Hard Ride to Hell

I decided to watch this movie solely because it had Katharine Isabelle in it. And it turned out that the movie was every bit as bad as I had expected it to be!

The storyline was straight forward, albeit generic and actually somewhat odd, as most of the things going on made little sense. You don't connect with any of the characters in the movie, as they are emotionless one-dimensional puppets milling around at the whim of director Penelope Buitenhuis.

Miguel Ferrer did a fairly adequate job with his role, despite having next to nothing to work with. As for Katharine Isabelle, not that outstanding in this movie.

The special effects in the movie were fairly alright, although you shouldn't hold your breath for anything spectacular.

All in all, then "Hard Ride to Hell" is not really worth the effort, as there are far better horror movies available to pick from.

Now here's a movie that captures the sort of drive-in, grindhouse feel that I like. In spite of its low budget, it's a pretty well-made, acted and written tale of a group of traveling friends who inadvertently come across a group of Satanic bikers in the middle of a sacrifice and soon find themselves fighting for their lives. You had me at the mention of Satanic bikers, but the movie itself is paced very well. It's bloody and moves quickly. There are some acting issues, but there always are with low budget DTV movies, and there's enough going on that it's not a problem. Major props for the use of mostly real special effects. There's a tiny bit of dodgy CGI, but it's way better than a lot of other low budget films. Also, the ending is a tad anticlimactic, but there's so much fast paced violence before it that it goes down easy. The characters are handled well, a group of kids doing Habitat for Humanity work as well as a traveling salesman who's pretty handy with a knife. Also, Miguel Ferrer is perfectly hammy as the evil biker leader and seems to be having a lot of fun in the role. Though it's got some similarities to a few other films, there's plenty of fun things to enjoy: Satanic rituals, unkillable bikers (one biker gets his face dragged along moving asphalt....great scene!) nudity, torture, stabbings, and women impregnated with demon children. This throwback could've easily played at drive-ins in the 70s. Not the world's greatest horror movie, but a lot better and more fun than most of the garbage that goes straight to video.

Attempting to go on a camping trip, a group of friends in Texas runs afoul of a group of Satanic bikers looking for a live offering to birth the return of the Antichrist when they chase after the group to get the girls and must fight to get away from the crazed cult alive.

This one actually wasn't all that bad at all. One of the better features of the film is the atmospheric setup that ends up managing to feel pretty tense and creepy during the opening despite not having a whole lot of action at all. Getting the opening ambush in the deserted town with the possessed woman and the cult members before leading into the group arriving for their trip, this all comes off rather nicely which sets this one up on a nice note while getting to know the group and their own issues really just selling itself on the ways in which they're conducting affairs. Once they witness the cults' activities and find themselves targeted by the group, the atmosphere established gives this a fine starting point. That said, once they get found out and captured it turns a lot more fun. The attack on their campsite once the group sees their sacrificial ceremony offers a startlingly brutal and vicious scene showing their determination and ruthlessness in completely overwhelming the group with some nice blood and gore. The encounter at their compound is just as much fun with the full display of their supernatural powers, a couple of nice torture scenes to prove their point, and some more solid action in its rescue attempt which is mixed nicely with its chase scene that is a really bigger scene than expected from this kind of film. With some impressive stunts, solid action, and a nice bit of energy leading into the final confrontation, this gives a lot to like which holds this one up for the most part. There isn't much wrong here but it does have some flaws. Its main issue is that the film loses some energy with the finale, mainly due to it losing the supernatural angle and opting for a normal bloodbath which has its own pluses but it feels a little out-of-place in a film with the atmosphere it had previously built up, yet it has its own fun with its gore-soaked shenanigans. There's also little need for it to constantly keep characters alive far longer than they really should be, suffering multiple deadly or life-draining wounds on multiple occasions yet showing them either living through the incident or fighting on far longer than they really should which is quite unrealistic and unnatural. Overall, not all that bad and a pretty enjoyable time.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language and Nudity.

A group of friends drive their camper to an isolated camp site in Texas. They drive by a blood smeared car wreck. Jason wants to help but Danny refuses to stop. Danny and Tessa had suffered a miscarriage. Kerry plays around with the CB radio and a creepy trucker responds. The group encounters cutlery salesman Bob Weaver at the desolate campsite. Dirk gets lost in the woods and stumbles onto a devil-worshiping cannibalistic biker gang led by Jefé (Miguel Ferrer) with female victims. Dirk is discovered and the group is taken captive by the gang.

It's a low budget B-horror. It's filled with the standard tropes. It isn't high quality but I like some of the actors. Ferrer is a solid baddie and he tries to do his one-eyed best. Once the group is taken, it's a lot of slow torture which gets repetitive. The escape is less than convincing. Of course, explosive car chases with stunts and great choreographed fights would be so much better. In the end, this is not good enough.

HARD RIDE TO HELL is a throwback / homage film, combining several elements from movies like THE HILLS HAVE EYES and those devil movies from the 1970's. Toss in some bikers, a Steven Seagal-type hero, and the coming Antichrist, and you've got it.

Loaded with mumbo jumbo and Satanic shenanigans, it manages to retain its fun factor. Highly enjoyable as long as you don't take it too seriously.

Watch for horror goddess Katharine Isabelle, as well as Miguel Ferrer...