HAIR METAL MOVIE MADNESS #8 gets silly with YOR: HUNTER FROM THE FUTURE! by DARK SIDE

Many of us grew up in the 80’s watching the movies andlistening to music.  One song from that era can bring back so many great memories.  Sometimes…  songs remind us of movies (or vice-versa).  HAIR METAL MOVIE MADNESS brings back those memories by connecting the songs we loved from the 80’s to the movie(s) they were attached to.  Visit The Small Town Critic every Saturday to rock out with us to the songs and movies that shaped a generation…

I’ve been in denial for years over this film.  Tried to convince myself that I didn’t actually see this movie in the theater…  but I did. 

Undoubtedly one of the the worst movies of the 80’s, Yor: Hunter from the Future made absolutely no sense and unapologetically oozed cheese from every celluloid frame it projected.  Cashing in on the Sword and Sorcery/sci-fi hybrids of the early part of the decade (shared with films like Flash Gordon, Krull and Metalstorm: The Destruction of Jared-Syn), Yor features American actor Reb (I played Captain American once) Brown running around in a loincloth, bad blond wig and a stone axe across a prehistoric landscape. 

“Prehistoric?  But this is supposed to be the Future!” you say.  That takes a lot of explaining and I’m just not going to do it.  Rest assured by the 3rd act, Yor is firing laser guns while holding them upside down (cause caveman no understand how fire stick work) and saving the planet from…  something.  Aliens maybe?  People from the future?  Terminators?  It’s never fully explained. 

Brown gets the distinguished honor of being the only American in the cast since this film was made by Italians.  That explains the enhanced cheeziness of the production and the poorly dubbed voices that don’t match up with the lip movement.  Speaking of not matching, one of my favorite flubs of Yor is not only how poor the special effects are, but how they couldn’t even match up the laser beams with the direction the weapons were pointing…

Awesome. I swear you couldn’t screw an effect up that bad unless you were 100% inept. I remember seeing the trailer for Yor as a 2nd grader and being able to easily point out that hilarious mistake.

You can’t find a DVD of Yor simply because there isn’t one (in Region 1 anyway).  Serious collectors could find an old VHS copy of the film, but why be a sucker?  You can watch Yor: Hunter from the Future free on YouTube here!  (It’s a 9-part episodes, approx. 10 minutes each of course)

It’s no surprise this film received 3 Razzie Award nominations in 1984 for “Worst Musical Score,” “Worst New Star (Reb Brown)” and “Worst Original Song (for ‘Yor’s World!’).”  I beg to differ on the song.  I think it’s the most fun, most memorable part of the movie.

THE SONG:

“Yor’s World!” (yes, it actually has an exclamation mark in the title).  The film’s Italian composers Guido and Marizio De Angelis take credit for this unbelievable work of nutty genius that fits the time period of the movie’s release so perfectly.  Granted it’s a short theme song, only about 2:30 mins in length, but it’s pretty damned memorable.  Throughout the movie the theme pops up to punctuate some of the more heroic Yor action scenes…  My favorite involves Yor killing a pterodactyl then using its carcass as a hang glider to ambush a tribe of Cro-Magnons.  Seriously, you gotta see it. 

Here’s a non-video mp3 version of “Yor’s World!”

…and of course the opening credits of the movie featuring the song (remember, you can watch the whole movie on YouTube if you dare!)…



“Yor’s world! He’s the maaaaaan!”

-Dark Side

More great articles…