Final Executioner Review

Title: Final Executioner

Format: DVD
Year:1984
Label: 23rd Century

Here we have a low budget 80's post apocalyptic Italian Sci-Fi directed by Romolo Guerrieri. First of all I must say that I like it. The story is a mash up of various other post apocalyptic outings with a few cliche characters  thrown in and a cheesy soundtrack that really grates in places. But I like it. It's well shot on the whole ( but far too much dramatic zooms - if you can have too much ) and the story works well enough, there are huge holes in it, but it still works.

The movie opens with some pretty poor stock footage of atom bomb tests and war torn buildings. A voice over sets the scene quite poorly. After the fall out, two groups emerge. The contaminated masses and the privileged few who avoided it. A hunting game is created. - It is not made clear whether the privileged or the contaminated are the hunters.

The opening scenes don't help matters as a group of privileged people are sent to the hunting ranges as prey. It is not revealed why this has happened until much later in the movie. I don't feel I am giving anything away by telling you now that the basic idea is that the privileged hunt the contaminated for entertainment. The group of prey that the movie follows ( not til later on ) are actually from the privileged community but have been declared as prey as punishment/banishment.

The story actually revolves mainly around a group of privileged hunters. Two of which have a bet as to who can kill the most prey. The male hunter rides a black motorcycle and looks like the lovechild of Prince in Purple Rain and a Gimp

The lead male 'hero' doesn't take center stage until about s third of the way through which feels a little odd. He is hunted and left for dead. He is then rescued by a character ( Sam ) who to me comes across as a cross between Chappy Sinclair from Iron Eagle and Mr. Miyagi from Karate Kid played by Woody Strode.

Sam's character opens up the story and bring the world to life. He is contaminated and lives in the hunting ranges. This is where the story should have been focused. There is a ridiculous training scene where the hero is taught how to avoid sandbags and crawl under barbed fire - neither of which he is called to do in any subsequent scenes, but it's the 80s so these things are essential.


Final Executioner is by no means a good movie. It doesn't succeed in what I feel it set out to achieve. The budget feels stretched even at this low level and it feels as though alot of scenes which could have made this movie a cult classic were cut or never realized when the final budget came in.

The dubbing is awful, the soundtrack is very very poor. But I still like it. The transfer on the DVD is actually pretty good for this kind of bargain bin VHS-Rip release. The sound is mono, but technically decent quality.

Overall I'd say this is not a bad attempt from Romolo Guerrieri but he should have pushed a bit harder for funding. Not one for mainstream movie lovers, but definitely worth checking out if you're into grindhouse style trash - it has some interesting concepts, good characters and a unique atmosphere.

UK Films Rating: 5/10 - Worth a watch
Release Rating: 6/10 - Decent VHS transfer & cover art. Slim DVD case.
Did James like it? YES