Hayride to Hell

Saw this movie at the premier at the Colonia Theater in Phoenixville, PA. This was a fun movie. Lots of over the top gore and unnecessary violence but that's what I expected going into it. I hope this gets picked up by a big company and gets distributed everywhere. Kane Hodder and Bill Mosely were amazing as usual. However; I feel the supporting cast is what made this movie great. You fell in love with the good guy supporting characters and cheered when the bad guy supporting characters met their demise.

I kind of hope they somehow make a sequel. Both the writers and the director are really talented and I'm now a huge fan. I'll be following them going forward and I hope they continue to put out great content like this movie.

Stumbling upon the 2022 horror movie "Hayride to Hell" by random chance here in 2025 and seeing that the movie had both Bill Moseley and Kane Hodder on the cast list, of course I needed no persuasion to watch the movie. Sure, I had never even heard about the movie, but it being a horror movie was more than sufficient to make me watch it. And with two horror icons in the movie, well that was just the sweet icing on the cake.

Writers Kristina Chadwick and Robert Lange put together a fair enough script and storyline. It was pretty straightforward, and for a lifelong horror fan it was a mere walk in the park. I did like the plot though.

The acting performances in "Hayride to Hell" were good. Needless to say that it was a pure treat to have two iconic horror actors such as Bill Moseley and Kane Hodder together on the screen. They were actually the only two familiar faces on the cast list.

The effects in the movie were fair. Nothing grand or over-the-top, but the effects served their purposes well enough. There were some interesting enough deaths in the movie. However, they apparently used a lot of green screen shots, and those scenes looked ghastly atrocious.

My rating of director Dan Lantz's 2022 movie "Hayride to Hell" lands on a five out of ten stars.

Sorry Bill and Kane, but you two aren't gonna save this movie. The story is nothing special but nothing offensively bad. But good god the special effects, compositing, lighting, and overall production is just low-tier early 2000's slop that was somehow made this decade. The movie looks like every 90's FMV game ever made, and honestly the music that goes along with it reminds me of the same as well. I will say, at least the dialogue sound was good and level, so kudos to whoever ran sound. I will say, as a fan of 90's FMV games, this movie was kind of a throwback to that era and I ended up kind of enjoying it due to that reason. I will say the black actor in the movie was great and I'd love to see him in more movies.

Do I recommend it? Nah. Are there good things about it the movie? Yup! But I do love me good ol schlock and this is exactly what it is.

Trying to run a successful farm, a series of indiscretions made by the locals force a farmer and his friends into a make-or-break case to keep the farm out of their hands, and when he decides to show them what the farm means with a hayride tour decides to enact a vicious plan for revenge.

This was a really fun genre effort with a lot to like about it. Among its better qualities here is the strong opening setup that provides this with a fantastic launching point for the festivities to come about. As we get a big introduction sequence here getting an idea of the hayride with the celebrations he sets up for everyone, the treatment by the locals who want to see it shut down, and the resentment by the authorities who want to take it away from him, it sets up a rather fun dynamic to get everything going on a strong start. Since everyone in the group has decided on how to treat the property and what they want to do with it, his desire to keep it running with the help of his friends and other family members comes together for a great time here. The plan to keep this farm together, ensuring the locals see the festivities of their central plan which is immensely fun. Taking the time-honored role of preparing a bunch of gags and displays that are supposed to be fake but are patently the group genuinely taking out the local hoodlums who have been tormenting them by disguising everything in the form of gruesome-looking effects, this is quite fun and engaging. The idea of the performance pieces here taking the shape they do with the various setpieces and interactions that the group are done one by one which is handled with the kind of zany energy and outlandish glee at what's going on that helps to sell what the group is doing. As everything here has a nice bit of gore and creative kills due to the setup, there's a lot to like about this one. There are a few issues to hold this one down. One of its few issues is the main concept at play here where the plan to pull everything off doesn't come off all that logically or realistically. The plan to go through with the genuine torture and fright that plays out here is immensely complicated and takes a lot to go through and not get caught which is far removed from the sake of consistency it makes for a tough time believing the plan. That becomes especially true when there's nothing here about what drove the plan together as everything here just tends to come off with the kind of explanation for it to make sense or why the group would go through with it. On top of also taking on so many cliches and overly familiar character tropes to try to make this one work, it's the few issues that bring it down.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence and Graphic Language.

Different or alternate view to all those stereotypical takes about "redneck life".

I don't know, if "genre bending" is appropriate but I liked this movie. There are no "lost relative ghost" or any other supernatural stuff. Just pure funnyhorror.

For T&A lovers and gore enthusiast - nothing to see here. Go for a good laughs.