The Final Executioner

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.

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!

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.

Perhaps I should state first that I'm an incurable sucker for the trashy Italian exploitation & rip-off cinema of the 1980s. I have seen all those "Mad Max" and "Escape from New York" imitations, and I can list several examples of titles that I enjoyed even massively more than the originals they are inspired by, like "Atlantis Interceptors", "2019: After the Fall of New York", "Fists of Steel", "Fighting Centurions 2072", "Endgame", etc. Most of these films are generally considered as worthless and irredeemable junk, but yours truly adores them! So, when I say that a certain title in this genre, say "The Final Executioner" is dull and forgettable, you can rest assured that practically nobody will enjoy it.

"The Final Executioner" combines the contemporary overused post-apocalyptic concept with the (also numerously recycled) idea of hunting human beings for sheer entertainment value. In the apocalyptic wasteland that remained after an all-destructive nuclear explosion, direly illustrated through the same old stock-footage, there are basically just two types of people left alive. The uninfected elite and the infected trash. The elite permit themselves to rape, humiliate, hunt down and kill the infected survivors simply for fun and games. One man fights back, however, and when the elite viciously gang-rape and murder his girl right in front of him, he enlists the help of a former cop for his ultimate plan of revenge. I realize this sound cheesy and cliched enough to be entertaining, but for some incomprehensible reason Romolo Guerrieri ("Young, Violent & Dangerous", "The Sweet Body of Deborah") managed to make it very boring! There are too many long parts of sheer dullness, the lead villains aren't nearly freaky or maniacal enough and the supportive role of Woody Strode is sad and pathetic. The violence and bloodshed are tame and brief, whereas the rape sequence is too long and utterly provocative. There aren't any cool post-apocalyptic set-pieces, vehicles or gimmicks and hero William Mang tries too damn hard to look like Kurt Russell.

At the bottom end of the apocalypse movie scale is this piece of pish called 'The Final Executioner'.. at least where I come from. A bloke is trained by an ex-cop to seek vengeance on those that killed his woman and friends in cold blood.. and that's about it. Lots of fake explosions and repetitive shootings ensue. Has one of the weirdest array of costumes I've seen in a film for a while, and a massive fortress which is apparently only run by 7 people. GREAT job on the dubbing too guys(!) Best moment: when our hero loses a swordfight and is about to be skewered through the neck, he just gets out his gun and BANG! Why not do that earlier? It's a mystery. As is why anyone would want to sit through this in the first place. I'm still puzzling over that one myself now.. 2/10