Mutant Hunt

Mutant Hunt

United States - 1987

Director – Tim Kincaid

Wizard Video (distributed by Lightning Video), 1985(?), VHS

Mutant Hunt is one of the eight or so films helmed by Tim Kincaid during his brief detour from adult film. That story is far more interesting than the plot of this film, but I digress.
An evil scientist named simply “Z” turns on his not so evil coworkers and sics his cyborgs (also known as mutants in this film, keep in mind, the terms are interchangeable.) on them, but they escape. They find a mercenary, Riker and his pal Felix, who will help them kill the evil cyborgs. Another scientist meanwhile, a rogue, named Domina is cooking up her own cyborg scheme for her own reasons; she’s a Euphoron junkie.
Euphoron? What’s that in English? They kill for pleasure stupid, ever since the Space Shuttle Sex Murders.
In the future, all the apartments, (do they have those?), have hardwood floors and baseboard moulding. At least except for Riker’s fly joint, a second floor walk-up (boxing gym?) with jagged whitewashed brick walls that have carefully positioned nails laden exclusively with melee and missile weapons. It might be hard to call out Chekhov’s Gun here, because Riker does use a few of these weapons on the spot while wearing tighty whities, but there’s plenty enough that don’t get used either, and none of it after this one scene.
Felix, Riker's sidekick is called on his implanted earphone by Darla using a touch-tone pay-phone only to spend the rest of the movie (not only as the quasi spastic awe inspiring fight choreographer) looking like he’s hoping this film will bolster his burgeoning (mid 80’s NYC) rap career. Despite the use of laser guns in the first 10 minutes of the film, everything else is strictly lo-quality grappling.


At Darla’s converted basement/loading dock crib, which is furnished with 70’s laminated wood furniture, she and Riker knock the dust off, proving my childhood memory of this movie to be at least partially false at least on the extremely brief nudity front.
Hey, the gore effects in this baby are pretty damn good for being on the cheap, hell there were movies coming out in the mid 90’s that wished they had effects this good. That little tag on the box cover is obviously exaggeration, but what with all the gooey mutants and dismemberment it aint bad. I still gotta give it up to Mister Kincaid though for successfully hanging all the rest of this trash on that.

Here is the text of my original review of Mutant Hunt published roughly in 1997, in my zine “Sorority Slasher Massacre on Planet B” which reviewed only tapes that were available for rent in the local shop "The Video Stop":

DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT rent this movie, under any circumstances. This is the most horrible movie I‘ve ever seen. The plot stinks, the acting reeks, the sets suck. The whole thing seems like a porno movie with a wannabe premise. But there isn’t even any nudity! Ugggghhhhh this was so horrible. Gag gag gag.
Well, wait a minute, if you like super horrible movies, or you wanna suffer, this might be good for you. But so might a bullet to the head. Plan 9 From Outer Space looks like an epic classic masterpiece whatever compared to this crap! (I have since also changed my opinion of Plan 9)

In 2009, I honorably submit an appeal to my former self to commute my death sentence to a sentence of suffering, through Tim Kincaid movies to which I now happily submit.

Oddly, or not so perhaps, I was right about one thing way back before (my hippie parents allowed me to have) the internet, Mutant Hunt does come across as a porno without the fuckin’. Tim Kincaid is the maestro of early gay porn from back in the mid 70’s, properly revered and honored in the community. Mutant Hunt was part of a three year period of non-adult filmmaking which was underwritten at least in part by Charles Band of Full Moon Features. Much of the music from Mutant Hunt and other of Kincaid’s “standard” features was lifted directly from Richard Bands scores for Full Moon movies. In any case, Kincaid returned to porn in 2001 to fill those empty sets with sweaty friction. In the meantime he did leave a legacy of "straight" trash for us to suffer through happily (including a film hilariously titled "Breeders". Get it?).

Watch the Mutant Hunt trailer at Cult Trailers
My friends at Direct to Video Connoisseur have a great review as well.

Here's a Dutch video cover courtesy of Rolfens DVD with the same artwork. I think it's awesome that artist C. Winston Taylor made sure the mutant/cyborgs shirt had a sleeve that extended along with his arm, and that the incredibly voluptuous victim has camel toe.