Twister's Revenge!
Twister's Revenge! is a 1988 American action comedy film directed by Bill Rebane and released direct-to-video.[1]
| Twister's Revenge! | |
|---|---|
 VHS cover | |
| Directed by | Bill Rebane |
| Produced by | Bill Rebane Larry Dreyfus |
| Written by | William Arthur Larry Dreyfus Bill Rebane |
| Starring | Dean West Meredith Orr Jonathan Goch R. Richardson Luka Jay Gjernes |
| Music by | M. Hans Liebert |
| Cinematography | Bill Rebane |
| Edited by | William Arthur Bill Rebane |
Production company | MTP Productions |
| Distributed by | Focus Film (West Germany) Mill Creek Entertainment |
Release date |
|
Running time | 90 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $95,000 |
Plot
Three bumbling criminals have repeatedly tried to steal the computerized control system of Mr. Twister, a talking monster truck with a mind of its own. They make one last attempt with an M60 tank.[2]
Cast
- Dean West as Dave
- Meredith Orr as Sherry
- David Alan Smith as Kelly
- R. Richardson Luka as Bear
- Jay Gjernes as Dutch
- Tena Murray as Lulu
- William Dexter as Kelly's Father (credited as Bill Dexter)
- J. Worthington Kratz as Kelly's Mother
- Elizabeth Gray as Love Bird Singer
- Angailica as Love Bird Dancer (credited as Angel Rebane)
Featured Monster Truck show in Ionia, Michigan featured the following drivers as themselves:
- Rob Fuchs, driving First Blood
- Mark Bendler, driving Kodiak
- Jim Miller, driving Barbarian
- Allen Pezo, driving Lone Eagle
Production
Twister's Revenge! was filmed in Gleason, Wisconsin at a cost of $95,000. Rebane said that "We had a strong lead actor [Dean West] for "Twister's Revenge" but the girl — the lead actress — [Meredith Orr] was very weak."[3]
Mr. Twister was a custom-made monster truck belonging to a local man, David Staszak.[4] Its computer control system included an AT&T PC 6300.[5]
Release
Twister's Revenge! was released on VHS by Video First Entertainment of Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin in 1988.[6] It was also released in West Germany, under the title Ein Supertruck auf Gangsterjagd! ("A Supertruck on a Gangster-Hunt!")[7] and in Japan.[8]
It was rereleased by Mill Creek Entertainment in 2006, as part of their "Drive-in Movie Classics" series.[9]
Reviews
1000 Misspent Hours and Counting awarded the film 2½ stars, noting that Mr. Twister's onboard AI was clearly a ripoff of Knight Rider's KITT and saying that the film had a "demented mismatch between tone and subject matter. The very idea of a funny vigilante revenge film is bizarre. I hasten to emphasize that Twister’s Revenge! is not a parody of Death Wish wannabes, but rather a Death Wish wannabe that is also a comedy."
Josiah Chiappelli gave the film 3/5 on his "Hipster Holy Grail" series.[10]
Twister's Revenge! was featured on a 2019 episode of RedLetterMedia's "Best of the Worst" series.[11]
References
- "Twister's Revenge (1987)". BFI.
- "Twister's Revenge! (1987)" – via letterboxd.com.
- Rausch, Andrew J. (1 July 2013). "Gods of Grindhouse: Interviews with Exploitation Filmmakers". BearManor Media – via Google Books.
- "IMCDb.org: "Twister's Revenge!, 1988": cars, bikes, trucks and other vehicles". www.imcdb.org.
- "Starring the Computer - Twister's Revenge". www.starringthecomputer.com.
- Twister's revenge. 5 May 1987. OCLC 23261395 – via Open WorldCat.
- Seeßlen, Georg; Jung, Fernand (17 February 2010). Horror: Grundlagen des populären Films. Schüren Verlag. ISBN 9783894727932 – via Google Books.
- Rausch, Andrew J. (1 July 2013). "Gods of Grindhouse: Interviews with Exploitation Filmmakers". BearManor Media – via Google Books.
- Dreyfus, Larry; Arthur, William; Rebane, Bill; West, Dean; Orr, Meredith; Smith, David Alan; Gjernes, Jay; Luka, Richard; Mill Creek Entertainment; OverDrive, Inc (5 May 2019). "Twister's revenge". Mill Creek Entertainment, LLC – via Open WorldCat.
- "Hipster Holy Grail: Twister's Revenge (1988)".
- "Best of the Worst: Twister's Revenge". Red Letter Media.