“Another psycho killer. Just what we needed around here.”

Drake’s rating: The skeeviest flick you’ll see this year. Whatever year it is.

Drake’s review: So waaaay back in my review of Hardbodies* I mentioned that a sleazy movie should really just lean into the sleaze. Sometimes that’s all a small exploitation flick has going for it, so they might as well just work with what they have. The Exterminator doesn’t just lean into the sleaze. It dives into it with reckless abandon, then splashes around in a frenzy until everything it comes in contact with is covered in sleaze as well. This is one grungy flick.

As with McBain**, another film by writer/director James Glickenhaus, The Exterminator starts in Vietnam. There are a lot of explosions, a gory decapitation, and some nifty pyrotechnics. Michael Jefferson (Steve James, American Ninja) and John Eastland (Robert Ginty, Warrior of the Lost World) end up captured for about five minutes until Jefferson escapes and then goes full John Rambo*** with an M60 machine gun.

Back home in New York City, both men end up working warehouse jobs, which brings them into conflict with local gangbangers who don’t want to pay for their beer. Once again Jefferson saves the day and one could be forgiven for thinking that he’s going to be the one cleaning up the crime-infested streets of the Big Apple. Instead he’s attacked by the gang and left paralyzed and it’s left up to Eastland to go on a revenge-fueled tour of the city and strike fear into the hearts of the ne’er-do-wells who injured his friend.

Now if you’re thinking Charles Bronson was perhaps a bit too reactionary in Death Wish, I would advise steering clear of The Exterminator. While the former film’s Paul Kersey primarily relied on a Colt .32 revolver to dispense vigilante justice, Eastman goes right for the big guns. Flamethrowers and assault rifles are more his speed, and when he does use a pistol it’s a massive .44 Magnum. And even then Eastman drills the ammo so that he can load mercury into the shells.

There’s no such thing as overkill in John Eastman’s world.

Of course Eastman’s trail of carnage doesn’t go unnoticed, and before long an NYPD detective named James Dalton (Christopher George, Mortuary) is on his rather messy trail. And honestly it’s Dalton who gets most of the character-building time in The Exterminator. He verbally spars with his coworkers, dates a pretty doctor, and makes hot dogs with a plug-in contraption at his little desk. He has a life, in other words, something Eastman lacks.

Pretty much everything Eastman does is about revenge, or making vengeful plans, or learning of some horrible new crime to avenge. He’s really a pretty single-minded sort. Still, Eastman’s lack of characterization works in the film’s favor and makes the dynamic between he and Dalton fairly effective. Nothing in his job is personal for Dalton, and he keeps it all at arm’s length, while for Eastman it’s all personal. Both actors give solid performances, as do most of the cast around them, which is a big point in The Exterminator’s favor.

A counter-point is the sleaze. And possibly the silly subplot about beef prices drawing congressional attention. And the government assassin looking to shut the Exterminator down. But really, it’s mostly the sleaze. The Exterminator is one grimy flick, a last gasp of the ‘70s grindhouse experience before the advent of the multiplex and the sanitization of the low-budget action flick. It’s a well-done action/revenge movie but, and I cannot stress this enough, it’s not for everyone.

Check it out if you’re in the mood for a grindhouse flick that lives up to its title, but just be sure to wear your rain boots if you do. You’re going to need them if you want to walk the grungy streets of The Exterminator.

*Shameless review plug #1.

**Shameless review plug #2.

***A full two years before that character came to the silver screen.

Intermission!

• I definitely look for subplots about beef prices in my vigilante revenge flicks.
• If Eastman asks you if you’re telling the truth, don’t lie. It gets… messy… if you do.
• And now one of the mysterious three-letter governmental agencies is involved. And I don’t think it’s the Department of Energy.
• Man, the mercury-filling bullet scene has some serious detail. Someone thought way too long about that one.
• Who among us doesn’t have a weapon-filled suitcase with knives, pistols and grenades? OK, me. I don’t have that. And the way my cats get into stuff, that’s a good thing.
• And Dalton has a weapon-filled suitcase as well! That must have been a popular holiday gift in the ‘70s.
• The Exterminator turned star Robert Ginty into something of an action hero throughout the ‘80s, as he alternated American television work with overseas action flicks with titles like Gold Raiders and White Fire.
• Four years later Cannon Films had the rights to The Exterminator and pushed out a sequel. Considering they also had the rights to Death Wish at the same time, it’s shocking there was never a cross-over flick made. Death Wish Exterminator just sounds like a Cannon title.