by David Blackwell

DETAILS: 88 minutes, Behind The Scenes featurette, trailers, and commentary with director Mark Bristol and actors David Carradine and Michael Bowen

STUDIO- THE ASYLUM HOME ENTERTAINMENT

ANALYSIS: THE MONSTER HUNTER is the worst movie I have seen this year. It's that or BOA VS. PYTHON. This movie isn't a supernatural thriller as the DVD sleeve claims. It is a movie that is one part fictional documentary about serial killer Willie and one part movie. Both parts never seem to mesh together. At times, the movie feels and looks like a Z Grade production. I watched the entire movie and I wished for it to be over. THE MONSTER HUNTER has some good actors in it, but David Carradine's performance as FBI Agent Dehoven is the only stand-out as he charges each scene with such awesome power. Other than that, his character isn't seen enough. I rather had the movie be about Caradine's character than Michael Bowen's character. This rather boring misadventure movie is a great disaster that I wish I have never watched. I hope director Mark Bristol gets better writers next time and makes a more interesting movie than what I watched.

VIDEO/AUDIO: The movie is presented in 1.85:1 widescreen. No noticeable artifacts are visible. Colors and blacks are all right.

For audio, the Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound is terrible. The audio sometimes feels like it should be 2.0 and it was never meant to be 5.1 (as it has the hollow echo sound being heard throughout the movie). However, there is a Dolby Digital 2.0 track on this DVD also.

SPECIAL FEATURES: The Behind The Scenes featurette is seven minutes long and somehow they do manage to pack more info about the production of the movie than you seen in a Behind The Scenes featurette of this length. Behind The Scenes footage is featured in this featurette as you also get interviews from members of the cast and crew. Also the viewer gets to glimpse the storyboards the director did for the movie.

The best extra is the commentary track with director Mark Bristol and actors David Carradine and Michael Bowen. By far this commentary track is far more interesting and entertaining than the movie. Mark Bristol does comment some scenes were cut out or edited down, but it is a big disappointment the deleted scenes couldn't be included on the DVD. You do find out THE MONSTER HUNTER was shot in 18 days in Austin, Texas on a budget of about $500,000. Also David Carradine tells the story of how Quentin Tarantino wanted to see the movie due to the comments David made about his over-the-top acting in the movie. All in all, this is a fun commentary track.

Rounding out the extras are four trailers including the trailer for THE MONSTER HUNTER. Other preview trailers- ANGELS CREST, DANTE'S VIEW, and MURDER BY DESIGN

FINAL ANALYSIS: THE MONSTER HUNTER is a mis-advertised movie that just doesn't come to together for me. The menus are great, but I can't tell anyone to go watch this movie. Go watch David Carradine in the KILL BILL movies again. If you rent the DVD, I suggest watching the movie with the commentary track if low budget serial killer B-movies aren't your thing.

this review is (c)9-8-2004 David Blackwell. This review cannot be reprinted. Send all comments to lord_pragmagtic@hotmail.com

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