Editorials
Happy 35th Birthday ‘Yor, the Hunter from the Future’!
35 years ago Antonio Margheriti gave birth to Yor, the Hunter from the Future. This incredible movie is worthy of a huge birthday celebration.
Italian genre cinema is an art form all its own. Somehow many Italian films manage to both be wholly original and unique works of cinematic glory while also heavily ripping off popular and existing titles. It seems like a nearly impossible balance to maintain but they’ve managed to pull it off a lot of the years and were particularly successful back in the 80’s. One of my favorite original rip-offs is Yor, the Hunter from the Future, which recently turned 35.
Yor, much like love, is a bit complicated. The basic premise of the film seems quite simple — Yor (Reb Brown) is a warrior living during a prehistoric age where early man is living amongst dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals and monsters. Yor spends his days trying to discover his origin while partaking in your average barbaric activities.
Yor does all of this solo until one day he runs into a primitive cavewoman named Kala (Connie Cléry) and her protector Pag (Luciano Pigozzi). Kala and Pag are out hunting when they are attacked by a dinosaur that looks to be some sort of stegosaurus, but not quite a stegosaurus. Yor steps in, saves the day, kills the dinosaur and drinks the dinosaur blood like the total badass he is to celebrate his victory.
Kala and Pag take Yor back to their village to celebrate and he’s immediately treated like a king. The celebration doesn’t last long, however, because the village is attacked by what I’m assuming is a rival tribe. Yor, Kala, and Pag are the only three that survive and they embark on a journey across a prehistoric desert in hopes of finding out who Yor truly is. Along the way, Kala quickly falls madly in love with Yor and he seems whatever about it. Like he’ll make out with her, but if he doesn’t it’s whatever.
Where things really start to get interesting is that while they encounter other tribes and more prehistoric monsters they also come in contact with advanced technology and a spaceship. This makes one question what world the movie takes place in. Does the film take place in a true prehistoric age? Or have we gone so far into the future that Earth has destroyed itself with the luckiest humans escaping the planet via space travel while the rest of the globe is sent back to the beginning of man? Or maybe the film involves time travel and all the advanced technology and the spaceship found in this prehistoric world is from someone that traveled back in time? And how exactly does Yor factor into all of this?
Like all great science fiction films, Yor presents a lot of questions, and I guess that is sort of the point. Yor is trying to discover himself and all these possibilities are in play. The problem is that when the film resolves Yor appears to have discovered his answer but we don’t ever really know what that is. He eventually leaves on the spaceship he finds, which he immediately knows how to operate, so I guess he’s from space? Which presents another possibility — maybe Yor isn’t human but just part of a more advanced alien race that travels to Earth during the prehistoric era? But if that’s the case, why is Yor so confused the whole time?
The fact that I have so many questions and am generally confused about what the hell is going on in Yor, The Hunter from the Future may lead you to believe I don’t like this movie but it’s actually the opposite. I love Yor! And why wouldn’t I? It’s all kinds of incredible!
The film was based off a 70’s Argentine comic but as I stated up top Italian genre cinema tends to borrow heavily from popular films and Yor, despite having original source material, borrows quite heavily from some of the 80’s most popular franchises. Conan the Barbarian is the most obvious, on the surface rip off. Yor is like the swap meet version of Conan — he’s a muscular, greasy, half-naked warrior, but he’s not exactly Conan. Both take place in similar prehistoric worlds. In Conan’s case, he has to deal with sorcery while Yor squares off with science and technology.
That science and technology lead us to the next big source of “inspiration” — Star Wars. There are elements within Yor, like when they discover the spaceship and we meet the bad guy goons that are sort of Storm Trooper-ish that feel a bit like Star Wars. It’s not quite Star Wars like we know it though. It’s like if someone heard about Star Wars, saw an image or two and was like, ‘yeah, I got it,” which is probably what happened with Margheriti.
Part of what makes Yor so god damn charming is the fact that a movie like this has almost no shot of being made today. Not only would it be harder to rip off pre-existing properties in this day and age, but a lot of what makes Yor enjoyable is the practical nature of it all. A lot of the effects may look clunky or silly, but they’re practical. There is an element to them that is real and today that wouldn’t happen. When Yor fights the dinosaur at the top of the film it’s an animatronic sort of beast. The dinosaurs in this movie feel like something you would see on that train ride at Disneyland that takes you into the time of the dinosaurs. They obviously don’t look like real, breathing creatures, but they are real things you can touch. Today those would be digital and garbage and the movie would go from low budget and fund to cheap and trashy.
Another highlight of Yor is the award-worthy, Shakespearean like dialogue that is standard in all Italian films. Kala isn’t the only woman to fall in love with Yor. In fact, every woman he meets falls in love with him instantly. At one point Yor saves another girl, Tarita, and her father is grateful. In fact, her father is so grateful that when he meets Yor he says, “According to our customs Tarita’s life now belongs to you. She will be your mate.” Tarita is all for it, throwing herself at Yor, “Take me with you, stranger!” Yor passes because he already has a woman.
Yor is a blast, it really is. It’s one of those movies that should be more highly regarded amongst genre fans. We should all be gathering with our friends and midnight screenings and watching it together, some dressed as prehistoric warriors, others dressed as space travelers from the future. Fortunately, the film was recently released on a gorgeous Blu-ray courtesy of Mill Creek, so at the very least you (that’s right, I’m talking to You!) can pick up the Blu-ray and gather your friends at your place for your own midnight screenings. Costumes optional in this case.
And finally, if my words have convinced you to dedicate your life to the teachings of Yor, I leave you with the film’s theme song which will undoubtedly have you preaching to your new god!
Having grown up in a religious family, Christian movie night was something that happened a lot more often than I care to admit. However, back when I was a teenager, my parents showed up one night with an unusually cool-looking DVD of a movie that had been recommended to them by a church leader. Curious to see what new kind of evangelical propaganda my parents had rented this time, I proceeded to watch the film with them expecting a heavy-handed snoozefest.
To my surprise, I was a few minutes in when Denzel Washington proceeded to dismember a band of cannibal raiders when I realized that this was in fact a real movie. My mom was horrified by the flick’s extreme violence and dark subject matter, but I instantly became a fan of the Hughes Brothers’ faith-based 2010 thriller, The Book of Eli. And with the film’s atomic apocalypse having apparently taken place in 2024, I think this is the perfect time to dive into why this grim parable might also be entertaining for horror fans.
Originally penned by gaming journalist and The Walking Dead: The Game co-writer Gary Whitta, the spec script for The Book of Eli was already making waves back in 2007 when it appeared on the coveted Blacklist. It wasn’t long before Columbia and Warner Bros. snatched up the rights to the project, hiring From Hell directors Albert and Allen Hughes while also garnering attention from industry heavyweights like Denzel Washington and Gary Oldman.
After a series of revisions by Anthony Peckham meant to make the story more consumer-friendly, the picture was finally released in January of 2010, with the finished film following Denzel as a mysterious wanderer making his way across a post-apocalyptic America while protecting a sacred book. Along the way, he encounters a run-down settlement controlled by Bill Carnegie (Gary Oldman), a man desperate to get his hands on Eli’s book so he can motivate his underlings to expand his empire. Unwilling to let this power fall into the wrong hands, Eli embarks on a dangerous journey that will test the limits of his faith.
SO WHY IS IT WORTH WATCHING?
Judging by the film’s box-office success, mainstream audiences appear to have enjoyed the Hughes’ bleak vision of a future where everything went wrong, but critics were left divided by the flick’s trope-heavy narrative and unapologetic religious elements. And while I’ll be the first to admit that The Book of Eli isn’t particularly subtle or original, I appreciate the film’s earnest execution of familiar ideas.
For starters, I’d like to address the religious elephant in the room, as I understand the hesitation that some folks (myself included) might have about watching something that sounds like Christian propaganda. Faith does indeed play a huge part in the narrative here, but I’d argue that the film is more about the power of stories than a specific religion. The entire point of Oldman’s character is that he needs a unifying narrative that he can take advantage of in order to manipulate others, while Eli ultimately chooses to deliver his gift to a community of scholars. In fact, the movie even makes a point of placing the Bible in between equally culturally important books like the Torah and Quran, which I think is pretty poignant for a flick inspired by exploitation cinema.
Sure, the film has its fair share of logical inconsistencies (ranging from the extent of Eli’s Daredevil superpowers to his impossibly small Braille Bible), but I think the film more than makes up for these nitpicks with a genuine passion for classic post-apocalyptic cinema. Several critics accused the film of being a knockoff of superior productions, but I’d argue that both Whitta and the Hughes knowingly crafted a loving pastiche of genre influences like Mad Max and A Boy and His Dog.
Lastly, it’s no surprise that the cast here absolutely kicks ass. Denzel plays the title role of a stoic badass perfectly (going so far as to train with Bruce Lee’s protégée in order to perform his own stunts) while Oldman effortlessly assumes a surprisingly subdued yet incredibly intimidating persona. Even Mila Kunis is remarkably charming here, though I wish the script had taken the time to develop these secondary characters a little further. And hey, did I mention that Tom Waits is in this?
AND WHAT MAKES IT HORROR ADJACENT?
Denzel’s very first interaction with another human being in this movie results in a gory fight scene culminating in a face-off against a masked brute wielding a chainsaw (which he presumably uses to butcher travelers before eating them), so I think it’s safe to say that this dog-eat-dog vision of America will likely appeal to horror fans.
From diseased cannibals to hyper-violent motorcycle gangs roaming the wasteland, there’s plenty of disturbing R-rated material here – which is even more impressive when you remember that this story revolves around the bible. And while there are a few too many references to sexual assault for my taste, even if it does make sense in-universe, the flick does a great job of immersing you in this post-nuclear nightmare.
The excessively depressing color palette and obvious green screen effects may take some viewers out of the experience, but the beat-up and lived-in sets and costume design do their best to bring this dead world to life – which might just be the scariest part of the experience.
Ultimately, I believe your enjoyment of The Book of Eli will largely depend on how willing you are to overlook some ham-fisted biblical references in order to enjoy some brutal post-apocalyptic shenanigans. And while I can’t really blame folks who’d rather not deal with that, I think it would be a shame to miss out on a genuinely engaging thrill-ride because of one minor detail.
With that in mind, I’m incredibly curious to see what Whitta and the Hughes Brothers have planned for the upcoming prequel series starring John Boyega…
There’s no understating the importance of a balanced media diet, and since bloody and disgusting entertainment isn’t exclusive to the horror genre, we’ve come up with Horror Adjacent – a recurring column where we recommend non-horror movies that horror fans might enjoy.
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