THE OCCULTIST (1987)

Reviewed by John W. Donaldson

When an ineffectual New York City security company is hired to protect the dictator of the Caribbean island of San Caribe, they contact ex-agent and cyborg Waldo Warren (Rick Gianasi). Warren saves the dictator’s daughter Anjanette (Jennifer Kanter) but fails to prevent the first or the second assassination of President Davalos (Anibal Lleras). The president’s wife Marianna (Mizan Nunes) is in on the plot but is killed by her mother, voodoo priestess Mama Dora (Betty Vaughn), during a Macumba ceremony. An archrival security company led by Ciprian Lane (Doug Delauder) shoots it out with Waldo but are all killed. Anjanette returns to San Caribe to run the island democratically.

This everything-including-the-kitchen-sink plot stumbles unconvincingly through voodoo, political plottings, cyborg technology, and immoral security firms with little (if any) cohesion. Thesp talent either overacts campily or is totally wooden in delivery. Director Tim Kincaid used to make gay porn under the name Joe Gage. Originally part of a production package that included MUTANT HUNT, NECROPOLIS and BREEDERS but got lost when Empire Pictures went under in the late ‘80s. Tech credits are spotty, direction is nonexistent. Originally titled MAXIMUM THRUST and then re-titled WALDO WARREN: PRIVATE DICK WITHOUT A BRAIN, this one’s barely worth watching.