Twister's Revenge! Explained

Twister's Revenge!
Director:	Bill Rebane
Producer:	Bill Rebane Larry Dreyfus
Starring:	Dean West Meredith Orr Jonathan Goch R. Richardson Luka Jay Gjernes
Cinematography:	Bill Rebane
Editing:	William Arthur Bill Rebane
Music:	M. Hans Liebert
Studio:	MTP Productions
Distributor:	Focus Film (West Germany) Mill Creek Entertainment
Runtime:	90 minutes
Country:	United States
Language:	English
Budget:	$95,000

Twister's Revenge! is a 1988 American action comedy film directed by Bill Rebane and released direct-to-video.^[1]

Plot

Three bumbling criminals have repeatedly tried to steal the computerized control system of Mr. Twister, a talking monster truck with a mind of its own. They make one last attempt with an M60 tank.^[2]

Cast

• Dean West as Dave
• Meredith Orr as Sherry
• David Alan Smith as Kelly
• R. Richardson Luka as Bear
• Jay Gjernes as Dutch
• Tena Murray as Lulu
• William Dexter as Kelly's Father (credited as Bill Dexter)
• J. Worthington Kratz as Kelly's Mother
• Elizabeth Gray as Love Bird Singer
• Angailica as Love Bird Dancer (credited as Angel Rebane)

Featured Monster Truck show in Ionia, Michigan featured the following drivers as themselves:

• Rob Fuchs, driving First Blood
• Mark Bendler, driving Kodiak
• Jim Miller, driving Barbarian
• Allen Pezo, driving Lone Eagle

Production

Twister's Revenge! was filmed in Gleason, Wisconsin at a cost of $95,000. Rebane said that "We had a strong lead actor [Dean West] for "Twister's Revenge" but the girl — the lead actress — [Meredith Orr] was very weak."^[3]

Mr. Twister was a custom-made monster truck belonging to a local man, David Staszak.^[4] Its computer control system included an AT&T PC 6300.^[5]

Release

Twister's Revenge! was released on VHS by Video First Entertainment of Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin in 1988.^[6] It was also released in West Germany, under the title Ein Supertruck auf Gangsterjagd! ("A Supertruck on a Gangster-Hunt!")^[7] and in Japan.^[8]

It was rereleased by Mill Creek Entertainment in 2006, as part of their "Drive-in Movie Classics" series.^[9]

Reviews

1000 Misspent Hours and Counting awarded the film 2½ stars, noting that Mr. Twister's onboard AI was clearly a ripoff of Knight Rider's KITT and saying that the film had a "demented mismatch between tone and subject matter. The very idea of a funny vigilante revenge film is bizarre. I hasten to emphasize that Twister’s Revenge! is not a parody of Death Wish wannabes, but rather a Death Wish wannabe that is also a comedy."

Josiah Chiappelli gave the film 3/5 on his "Hipster Holy Grail" series.^[10]

Twister's Revenge! was featured on a 2019 episode of RedLetterMedia's "Best of the Worst" series.^[11]

Notes and References

1. Web site: Twister's Revenge (1987). https://web.archive.org/web/20190505152919/http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b89197251. dead. May 5, 2019. BFI.
2. Web site: Twister's Revenge! (1987). letterboxd.com.
3. Web site: Gods of Grindhouse: Interviews with Exploitation Filmmakers. Andrew J.. Rausch. 1 July 2013. BearManor Media. Google Books.
4. Web site: IMCDb.org: "Twister's Revenge!, 1988": cars, bikes, trucks and other vehicles. www.imcdb.org.
5. Web site: Starring the Computer - Twister's Revenge. www.starringthecomputer.com.
6. Book: Twister's revenge. 5 May 1987. 23261395. Open WorldCat.
7. Book: Horror: Grundlagen des populären Films. Georg. Seeßlen. Fernand. Jung. 17 February 2010. Schüren Verlag. 9783894727932. Google Books.
8. Web site: Gods of Grindhouse: Interviews with Exploitation Filmmakers. Andrew J.. Rausch. 1 July 2013. BearManor Media. Google Books.
9. Web site: Twister's revenge. Larry. Dreyfus. William. Arthur. Bill. Rebane. Dean. West. Meredith. Orr. David Alan. Smith. Jay. Gjernes. Richard. Luka. Mill Creek Entertainment. Inc. OverDrive. 5 May 2019. Mill Creek Entertainment, LLC. Open WorldCat.
10. Web site: Hipster Holy Grail: Twister's Revenge (1988).
11. Web site: Best of the Worst: Twister's Revenge. Red Letter Media.