sequence and some truly stupid and illogical points throughout.

Take for example towards the end of the film, when our hero manages to infiltrate the compound of the villains. He initially kills a sentry and leaves him in his jeep. Upon discovery of the said corpse, the villains response? (bearing in mind that our hero has come to brutally murder them all) – They resolve to wait until the next morning to look for the culprit (!!!!!!!!!!)

However, I suppose to be fair the film remains nonetheless about watchable if you can suspend your disbelief during such stupid scenes and does benefit immensely by the presence of the always excellent Woody Strode (even if his screen time is very limited)

Not a classic by any stretch of the imagination but still just about worthy of a watch for Italian B-Movie enthusiasts.