The Head Hunter

"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.

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!

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.

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.

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.