Hard Ride to Hell

A group of teenagers whilst on their camping trip in Texas witness an obscene blood sacrifice performed by Satanic bakers on two nude girls.Our young friends must fight for their lives.The remaining survivors gather in an abandoned church for the final battle between good and evil..."Hard Ride to Hell" is obviously influenced by "Race with the Devil" and "Devil's Rain".Unfortunately the script is woeful and the characters are irritating.There is some decent gore,but I expected more blood spraying.Katherine Isabelle of "Ginger Snaps" fame is pretty wasted here as is Miguel Ferrer as the leader of devil-worshipping bikers.A generous 6 out of 10.Rather bland and forgettable horror flick with corny dialogue.

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...

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.

Flyers and adds in popular US and UK horror magazines promoted this flick as an ode to the popular demand for exploitation flicks. I was entertained but didn't really thought it was an exploitation. There are films out now that really are old school exploitation but hadn't got the promo like this one. Oh yes, everything is in it. The red stuff flows but mostly after the killings are done, off camera. It never really is gory except maybe one scene, there are indeed bikers in it like we used to see in exploitation (Werewolfs On Wheels for example).and there is of course nudity but not as much as stated, only one scene has T&A but never full frontal. You see, everything is there but somehow it didn't work as it should be for me. I was never frightened and sometimes even a bit bored. And the possessed woman couldn't convince me too. A pity, in this time of independent exploitations that this one fails. It was indeed a hard ride but not to hell.

This is a very solid DTV movie. In fact, it could've been a part of those Masters of Horror series had it been shorter and tighter, the atmosphere is exactly that. The pacing is fast, the stuff that's supposed to be funny is funny, and what's meant to be scary - is scary enough. Hard Ride to Hell doesn't just feel like some grindhouse movie, it feels exactly like a sequel to From Dusk Til Dawn. I wasn't bored for a minute. The presence of Miguel Ferrer adds to it, but doesn't overshadow the movie itself, which says something about the director. Look at her resume, at least by now she definitely knows how to make a movie look good.