Matty picks apart a slight but fun Terminator riff from Trans World Entertainment.

Issued in the U.K. and other markets as the deliberately familiar-sounding ‘The Retaliator’, PROGRAMMED TO KILL makes no bones about what it is. As the Aussie video poster says, “She’s a female terminator!”. Of course, with the mighty Robert Ginty nestled at the top of the cast (eyes peeled for a young Paul Walker too), the film’s pandering to fellow soundalike The Exterminator’s (1980) demographic is equally strong. 

A patchwork quilt in robo-schlock dressing, Programmed to Kill’s script is credited to B-movie renaissance man Robert Short. A la the film’s eventual director Allan Holzman (Forbidden World (1982)), Short toiled for Roger Corman in various capacities (Hollywood Boulevard (1976), Piranha (1978)) before partnering with William Malone on Scared to Death (1980) and Creature (1985) which, in turn, led to him penning Sho Kosugi fav Rage of Honor (1987) for Creature’s producers, Trans World Entertainment. Trans World produce Programmed to Kill. According to Holzman, Short — a writer and FX wiz — was the film’s original helmer and was set to provide its robotic make-ups as well (renderings sadly non-existent in the finished product). Alas, he was summarily junked from the project and Holzman — an editor by trade — was drafted in. Having salvaged Battle Beyond the Stars (1980) for Corman, Holzman was tasked with rescuing Short’s footage and cobbling it together with material from another unfinished Trans World joint top-lined by Programmed to Kill’s statuesque starlet, Sandahl Bergman. He was also permitted to shoot some linking scenes of his own (primarily, the Ginty stuff).

That Programmed to Kill manages to tell a cohesive story is testament to Holzman’s talents. That said story — wherein Bergman’s ruthless terrorist is transformed into a cybernetic killing machine — holds one’s attention and delivers the meat n’ potatoes is a bonus. Full of gunfire and other pleasing cheap-o action thrills, Programmed to Kill is undemanding yet engaging. Though much of it is point and shoot, there are several stylish moments despite the film’s pocket change budget and chaotic ‘who did what?’ making. The standout is a gliding prowl around the lab while Bergman’s reanimated baddie is on the slab. A subsequent barrage of potent and atmospheric images veer towards expressionist horror and Lynchian surrealism, accentuating the melancholic anguish of her twist from woman to cyborg. Sure, the drama is never built upon in any meaningful way. How could it be, considering? But goddam’: what a cool sequence. 

Partly lensed in Israel, Programmed to Kill opened in Los Angeles on 24th April 1987 — just under three months ahead of Paul Verhoeven’s similarly minded and infinitely more influential RoboCop (1987) — and went on to play Texas, New York, Florida, and Missouri. It surfaced on cassette in the U.S. the following September via Media Home Entertainment, with whom Trans World had an output deal. The film landed on tape in Britain as the aforementioned ‘Retaliator’ in August ‘87 through VPD and Imperial Entertainment; the latter an outfit co-founded by former Trans World president, Sunil Shah. In an amusing further development, over a decade and a half after Trans World folded, the shingle’s CEO, Moshe Diamant, exec’d two pictures for longtime collaborator Jean-Claude Van Damme which essentially retooled Programmed to Kill’s premise: ace sequels Universal Soldier: Regeneration (2009) and Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning (2012).

USA/Israel ● 1987 ● Sci-Fi, Action ● 91mins

Robert Ginty, Sandahl Bergman ● Dir. Allan Holzman, Robert Short (uncredited) ● Wri. Robert Short