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The Fanatic [1982] | ![The Fanatic [1982]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/519884WQA6L._SL160_.jpg)
 enlarge | Director: David Winters
Actors: Caroline Munro, Joe Spinell, Judd Hamilton, Devin Goldenberg, David Winters
Studio: Hollywood DVD Ltd
Category: DVD
Buy New: £4.95
New (1) Used (2) from £3.95
Rating:  2 reviews
Sales Rank: 47576
Format: Pal
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
Region: 0
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 86 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
EAN: 5017633203581
ASIN: B00013KCKE
Theatrical Release Date: 1982
Release Date: November 24, 2003
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand new & sealed. UK seller shipping directly from the UK.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Ropey January 30, 2008
A. Griffiths (London)
Has this film got some kind of cult reputation? I really hope not. It's one of the worst horror films I have ever seen. I wasn't expecting much but the movie managed to fall far short of even the modest hopes I had for it being entertaining.
The slim plot follows a deranged stalker called Vinnie played by "Maniac" star Joe Spinnel, who makes it his life work to persuade horror star Jana Bates (played by Caroline Munro) to appear in his home movie. Set in Cannes at a film festival, the film follows our creepy fanatic as he hounds Jana across the city with his home movie camera, as well as tracking her efforts to evade him and the dead bodies that keep turning up.
Well if this sounds interesting in any way, let me tell you right now that it's a flop in every department. The whole enterprise is riddled with more holes than Swiss Cheese, in fact I'm surprised it hasn't made onto any of those Top Worst Films lists. The cast is dreadful - Joe Spinell hams his way through the role of the madman, well actually he's not bad, and he does this type of role well but with an awful script and a comedy cute elderly Mom (who he continually calls up to assure her that his film is well on the way to being made), he doesn't manage to make the character menacing or impressive at all. Caroline Munro is even worse, with a fractured, amateurish performance that makes it impossible to understand how she ever became a "scream queen" star - is she this bad in anything else? Or was she purposely trying to make the Jana Bates character look like an idiot? Her appearance is also unutterably ghastly, with a shock of really BIG and white streaked hair and numerous gold and silver baggy jumpsuits - pure 80's hell! Apart from the poor performances, the whole script is also riddled with really implausible situations. Vinnie seems to have super-hero type powers of stalking, he scales tall hotels, breaks into Jana's bathroom, dons multiple costume changes and bumbles around in plain sight of everyone without ever being spotted or apprehended. One hilarious sequence involves him chasing Jana through a seemingly deserted hotel with her wearing nothing but a bath towel. Jana eventually runs out of the front door and then high-tails it, barefoot, down crowded streets and right into a film premiere screaming her head off without anyone paying the slightest attention! Another scene involves a couple being menaced while they are in a large stone tower, and this is riddled with really bad red herrings and dismal attampts to build tension. Watch also for the part where festival judges view a screening of a Jana Bates horror film and decide that she should be chosen as the winner - the scene in which they judge her to be a great actress could hardly be more the opposite!
Actually, many of the film's major scenes are set around the Cannes Festival, and each and every scene showing enthusing crowds, paparazzi or celebrity parties are poverty-row, unconvincing botch jobs. Awful dubbing, awful performances from dopey extras, and the overall weakness of the acting by all the leads makes this movie a real chore to sit through. I kept taking breaks out of boredom. I don't usually slate a film quite this much, but in this case it is deserved. And trust me, I've seen A LOT of this type of movie. The only thing going for the film is some medium strength gore, but the price you have to pay to see it (ie, the rest of the film) is too high. Avoid this turkey, unless you're in a particularly spiteful mood, because there's a whole lot here to make fun of and little else.
 An unusual and surprisingly impressive little horror thriller September 2, 2007
Daniel Jolley (Shelby, North Carolina USA)
Low-budget it may be, but The Last Horror Film (aka Fanatic) has panache aplenty and makes what appears to be a short trip to Camp Gore a surprisingly significant trek into the land of mystery, madness, and mayhem. Despite its greasy star, a real excess of bad acting, wretched early 80s soundtrack, deficient cinematography, and unimpressive special effects, this film really won me over in the end, not least because of the somewhat surprise ending.
Joe Spinell plays Vinny Durand, a New York taxi driver who dreams of becoming a famous movie director. He is particularly taken with Jana Bates (Caroline Munro), the biggest horror film starlet in the world. Jana is in fact so larger than life that she is up for Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival (for her performance in Scream, a film which culminates in her character getting a radical new look at the hands of a madman with a blowtorch). Vinny has saved up his money, and so it is that he bids adieu to his mother and heads off to Cannes, determined to get Jana to be in the film he has written just for her. Not surprisingly, he can't get near such a big movie star, but he does come in contact with her producer ex-husband, an agent, a movie director, and others who don't exactly embrace his genius. Oddly enough, several of these very same people soon turn up dead or missing, starting with director (and Jana's ex-husband) Bret Bates (Glenn Jacobson). Many, including the French police, interpret these events as publicity stunts, leaving Jana decidedly vulnerable to Vinny's determined advances. Speaking of Vinny, we watch him spiral farther and farther into obsession, emotional turmoil, and maniacal behavior. His disturbing mental condition is seen most clearly in a series of emotional phone calls to his mother, in which he often breaks down crying as he tells her that he is indeed filming a movie with Jana and that he is finally going to make her proud of him.
It's all pretty formulaic stuff until you reach the final crescendo of blood and suspense, and it is this ending that allows The Last Horror Film to rise a little bit above all the unoriginal, derivative films littering the shelves of the B-movie horror genre. But wait - there's more. The filmmakers even throw in a little social commentary along the way, making the definite link of an obsessed horror fan with the timely assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan by Jodie Foster-obsessed nutjob John Hinckley, Jr. Jana, as the reigning queen of horror, also offers a few nice points about the violence of horror films.
The Last Horror Film was actually filmed in and around the Cannes Film Festival of 1981, which turns out to be an ideal setting for such a film dealing with the blurring of reality and fantasy vis-à-vis the movie business. You'll see footage of a couple of minor stars (such as Cathy Lee Crosby), and Robin Leach actually turns up as a reporter in one scene. That just makes the film all the more fun to watch. The real highlight for me, though, was the performance of Filomena Spagnuolo as Vinny's mother; she was a natural for the part because she was the real-life mother of Joe Spinell. She can't act a lick, but the mother-son dialogue between her and Spinell is really funny at times.
So, in conclusion, I really liked this unprepossessing little film. Its weaknesses are there for all to see, but so is the creativity that is too often found lacking in horror films of any kind, especially ones featuring a decent amount of gore.
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