Return To Death Park

Bounty hunters, what would life be without them? They are the one who takes care of the trash, making sure that criminals are not running away too far. You could probably say that bounty hunters are pretty much another form of officers, except they specialize in capturing fugitives who have not paid bail.  We have seen Bounty Hunters in many different kinds of movies in the past, where one of the most classic bounty hunter films have to be the 1982 sci fi action cult movie Blade Runner from director Ridley Scott. Legendary actor Harrison Ford is brilliant as the Bounty Hunter charatcer Rick Deckard, of course i have to mention the wonderful acting performance of Rutger Hauer in this film as the replicant Batty. Blade Runner is a must own on physical media or on digital, one of the most iconic 80´s movies. Let´s stay within this specific genre of Bounty Hunters films, we need to talk about a classic that doesn´t get mentioned that often anymore. In the beginning of the year 1987, action star actor Rutger Hauer released his film Wanted Dead Or Alive from director Gary Sherman ( director of the 1981 horror classic Dead & Buried ). The film tell the story of bad ass Bounty Hunter Nick Randall ( Rutger Hauer ), who is offered 250.000 U.S. dollars by the CIA to get a terrorist named Malak Al Rahim ( played by legendary KISS member Gene Simmons ), who blew up a LA theatre with a bomb. What made Wanted Dead Or Alive so good in the category of Bounty Hunter films, is the chase between Bounty Hunter Nick Randall and the terrorist Malak. Rutger Hauer is great as always, i was just surprised how good Gene Simmons was playing a terrorist. Definetely worth a watch on streaming, VOD or even physical media, Wanted Dead Or Alive is a worthy 80´s action classic. Speaking of action films, director Ken "Ace" Brewer delivered the old school action throwback known as Death Bitch back in 2024. I enjoyed this film, and especially actress Linnea Swansson´s character Alexis Walker. I did review this film on my movie review blog, so if you want to know my personal opinion go check out my review of Death Bitch. Not that long ago i was given an oppurtunity to review Ken Brewer´s slasher horror film Return To Death Park through a screener sent to me, a film i knew nothing about. Since i am a fan of slasher horror films in general, i was curious to see if this would be something in my taste. Is this one of the better films in this specific genre, or is Return To Death Park just as forgettable as Kevin Federline´s 2006 studio album Playing With Fire ( which im pretty sure most people have forgotten about ) ?

The Death Park Killer´s ( Ken Brewer ) body vanishes from the morgue, sparking new murders. A whole crew of Bounty Hunters led by Chloe ( Josi Kat ) is out looking for the masked killer, hoping to get their hands on a reward of 50.000 U.S. dollars.

Do you remember watching slasher horror films back in the 80´s and the 90´s, that was so low budget that still managed to entertain you somehow? This is exactly what Return To Death Park manage to do. This is the kind of B horror slasher film that have no deep plot, it´s all about killing people and trying to go old school in similar ways as Halloween. If you love these kinds of films and accept the limited budget, this could be something for you. Personally i would say that i enjoyed the masked killer most of all, known as The Killer ( played by director Ken Brewer ). The mask may not be very original or different from many horror masks, but i still feel that it works in the concept of this film. After all, this is supposed to be a film made for this specific genre, where you want to see bodies being stabbed and murdered in different ways. The fact that the killer is brought back to life like the 1985 horror film Re-Animator is a fun detail. We do get some hot women included as well, so this is of course one important detail if you want the male audience to be happy. I should point out that this is a sequel and i have not seen the previous films. That´s ok, i could go into this film without knowing anything from the previous films and still be entertained. Even if some acting performances are pretty terrible ( in a fun B movie way ), i do enjoy the character Shady ( played by actress Linnea Swasnsson who was enjoyable in the low budget action film Death Bitch ). Not only is her character cool, but i would have liked to see her have more screen time. Actress Bridget Powers also deliver as one of the Bounty Hunter characters, just having fun on screen. We do get some practical make up effects killings, but this is where i wish we could have had more brutal kills. I want hands flying, libs pulled out of the body ( more than just two scenes ), i just love seeing disturbing killings. Otherwise i would say Return To Death Park is like a cheesy written love letter to the B movie community, it has all the ingredients you were hoping would be included, while instead of using words the killer just slash bodies instead. Director Ken Brewer is clearly inspired by slasher horror films at VHS rental stores of the past, and this is a simple yet entertaining B movie. Return To Death Parl may never win any Oscars but it will find it´s way to the audience with big hearts for B movies.

Rating: DDD