MovieChat Forums > The Exterminator (1980) Discussion > Not as good as i remember it

Not as good as i remember it

posted 9 years ago by ultravio13
4 replies | jump to latest

Anyone else feel like that? I saw this when I was a kid at my local grindhouse. I remember really liking it at the time. I saw it again last night on Hulu and it very disappointing. It was obviously a low budget Death Wish, with a vet instead of an architect. Especially irritating how it would just show him in certain situations, without explaining how he got there. Like when he had that Ghetto Ghoul tied up, or how he just happened to find the Chicken brothel. Some of the killings are still pretty badass (the meat-grinder especially) and seeing Times Square in all it's sleazy 70's glory was cool. But aside from that it just wasn't as good as i remember.

[–] red_skin123 9 years ago

I mean it's alright, just watched it recently, but do think the direction is very stale at times, and the writing as well, but there was something overall charming about it, but it still just lacked any "shape" in a way, very stale cinematography at times to great. Like the fire and tracking shot in the chicken shop. And the jumps were quite lazy. A sequence of showing his skills would be neat, like tracking and finding the goon creatively and then capturing him. I don't know, it's alright.

[–] bornskeptic 8 years ago

I saw it with a buddy of mine in 1980. We were both fresh out of college and were hooked on violent guy movies like this one. The problem is we had already seen Mad Max and Apocalypse Now and a couple of other clearly better flicks before seeing this one. The Exterminator was violent and gruesome and all but it really didn't match up against some better made late 70's-early 80's action movies back then. So it def won't hold up now.

[–] saint-21 8 years ago

it could have used a better editor , they could have cut down a lot of the slow scenes and got its point across in less time. Like the scenes, where he is watching the guy (meat grinder) house and some of the restaurant scene where hes waiting for him, and when hes making those bullets. ect.. but it is very dated looking and does represent all the late 70's new York city sleeze..

[–] Pistachio-Disguisey 8 years ago

It's not as polished as the films you mentioned but I wouldn't change a bit of it (except the violence is excessive IMO). Like someone said previously in this thread, it has a charm and is very endearing. I find it to be earnest filmmaking and Ginty has a unique presence.