Week 14 (Sept. 20 – 26) – THE END! Post-Apocalyptic Cinema: Make sure to pull the ladder up on the way out
Directed by low-budget maestro Cirio H. Santiago and executive produced by the king of exploitation himself, Roger Corman, this 77-minute slice of post-apocalyptic, well, magic is less an original motion picture and more of a cinematic greatest-hits mixtape.
It’s the year 2040 in New California, a sun-scorched wasteland where water is more precious than gold. Enter William (played by Easy Rider’s Luke Askew), an evil dude in a painter’s hat who rolls through the desert with his gang, massacring villages just to steal their water.
When they target the peaceful town of Chinle, a young local named Val (Jillian McWhirter) decides enough is enough. She rounds up a crew of certified badasses to defend the town, including martial arts royalty David Carradine as Michael, Rick Hill as John and Maria Isabel Lopez as Miranda.
Why steal from one classic when you can rip off many? That’s why we have Jawa-like midget people in red robes lurking in the hills, a Mos Eisley-esque Freetown, motorcycle jousting and a plot straight out of Kurosawa. Yes, it’s The Seven Samurai trimmed down to a budget-friendly five heroes, spliced together with Mad Max, Star Wars and Knightriders. Plus, the title Dune Warriors feels entirely designed to dupe sci-fi kids into thinking they rented a Frank Herbert adaptation. I hate to be the one to have to tell you, but there are no sandworms.
Also: Not the first time Corman remade The Seven Samurai.
Give it up to David Carradine for wearing the same costume and using the same sword he swung in The Warrior and the Sorceress and Wizards of the Lost Kingdom II. And speaking of the end of the world, Thomas McKelvey Cleaver also wrote The Sisterhood, The Terror Within and The Terror Within II.
You can watch this on Tubi.
