In corsa con il diavolo

Not a classic movie perhaps, but a good little thriller with some very tense moments (like the fight with the snakes - I wonder how they did that) and a few spectacular car chases (the stuntwork is excellent). Director Jack Starrett does an effective job of creating a feeling of (justified) paranoia and conspiracy: what the heroes presume is a weird orgy turns out to be ritualistic murder, and what's worse for them, the initially small group of devil worshippers appears to be supported by entire towns! Peter Fonda and Warren Oates create two believable, down-to-earth characters that you can easily root for; on the other hand, the women are reduced to useless screamers during the moments of danger, in what I seriously consider the biggest annoyance of this film. (***)

Two couples are on vacation and driving around in a huge motor home. They are Roger (Peter Fonda), Kelly (Lara Parker), Frank (Warren Oates) and Alice (Loretta Swit). One night while camping they see a Satanic ritual where a young girl is murdered. The members of the cult find out and the couples spend the rest of the movie with witches after them to kill them.

The story is a little silly and the dialogue is pretty bad but this is the type of movie that used to pack them in at drive-ins. It's full of action, fast-moving and has likable (if one-dimensional) characters. It's basically a chase movie disguised and marketed as a horror film. The killing in the movie isn't that explicit and the nudity in it is purposely blurred out-some people think it was edited from theatrical prints but it was always that way.

The acting doesn't really matter--I mean who's seeing this for the acting? Still all four actors give their all to this. The only thing that bothered me was Swit and Parker screaming nonstop when anything happens and letting Fonda and Oates "save" them. It's quite amusing to see Parker being attacked by witches in this one since she played the evil witch Angelique in the "Dark Shadows" TV series in the late 1960s. The climax is either a perfect one or a lousy one. I'm torn between the two myself.

Quick and fun with a really incredible car chase at the end.

"Race With the Devil" is an excellent blend of spine-tingling horror, riveting suspense, and slambang action. I had heard good things about this one, and I definitely got what I was looking for. In fact, I got too much because this is one spooky movie and is the type of film that I love because it's a great movie, but hate because it sends my paranoia levels spiralling through the roof. In it, four vacationers are traveling in their badass RV and end up getting drunk out in the middle of an isolated countryside. The two guys see something that piques their interest across the river at night and spy on it, thinking they're watching hippies have an orgy. What they don't expect is the Satanic ritual sacrifice that takes place right in the middle of it all, and they don't make a very clean getaway. Before you know it, devil-worshippers are coming out of the woodwork everywhere they end up at, chasing them all over the state. It is a very creepy and believeable film, and I've got to commend a movie that makes car chases exciting when I can't remember the last time I ever gave a crap about a single one. An exhilarating, fast-paced movie that is an edge-of-the-seat thrill ride! I highly recommend it!

I'm very pleased with this little occult road-movie classic from the 70's. It's fun and moves at a decent pace. Of course you have to wait for more than an hour before the racing starts, but the climactic last 20 minutes make up for it. Two couples on a holiday with their mobile home are witness to a satanic ritual killing during one night. Naturally, the local authorities have some difficulties believing all this, and soon the two couples find themselves being harassed and eventually chased by several cult-members. I liked the sense of paranoia this film has. Just about everyone in this movie could be a satanic cult-member. I liked the ending too. And Peter Fonda was cool as always. This time he used the word "terrific" a lot as an expletive, instead of "groovy".

My brother told me about "Race With the Devil" many years ago after he had seen some of it on a late night T.V showing. The way the film was described to me, made me curious in wanting to see it. I had to wait a while for the film to be shown again as obtaining it on video was going to be hard. BBC 2 eventually showed "Race With the Devil" in 1997 at about midnight. I was quite impressed with the final results. Warren Oates is the best actor in the film - he is most under-rated - but the other main cast members are OK. The film has a pretty good atmosphere and is well paced with a fair bit of incident. Nothing is quite what it seems at first glance. The ending comes after quite a build-up and I found it to be all the more shocking. This wasn't the kind of film that was expected to be a box office success but it is still a neat little film.