Maciste contro i cacciatori di teste (1963) watch online HD

Maciste rescues Ario, the son King Sandor, and his people from their land in a volcanic island that blows-up and they sail to the Land and Urias in a long and dangerous voyage. They are captured by the Urias but when the Queen Amoha meets Maciste, she tells that the traitor Kermis has joined the tribe of Head Hunters and slaughtered her people, but the warrior Taro has saved them from the annihilation; however, her father King Olibauna was missing in action. She asks Maciste to help her against the Head Hunters, but Maciste tells that he is protecting the tribe of Ario. When the Urias are attacked by the Head Hunters, Maciste decides to help Queen Amoha.

"Maciste Contro i Cacciatori di Teste" is really a bad movie and deserves the low IMDb User rating. The story has an abrupt beginning, a predictable screenplay, poor special effects and terrible acting. I saw this movie in a low-quality VHS released by Reserva Especial Video to make it worse. My vote is three.

Title (Brazil): "Maciste Contra os Caçadores de Cabeças" ("Maciste Against the Head Hunters")

Who are these people? Where are we going? Are we the good guys or the bad guys?

This film has its stints of non stop action and mayhem and even more and more padding of either someone or a large group of people moving from point A to point B. It is hard to miss the kempt hair of Maciste (personally I prefer a chicken sub to cheesesteak) as he combats the merciless Headhunters. Note Nello Pazzafini playing one of the tougher baddies who also appeared in Danger!! Death Ray (Nello sure was in a lot of films!). More amusing stuff includes Amoa's Easter Egg hat hair, village bonfires, and death by archery. Also, one of the wackiest moments is the less than stellar choreographed dance to appease the gods by Amoa's right hand maiden Moana.

Not exactly up alongside the Hercules films, but fun in a goofy sort of way.

Fave line: "Then what happened?"

This isn't the worst movie I've ever seen, or even the worse 'Maciste' movie I've ever seen...believe it or not, this movie is an order of magnitude better than "Maciste Against Hercules In the Valley Of Woe". It is a clunker of a sword-and-sandals movie, but it still has a kind of innocence about it, as if the actors and the film crew knew they were just churning out product, but still had some pride in their work.

For some reason, the folks who brought it over to the English speaking world didn't want to admit this was another in the series of terrible 'Maciste' movies and so it went by the title of 'Colossus and the Headhunters'.

The plot is a drunken walk which makes even the later Hercules movies look coherent and well thought out. The whole thing is really just an excuse to show off the physique of the actor playing Maciste/Colossus as he strains to open doors, pick stuff up, throw stuff, topple a tower onto some fighting villagers, etc. (There's also some decent sword fighting and a nice thing where he beats up bad guys with chains and other props.) But there isn't really all that much of him in the movie, which see below. It's mostly just minor character actors and extras running around in loincloths and armor and hitting each other with swords and clubs.

This guy named 'Kirk Morris' who plays Maciste is built pretty well. He resembles a latter day Strongfort or Maxim. But aside from a really tiny waist and some decent pecs, he isn't really all that impressive as a centerpiece for a film about a Body. It also seems to me that most of the time he's sucking in his gut so hard that he has very little energy left to 'act' with, and this also results in his tending to move as if someone stuck a poker up his backside. This could be why Maciste hardly DOES anything in this film, at least compared to a typical Hercules film where half the film is Herc front and center in the action, beating the stuffing out of the bad guys...Steve Reeves and Reg Park (and even "Alan Steele") could move quite convincingly on short notice,but poor Kirk Morris might have been somewhat out of his league in meeting action hero demands.

Yet another terrible dubbing job makes it hard to tell how good the writing and the acting actually is, but you can bet that this film started out as throwaway hackwork and was dragged down several more notches by the dub. I'll give 'em the benefit of the doubt and say that the writing and acting in its original language would be slightly better than a Republic chapter serial.

There is a hilarious moment in the MST3K version of the movie where three of the good guys set out from the ravaged village where a major fight has taken place in pursuit of the kidnapped princess, and they just skip right over some of the fallen corpses of their fellow villagers on their way out of the square. Mike and the Bots moan in disbelief, "Ohhhh, DON'T hop over the bodies...! That's just wrong!"

You'd be better off counting cross-stitch than wasting time with this movie, but it's harmless enough.

A hilariously cheesy and shoddy peplum epic, hampered by a low budget which actually makes the cheaply-produced events and perils all the more funny. It starts off brilliantly with an incredible volcano explosion which sees a number of extras crushed by polystyrene masonry. Sure enough our Italian hero Maciste (dressed in a mere loincloth for the entire movie) arrives just in the nick of time on his raft to save the lives of the remaining passengers, a bunch of shifty-looking Italian nobodies who of course are eternally grateful.

Soon, the raft people land on another island which looks nice on the outside. You just know it'll hold lurking dangers, don't you? Sure enough, while looking for food, Maciste is shot and left for dead by a pair of hunters. Strangely enough the wound moves from his chest to his shoulder when he revives - I wish I had that ability. Maciste befriends Queen Amoa and a relationship predictably blossoms between the pair. Before long, however, the majority of the Queen's tribe are slaughtered and the Queen herself is kidnapped by those hilariously ineffective headhunters, who jump around and have a town decorated with heads on sticks!

It's around this point that a sequence worthy of an Italian Gothic appears, probably the best-made part of the film. Maciste and his friends explore the ruins of an ancient castle, wandering through forgotten stone passageways by torchlight and finding various skeletons and mummies mouldering about. Sure, the scene only lasts for about five minutes, but its good stuff nonetheless, and atmospheric too. Why is it that most pepla must have at least one horror-inspired scene in them?

After rescuing an old duffer who has apparently been lurking in the dungeons for decades (strangely his legs still work though), Maciste must battle dozens of vicious headhunters in a well-choreographed fight scene which gets the adrenaline going. Shortly afterwards he amusingly cuts a rope bridge over which the headhunters are crossing, sending them to their doom. Meanwhile the headhunters are beheading their captives left, right, and centre, whilst the traitorous leader gears up to marry Amoa. Luckily, the worst screen dancer in history pops up to prolong things just long enough for Maciste and his friends to attack, in a ferocious battle scene which contains lots of arrow impalements. It's actually rather good. The traitor kidnaps the Queen and briefly flees to the much-fabled Golden City before being attacked and murdered by Maciste, who sails away with the Queen into the sunset.

Well, with a plot like that, how could this film fail to entertain? Sure, it's cheesy, but that's the way we like it. Kirk Morris once again essays the role of the famous Italian strongman, flexing his muscles all over and remaining one of my favourite peplum actors. The supporting cast are instantly forgettable, but who notices them when Maciste's around? Forget those who would rather laugh and jeer at this movie than try to understand it, COLOSSUS VS THE HEADHUNTERS (incidentally a ludicrous retitling, seeing as the hero is referred to as Maciste throughout) has some great battle scenes and is a pacey, exciting and fun peplum adventure, one for the fans.

This Maciste installment is consciously goofy, occasionally macabre, and has beautiful landscapes and lowbrow quirkiness. This movie's cheerful goofiness was usual in the Italian Z genre cinema. It boosted not only such Z Peplums, but also westerns, horrors, etc., and if in some movies it's wry, in others it's simply unnerving and shameless. Here, it could of been used for comedy instead of laughable phoniness.

The degree of popularity the Maciste series had once pertains to the sociology of taste. It's a fact to be accounted for in sociological terms. Being at once so shamelessly silly and lively ingratiated it to certain audiences, and there are people for whom this suffices, is enough; similarly, some '60s westerns were no revisionist enterprises, but displays of lowbrow goofiness, disheartening to some but cheered by a naturally forgetful crowd, so that they have been sentenced to oblivion or disrepute by the very nature of their ephemeral breakthrough, the kind of grateful audience they had is always absolutely forgetful, yet movies are made for them too.

The direction has ease, perhaps by the very shamelessness of the job, which led to dis-inhibition, the script is better than the players, who are appalling. There could of been occasions for chilling weirdness and sensational appeal, like the village of the headhunters and then the ruined castle with the imprisoned king. It seems that terrorism isn't enough, and the headhunters' chief still needs political recognition from the old prisoner.

The cast seems cheerful and insouciant. The characters are islanders, the girls wear swimsuits, there are totems and painted fighters whose leader craves for political recognition, and the princess' tent has bright ornaments; the fights look wimpy, despite the few graphic quirks and macabre effects like the impaled heads in the warriors' village and the mummies in the ruined castle, that could of been rescued from the joyful silliness, but have been merely added, piled in '30s fashion. The insouciant goofiness may be epitomized in the ritual dance belonging to the wedding celebration.

The landscapes, yet, are beautiful, and worthy of a smarter movie.

The acting, if it can be termed that, is crassly bad, though the princess is awesomely cute and even has a sword-fight scene; she has a carefree behavior and an occasional consenting air which are delightful; but the whole cast seems merrily indifferent to the requirements of the script, and this can seem amusing, or disheartening, if one finds self-complacent, placid silliness, offensive.

Remember the first time someone put a stink bomb in your backpack, and when it broke it ruined everything in there and for the rest of the year your bag, books, and gym clothes still smelled like stink bomb?

Remember when there was that time you had the number 2 emergency and just couldn't make it to the restroom in time?

Remember the first and last time you grabbed the milk jug out of the fridge, opened it and with out hesitation quickly grabbed a couple quick chugs only two realize that it was no longer milk and had spoiled a few days ago?

Remember that feeling you got the first time you got pulled over by a police officer and you knew you were totally screwed and there was no way you were getting out of this one?

Remember the first time you really had a nightmare, and it really nearly scared you to death? Maybe you had sleep paralysis and thought you were being held down by some unknown presence and couldn't move, breathe or scream?

Do you remember any of that?

With out a doubt this is one of the worst Sword and Sandal films ever made. Its absolutely stuck in the 1960's bad movie style that it was made and will never rise again except as something that the Mystery Science 3000 crew might rip apart.

Who made this? Can we stop them from ever doing it again?

The movie begins with and island blowing up and Maciste saving some of the inhabitants on his raft. If your jaw isn't hanging down around your knees by the time they have set sail you obviously haven't been paying attention. From there the group ends up on another island where two warring peoples are duking it out.

Did I say Island? Think Bavaria or the Alps, or somewhere with Vikings and Indians...and caves and...

Don't ask. Please don't, I lost the ability to speak when the island blew up and I don't know when I will be able to speak.

This is either a movie that will clear a room or fill it depending on how those in the room feel about picking on a really bad movie. This is a movie that must go on the list of all time clunkers- a talk backers treasure trove of stupid actions and dialog.

Frankly the only thing missing from making this the perfect bad movie, or the shining example of bad Sword and Sandal movie, is the fact that there is no monster. If this movie had a really bad monster of the rubber, or furry suit variety this would be perfect cheese... and a stuffed lion or tiger for someone to wrestle with...that would truly make it a perfect sit at home with friends and pick on the movie movie.

Under no circumstances watch this alone, it could prove deadly. I mean honestly, if you tried to watch this straight your brain would boil and you'd end up locked away in a padded cell and straight jacket until you die, because frankly its just that bad.

One out of ten, only because I can't go lower.

For Italy and the world, handsome and muscular Kirk Morris slips into his Herculean loincloth, as "Maciste". He saves part of a tribe from the catastrophic blow-up of their island. Mr. Morris befriends less muscular Demeter Bitenc (as Ariel). Their splintered tribe sails to a new land, but has trouble mixing in with warring inhabitants. Morris tries to save beautiful Laura Brown (as Amoa), a tribal queen, from marrying the man who blinded and kidnapped her father.

Guido Malatesta's "Maciste contro i cacciatori di teste" was inappropriately re-titled "Colossus and the Headhunters" in the translation from Italian to English. There are some good sets and moderately exciting sequences. Some of the footage may be flown in from another movie, but it is nicely inserted. Morris makes a good enough "Maciste"; as you might expect, this isn't a film to showcase one's acting prowess.

**** Maciste contro i cacciatori di teste (1960) Guido Malatesta ~ Kirk Morris, Demeter Bitenc, Laura Brown

Lame, cheesy Italian movie(enough said) about a hugely buff David Hasselhoff wannabee who does just about nothing throughout the whole film except flex his pecs and walk around a lot. The 'plot' is about an island about to be blown up by a volcano, whose inhabitants just HAPPENED to be rescued by the over muscled pin head who shows up n a raft just in time! Either these folks have really efficient Gods, or this is all a dream sequence a la Dallas.

Anyhoo, these folk(most of whom are REALLY skinny guys in loin clothes) float around for awhile and then end up on another island. This 'island' has more land on it than the whole of Asia, but whatever. Cheese Steak...errr....Maciste...wandered around and then gets shot by some hunters, who apparently were following the grand centuries old tradition of getting completely soused before they went out to hunt. The survivors, meanwhile, are herded together by a bunch of guys wearing patterned table clothes on their heads and equally short, silly loin cloths(What is it with the Italians and their fascination with tiny loin cloths!). They all end up in the village of the Urius(I think that's what they were called, anyway), who are being threatened by a local tribe of head hunters. We're deep in HUH territory by now, because you're trying to figure out what Greeek island had that much mass, and was also infested with head hunters.

There's some fighting, which our 'hero' sits out of, but then this bloated puss actually does very little fighting throughout the film, despite the fact that he's the big, bad star. The people get taken by the head hunters, and their Queen is being forced to marry a bearded Kermit the Frog(okay his name is Kermes, but the way that everyone says it makes it sound like Kermit). There's long parts where nothing happened, and Colussus(or Cheese Steak, or whatever) wanders around a set with a gay guy. Then there's a climactic last fight, in which AGAIN out hero sits out most of it! Thn he leaves on his raft, and is followed by the Queen(so she likes gay men? Well, whatever floats your...errr....raft, Lady). He tells her that his life is nothing but danger, which is a laugh and half considering how little he actually did in this film. And th at's it, as they sail off into the sunset. I wish that they'd LITERALLY sailed off into the sunset, that would have been funny to watch.

Colossus and the Headhunters finds Maciste leading a bunch of people off an island that's about to do a Krakatoa in the ancient world. Possibly this was the lost Atlantis although the film never says so. They sail huddled together on one really big raft that should never have proved seaworthy that long for so many people, about 25 of them. Kirk Morris manages to get them miles away to a new island.

Where they find two feuding tribes, the bad people who are headhunters and the good people who aren't. A good people traitor has allied himself with the headhunters in the hopes of taking over everything. Maciste tries an isolationist policy, but when that doesn't work, you know who he's going to help.

That's the movie in a nutshell and other than admiring Kirk Morris's physique there just ain't anything more to it.

This film features the Italian hero Maciste who is an adventurer super strong type a bit like the Greek Hercules. So much so that a few of Maciste's adventures (there were a lot of them back in the 60's) were repackaged as Hercules films here in the United States. This was the case with the 1964 Maciste film that is more well known as, Hercules Against the Moon Men. This one was given the title, Colossus and the Headhunters, which was a bit strange seeing as how during the duration of the film the hero was never referred to as Colossus, but rather the Italian name Maciste. My guess they did not go with giving the name Hercules to the film due to the hero not sporting a beard like would be the case with the Moon Men film. Heck, in that one the actor playing Maciste would be the man who was Steve Reeves' stuntman in the first two Hercules films. So these two characters kind of cross together in many ways. This film was one of two Maciste films featured on Mystery Science Theater 3000 along with Moon Men while Hercules would be riffed a total of three times, though they did tend to make it out like the Moon Men one was a Hercules film too. This film is not as good as the Moon Men film as that one may have featured an overly long sandstorm sequence, but at least it had some good traps and a few monsters within it. This one for the most part is a bit of a yawn after what was kind of an explosive way to start a movie!

The story has an island having a volcanic eruption. When I was watching this I thought the people were cavemen or something, but then a guy who seemed more Spartan showed up and then a big muscle dude comes along and gets as many people as he can on his raft so that the people can escape this explosive onslaught as the volcano claims the island. At this point I suspected it was another Maciste film and when I checked online I would learn my instincts were correct. After the eruption which seems almost as if there needed some sort of backstory but there is none the people float around until they reach land where they are promptly captured and Maciste wounded. Turns out their captors are not the bad guys and we learn of this tribe of headhunters who helped this one man overthrow this queen and her people and they soon capture her and the king may be alive and a lot of stuff is thrown in before a rather boring mob scene climax that is not as cool as the opening volcanic eruption.

This made for a rather funny episode of MST3K. Joel did the previous films featuring Hercules and Maciste, but Mike is the one that was burdened with it this time. This one is the worst of the films as the Hercules films were actually well done and even the Moon one had its moments. This one was just watching Maciste walking through brush through much of the film. They kept referring to him as Ma-cheese-steak as that is what it sounded like his name was. There are also funny moments during the end as the 'wedding' ceremony breaks down into an all out fight.

So, this film was not all that good after the volcano scene which basically started the film off with a bang! Granted, it was a bang that really needed a bit of story behind it and I am wondering if the previous Maciste film ended with him discovering the island and the volcano about to erupt or something. I do know there were a lot of Maciste films back in the 60's; however, I am not as sure if they followed each other as closely as the Hercules films as those films picked up after each other. If the Moon one is the next film then the answer to whether the Maciste films pick up after each other is a resounding 'no'.

Colossus and the Headhunters should come with a warning similar to those found on bottles of medicine. Inducing drowsiness or sleep is an understatement - leaving the viewer comatose is more like it. Colossus and the Headhunters is the very definition of a dull movie. Every single moment is a complete and utter bore. Erupting volcanoes and battles between armies have all the excitement of taking a bottle of sleeping pills. The actors certainly don't help matters any. The present all the life and vitality of a tree stump. Kirk Morris as Colossus (actually he's called Maciste (pronounced ma-cheese-steak) in the movie) is the worst offender. You would have to search far and wide to find a more unappealing, do-nothing hero. He's even late for the film's "climatic" battle scene.

If you must watch Colossus and the Headhunters, make sure you've just had a good nap, load-up on the caffeine, and grab some toothpicks to help hold your eyes open. You're gonna need it.

Maciste and his people flee their volcano-ravaged island by sea to a new land. The volcano has ruined their island. They end up on another island and find themselves in between two warrior tribes fighting their own battles. Maciste and his people helps them and is offered a place among the one of the tribes.

Well I find this one not really any different than most of the Maciste films - it's just different people the character helps and becomes a hero for them.

The film is just as bad as most all of the other Maciste / Colossus / Hercules (etc) movies. Only a small handful of them stand out to me and are decent enough for me to enjoy to a degree - this film isn't one of them.

1/10