author Paul Talbot concluded that Death Wish "inspired" a number of "sadistic vigilante-themed movies"; The Exterminator being one of them. The New York Times, on the other hand, praised the acting, but felt the film was let down by the "screenplay and direction" of "beginner" James Glickenhaus; and by "lighting, camera work and sound that would rate an 'F' at film school". Contemporary critics have been more appreciative. Eoin Friel, of the Action Elite, awarded three and a half stars out of five. Even though he found the opening scene quite "shocking", the acting a bit "ropey", and the effects "dated", he admitted the film "grabs you from the start". Den of Geek's Phil Beresford gave a mixed review. He stated that while Ginty is "not the greatest or most charismatic" of actors, "his essential ordinariness really works within the confines" of the film. Controversy Owing to its graphic violence, The Exterminator has been a controversial subject since its release. Dr. Sharon Packer and Jody Pennington spoke of this controversy and the film's "extreme justice" in their book A History of Evil in Popular Culture. They claimed the violence was a contributing factor to the film's "success", as the "audience loved it". In an interview from 2012, writer-director James Glickenhaus explained his reasons for the graphic violence in the movie: "It was a time in which violence was on everybody’s mind, because of the war in Vietnam. And television and film had sanitized violence for a long time. Someone points a gun, it goes bang and on the other side of the street some guy goes ‘Aaaaah’ and falls down. But violence is really pretty unpleasant and I thought I had an obligation to portray it that way". Sequel A sequel, Exterminator 2, was released in 1984. Ginty and producer Mark Buntzman returned, with Buntzman serving as director as well. Glickenhaus explained his reasons for not doing the sequel in an interview: "I thought THE EXTERMINATOR told the story of the Exterminator. I didn’t see where you could go from there, other than make a sequel in which he goes around killing more bad guys". The sequel was less successful. It grossed $3.7 million at the domestic box office, while its predecessor grossed $5 million in the same region. A short movie called The Exterminator: Retribution by Rui Constantino was released in 2022. References Bibliography Packer, Sharon & Pennington, Jody