The Exterminator [James Glickenhaus, 1980]:
A grim, vigilante slasher film, which plays like Taxi Driver (1976) crossed with one of the sleazier Death Wish sequels. The settings are squalid, the tone is somber and the gore is sensationalistic. However, there's a strong political and social commentary here as well (if arguably somewhat right-wing in message.) It's one of the first horror films to really focus on PTSD as a motivating factor in the psychology of the central character. This isn't some deranged madman out to cause chaos, or a masked slasher in the tradition of Michael Myers or Jason Voorhees, but a man trained in violence, trained in death, and pushed too far by the iniquities and injustices of a pre-gentrification New York. As well as being a fantastic bit of filmmaking in its own right, the lurid Vietnam War sequence, which begins the film with a stylized hellscape of scarring violence (care of special effects legend Stan Winston), sets the tone throughout.
