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7/10
Senior Film Conservator
A definitive 7/10 rating for a film that redefined the boundaries of cult cinema. The Devil Tiger remains a cornerstone of transgressive art.
If you have any love for animals, skip this one. Seriously, don't bother. If you're into weird, old-school exploitation cinema where the 'plot' is just a way to link together footage of real-life animal brawls, then maybe—just maybe—you'll find this a strange curiosity. Everyone else? You’re going to hate it.
The story involves Kane Richmond and a kid named Ah Lee wandering through the jungle to catch this titular tiger. But honestly, nobody cares about them. Every time they start talking, I found myself checking my watch. The movie clearly knows it's boring, too. It’s always looking for an excuse to cut away to a crocodile or a lion.
The pacing is totally broken. We go from a conversation about hunting ethics to a cut-and-dry sequence of a boa constrictor fighting a buffalo. It’s jarring. It feels less like a film and more like a fever dream edited together by someone with an obsession for nature documentaries gone wrong.
There is a lot of animal violence here. Some of it is genuinely hard to watch. You have to wonder how they even filmed this stuff back then. There’s a scene with a tiger and a lion that just feels desperate. It doesn't have the craft you'd see in something like Deception where the drama actually feels earned.
One lion vs. python fight goes on for an eternity. The camera just sits there. No music, no tension building, just the sound of leaves crunching. It’s weirdly hypnotic but also kind of hollow. It reminds me a bit of the aimless energy in Speed Demons, though at least that had cars.
The human actors seem totally lost. They stand around looking 'intense' while the movie waits for the next animal clip to be ready. It’s funny in a sad way. You can almost feel them thinking, 'When is the tiger coming back?'
Is it a good movie? No. Is it fascinating? Only if you like seeing how movies used to just... throw stuff at the wall. It’s definitely not a polished experience like The Bohemian Girl. It’s just a raw, messy, and slightly gross artifact. 🐯