–The Executioner Part 2 is this weekend’s pick. Every Saturday or Sunday, Celluloid Dimension selects a film to spotlight for your weekend viewing. We like to champion underrated gems and forgotten titles that deserve a wider audience. Dive in and enjoy the ride. –
Directed by James Bryan
Written by Renee Harmon
Starring:
- Christopher Mitchum as Lt. Roger O’Malley
- Aldo Ray as Police Commissioner
- Antoine John Mottet as Mike
- Renee Harmon as Celia Amherst
- Dan Bradley as Big Dan
- Frank Albert as Pete Vance
- Jim Dratfield as Bianca Phillipi
Rating: 
I can’t think of a more suitable filmmaker to steer a brain-cell-killing slab of B-movie garbage like The Executioner: Part 2, a shameless rip-off masquerading as a sequel to the equally sleazy The Exterminator—which, in case anyone forgot, isn’t even called The Executioner. From the grindhouse oddball responsible for one of the most spectacularly brain-dead slashers of the ’80s—the so-bad-it’s-good “video nasty” Don’t Go in the Woods—the same hustler who slapped “Lady” onto Street Fighter and briefly wandered into the “porno chic” boom with a pair of goofy skin flicks, comes his greasiest anti-classic exploitationer. It steals Death Wish’s vigilante fury, pilfers chunks of The Exterminator’s premise, and trades New York’s grimy back alleys for Hollywood’s sun-baked underbelly.
Leading the charge is the perpetually over-the-top Antoine John Mottet, all bulging muscles and bulging eyeballs, as a mentally unhinged Vietnam veteran mowing down the rapists, pushers, and assorted scumbags plaguing the streets of Los Angeles. Christopher Mitchum brings an almost surreal lethargy to Lieutenant O’Malley, while poor Aldo Ray is barely given enough screen time to justify his billing as the police commissioner. Written by exploitation stalwart Renee Harmond, the film bulldozes through one grimy set piece after another, treating narrative as little more than an inconvenient speed bump on the road to the next eruption of violence and bad taste.
Whenever the film grinds to an awkward halt—bogged down by laughably stiff dialogue and those interminable long takes designed to save a few bucks on editing—it somehow erupts into pure psychotronic bliss. That’s where James Bryan’s wonderfully mismatched style finally clicks, reveling in every disreputable grindhouse quirk imaginable. And what glorious quirks they are: sleazeball creeps grooming teenage girls into drug addiction and prostitution, a sadistic kingpin who gets his kicks burning women with cigarettes, and an unhinged Executioner blasting his way through the city’s scum while leaving the LAPD chasing shadows.
Add to all this a seemingly endless parade of accidental laughs and jaw-dropping moments of cinematic randomness, and the film blossoms into one of those exploitation curiosities whose imperfections become inseparable from their charm. The Executioner: Part 2 charges ahead with almost supernatural confidence, completely uninterested in polish, plausibility, or even basic dramatic construction. James Bryan’s every filmmaking instinct favors lurid sensation over narrative, turning the movie into a delirious procession of trashy, blood-soaked attractions rather than anything resembling a conventional film.
Better yet, instead of postcard Hollywood, James Bryan drags us through the city’s filthiest back alleys, trash-choked side streets, and forgotten corners, turning urban decay into the perfect backdrop for this scuzzy little bastard of a movie. Yet the camera never misses the chance to play tourist either, lingering lovingly along sleazy Hollywood Blvd, where marquees for now-vanished porn theaters and grindhouses become attractions in their own right. It’s got everything a connoisseur of cinematic trash could ask for. James Bryan makes sure nobody leaves disappointed. Whether you’re here for the mayhem, the sleaze, or the street-level tour of old Hollywood, you’ll find plenty to sink your teeth into. It’s practically wholesome entertainment… by grindhouse standards.
