Bullet Points: Night Hunter (1996)
Somewhere after Abraham Van Helsing and Peter Vincent, but just before Blade… Don “The Dragon” Wilson got his chance to be a vampire hunter in the 1996 film, Night Hunter…
- Flashback: The movie begins in March of 1968, where young Jack Cutter’s life is about to change forever. The Cutters are not your typical family, Jack’s parents are vampire hunters. But when a friend of the family betrays them, Jack’s mother and father are the victims of a vampire attack. Jack witnesses his mother die right before his very eyes and before he can see his father, Tom Cutter (played by James Lew), suffer the same fate, Tom entrusts his son with the “vampire hunter’s bible” and tells him to run!
- Cutter’s Way: The “bible” that Jack’s father gave him had a list of all the known vampires in the world. This book has been in the Cutter family for generations and it is now Jack’s purpose in life to eliminate the remaining vampires that are listed in the book. The movie jumps ahead to June of 1995, where Jack Cutter (Don “The Dragon” Wilson, Ring of Fire II: Blood and Steel) is all grown up and about to do some serious damage in a swanky Los Angeles restaurant.
- Break Ya Neck: Night Hunter dismisses a lot of the commonly accepted ways to kill a vampire like the ol’ stake through the heart or exposing a vampire to sunlight… instead we find out the true way to kill a vampire is to break their necks. Jack Cutter shows up at the restaurant where some of the vampires who attacked his family decades earlier are dining, including Curt Argento (Vince Murdocco, L.A. Wars). Cutter crashes the vamp’s fine dining experience and things get brutal in a hurry. My one complaint with this scene was the super shaky cam, still getting to see Wilson and Murdocco clash was fun. When it is all said done… Cutter has eliminated all the vamps… but killing a bunch of “people” in a crowded restaurant is going to get the attention of the LAPD.
- Inquisitive Minds Want To Know: The cops aren’t the only ones that are trying to track down Jack Cutter. Reporter Raimy Baker (Melanie Smith) with the World Inquisitor tabloid is dispatched to cover the story… and as luck would have it, Raimy runs across Cutter before the cops do. Literally in fact. Raimy hits Cutter with her car… Cutter ends up hopping in her backseat and points a gun at her and tells her to go! This leads to some police chase action and Raimy Baker getting shot in the process. Cutter is able to get control of the vehicle and lose the police that were chasing him. Cutter then takes Raimy back to his secret vampire hunter lair, where he uses a potion of some sort to heal the bullet wound that would have surely killed Raimy. When Raimy wakes up, she is obviously grateful and it isn’t long before the reporter in her kicks in and she wants to know Cutter’s story.
- The Hunter Becomes the Hunted: As Cutter is explaining that he is a vampire hunter and that the “people” he killed at the restaurant weren’t people at all… Raimy is skeptical as you might imagine, but her doubts are soon erased when vengeful vamp Tournier (Maria Ford, Ring of Fire) shows up pissed that Cutter killed her friend at the restaurant and proceeds to attack Cutter and Raimy. And just like that Raimy is a believer. Cutter and Raimy survive the attack, but Cutter knows that the vampires are going to be looking for him, so he heads out to find them first. Meanwhile, Raimy visits the morgue for more research on her story and hopes to convince the police of what is going on.
- Total Eclipse of the Heart: Now Tournier was just an underling in the vampire army… the main vampire is a guy named Bruno Fischer (Nicholas Guest, Dollman). Bruno is preparing for a big event on the vampire calendar, a total solar eclipse. The eclipse is like recruiting day for the vampires because everyone that Bruno and his minions bite during that time will become vampires! And Bruno has his eyes on Cutter’s new reporter friend, Raimy Baker… who conveniently resembles a past lover of his (that’s right out of the Jerry Dandrige playbook). This raises the stakes for our hero and sets up a Jack Cutter vs. Bruno Fischer rooftop battle during the total solar eclipse!
Night Hunter is a unique movie in the filmography of Don “The Dragon” Wilson… partially because it is the only one to my knowledge where Wilson portrays a vampire hunter and partially because it doesn’t include the word “Bloodfist” in the title.
But unfortunately it is also unique in that the action isn’t up to the standards of your typical Don “The Dragon” Wilson movie either. The shaky cam style used during some of the fight scenes detracted from the quality of the fight. And these were fight scenes involving at least one elite martial artist who doesn’t need camera tricks or edits to make his shit look legit or to cover up any lack of skill.
As I sit here reflecting on my Night Hunter viewing experience, I can’t help but think about how I would rate this movie on IMDb. My gut tells me it is a 4.0, but I’d probably bump it up to a 5.0 for the inclusion of a vampire Vinnie Murdocco.
The inclusion of these Bonus Bullet Points should bump up your enjoyment of this post…
- Familiar Faces: Bruno’s other three vampire minions were some familiar faces to action fans… Vincent Klyn (Cyborg) played Sangster, Ron Yuan (Street Crimes) played Hashimoto and David “Shark” Fralick (Desert Heat) played Ulmer.
- The Name Game: 1996’s Night Hunter should not be confused with the 2018’s Night Hunter starring Henry Cavill or with the Michael Dudkoff classic, Avenging Force, which was released in Austria, Norway and West Germany as Night Hunter.
- Directed By: Rick Jacobson was the director of Night Hunter. Jacobson had previously worked with Don “The Dragon” Wilson on Ring of Fire 3: Lion Strike and Bloodfist VI: Ground Zero.
