Young man turned into cyborg to help defend city against monsters

Question

The movie I'm trying to find the name for is a late 80's Sci-Fi action film that came out before Revenge of the Nerds 2 - so 85-87. It was in theaters during the summer.

In it there is this city that is under constant attack from a neighboring city or civilization of monsters. A young man volunteers to be turned into a cyborg to fight these monsters. He becomes a red and black leather covered cyborg able to change back and forth between human and cyborg.

Humans have been being captured and turned into slaves and mind controlled by a witch with an eye in the palm of her hand. At one point the hero is thrown or jumps into a pit only to transform and catch himself with a grappling hook from his cyborg arm, then jumping back out to kick butt.

Can anyone identify this movie?

Answer 1

There is a very similar question here where the answer seems to be Infra-man although it was released in 1975.

I agree with Andrew, that really does sound like Infra-Man, the character She-Demon has eyes in the palms of her clawed hands, and they do brainwash some of the good guys. Great costumed/kaiju flick with all the elements that make this genre so fun to watch. Despite losing the widescreen format of the recent DVD release "The Super Inframan", the VHS "Infra-Man" version has some of the most hilariously enthusiastic dubbing I've ever heard. All the mutants have great over the top voices, and who could ever forget a villainess like Princess Dragon Mom.

Its possible this could have been shown in some theaters as a revival in '87, but the original was definitely put out in 1975.

There's nothing specific in the trailer that matches, but does this look what you're looking for?

One possibility is that you were watching a 1987 episode of Siskel and Ebert's Guilty Pleasures. They did mention Infra-Man in that year.