American Ninja 3: Blood Hunt is a 1989 American martial arts action film directed by Cedric Sundstrom and starring David Bradley. It is based on a story by Gary Conway. A sequel to ' (1987), it is the third installment in the American Ninja franchise, followed by ' (1991).
A powerful terrorist known as "The Cobra", has infected Sean Davidson, the American Ninja, with a deadly virus. He uses Sean as a test subject in his biological warfare experiments. Sean and his partners Curtis Jackson and Dexter have no choice but to fight The Cobra and his army of genetically-engineered ninja clones led by the female ninja Chan Lee.
The film, shot in South Africa (not mentioned on the credits), was the first in the American Ninja series to feature a lead actor other than Michael Dudikoff (playing Joe Armstrong in the first two American Ninja movies as well as in ' together with David Bradley's character Sean Davidson); Bradley was cast after Kurt McKinney turned down the offer.
American Ninja 3: Blood Hunt was released on home video in the United Kingdom by Pathé in September 1989.
It was received poorly by critics. "Cart." of Variety described the film as a "cheap-looking pic" and "Even for this level of by-the-numbers action filmmaking, Cedric Sundtrom script is incredibly lame and his staging of chop-socky violence is little better." David Nusair of Reel Film Reviews gave it 1.5 out of 4 and called it "An obvious low point for the American Ninja movies"
A sequel titled American Ninja 4: The Annihilation, was released in 1990.