Death Ranch

Plays it way too safe, this film. Something like this needs to be over the top and extreme to be enjoyable and everything seems so watered down with most of the good bits off screen or obscured. And that's not down to the very low budget, they easily could have shown alot more than what's on offer but seeing the past movies the director has made, it was inevitable this was going to turn out a dud.

Nothing worth seeing it for at all.

I must say that I liked this 2020 movie's cover/poster and it definitely had a retro blaxploitation feel to it. And since I hadn't already seen this movie before, and I had the opportunity to do so now in 2021, of course I did so.

And while "Death Ranch" certainly is a watchable movie, it was sadly also a rather bland and mundane movie. "Death Ranch" doesn't bring anything new to this particular style of revenge horror movie that haven't already been seen or done better in other similar movies. Now, don't get me wrong here, I am not saying that "Death Ranch" was a bad movie. Not at all. It just was a mediocre one when it came to it.

The storyline was pretty straight forward, but to the point where it was rather predictable, and that was something that served as an anchor and held the movie back. So writer and director Charlie Steeds sort of shot himself in the foot here with the way he opted to take the story and the movie.

It should be said, though, that what made "Death Ranch" watchable was the amount of blood, gore and mayhem throughout the course of the movie. There certainly was more than enough to keep a seasoned horror veteran and gorehound such as myself content. And I will say that the this movie is rather visceral and visual, and that definitely worked well in favor of the movie.

The acting in "Death Ranch" was adequate, taking into consideration the type of movie that you are sitting down to watch. So don't go expecting any grand, stellar acting performances that will reap an abundance of Academy awards.

All in all, "Death Ranch" was a watchable, albeit generic and bland one. It can easily be watched a single time around, but I doubt that I will ever be sitting down to watch "Death Ranch" a second time. My rating of "Death Ranch" lands on a bland five out of ten stars.

Every now and then we get a low budget turd or gem, this time around a blaxploitation gem, a action-horror piece that take place in the 70's , about three siblings and two of them help out their younger brother who escaped from a prison down south, seeking a hideout until find out how to help their brother, they encounter a vicious KKK cult, all is not what it seem to be according to the younger brother viewing their activities in the woods, this sets off a chain of horrific events and totally nasty battle for survival between the siblings and the Klan, the director managed to pull off some pretty good gore effects and kept up the action all the way to the conclusion, I thought the acting between the siblings was pretty good as well, a gore hound we enjoy the hell out of this flick, watch this one late at night, when everybody is asleep, not for the kiddies or the squeamish.

I stumbled across this on Prime and the description of three black people running from the law and ending up on the hunting grounds of the Klan was enough to hook me. But wow, what followed was so unexpected! Cannibalism, extreme violence, bloodshed, and carnage - all the things you want in a horror movie. And even though the main protagonist was an escaped criminal, you couldn't help but pull for him to come out on top at the end. Ignore the lower rated reviews - this is pure fun and a total must see!

Three African American siblings do battle with a gang of cannibalistic KKK members. Things gets super gory. The end.

There really isn't a whole hell of a lot to this little indie, but that's the beauty, there needn't be. Sometimes it absolutely OK to consume the empty calories of pop culture and as a result be perfectly content.

The film is very well directed, adequately acted by the cast and the bloodshed expertly handled. About the only thing that bothered me was the use of modern rock music in the action scenes, but that's a minor quip.

So, if you like excessive gore, and old exploitation movies I'm sure you will find something to like here.

Hope you enjoy it.