A Hard Place

After pulling off a successful heist, a group of thieves head out to a remote house in the countryside as a safe house until they can leave with their loot, but when they arrive find themselves stuck in a feud between monstrous creatures and must get away alive.

On the whole, this was a massively entertaining and likable monster movie. Among its many positives is a fantastic, action-packed story that not only provides the film with plenty of opportunities for action but also manages to generate a series of solid storylines. Getting the group out to the farmhouse in the middle of nowhere under the employ of a heist and the house as a safe house to rest while waiting for the means of successful extraction with their goods works quite well to start this one off. It uses this to drop the group into a long-standing feud between a local clan on the one side and a race of vicious tree-like creatures on the other, but the hints that something's not right with the way the captors keep them together at their compound are rather fun. This is a solid hint that a second-half twist involving the dark nature of their captors and the nature of the feud itself. There's a lot of fun to be had with how it turns into a far more intriguing monster-versus-monster setup when the captors are revealed to be a historical race of creatures looking to use the group of robbers as breeding stock to replenish their numbers after years of war. There's also a solid subplot involving the various antagonistic relationships within the family of creatures on the compound, which is skillfully explored and manipulated, shifting allegiances in the second half to keep the narrative engaging alongside the intense monster-versus-monster dynamic. As well, there's also quite a lot to like here, featuring the actual creature attacks, as this lets the film contain plenty of great action scenes. From the initial encounters with the tree creatures before being aware of the whole feud, the encounter in the woods taking out the members of the robbers, and the initial appearance by the plant creatures at the farmhouse all start the film off on a strong note that hints at what's to come. The second half involving the full-scale war between the creatures and the family creates plenty of great action throughout here with the big battle between both sides at the farm house, offering some standout gore in the multitude of brutal kills but also the practical suits on the plant creatures which look incredibly realistic, all of which make this rather effective overall. There isn't much to dislike here, but it does have a few small drawbacks. The main issue with this one is a small issue with the large cast on display, making it difficult to keep track of everyone and their allegiances at times. With the family having multiple generations of members present as well as spies and familiars trying to ensure they have enough forces coming to help aid them in their war against the plant creatures that it starts to get somewhat difficult to manage who's who when they're named only once and characters are similar in terms of features or appearance. The introduction of all these characters when the group arrives at the farm does make that section a bit sluggish in terms of pacing compared to the rest of the film, but these are the only real factors holding it back.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence and Graphic Language.

I admit that sometimes I will search out a bad movie with the intention of finding a new guilty pleasure. I saw this on Tubi and it sounded odd enough to possibly be one. Boy was I wrong. This is just awful. From the bad country accents of the horrible actors, the laughable fake smoke from the guns, the awkward shots of the old fat guy who never speaks ( who also for some reason wears shoe polish under his eyes???), the stilted dialogue, it's just all around terrible. Attempts at random humor fall flat (the terribly delivered "what in the whatever state we're in chainsaw massacre" and "what in the horror movie" spoken by the same godawful actor), and the ill fitting wig of Lynn Lowry that looks like it's about to slide off at any second are just as awful. It's also a bad sign that the worst actor is the one who never speaks a line, just gives hilariously bad attempts at intimidating looks from his shoe polish streaked eyes. Even the usually dependable Felissa Rose is terrible in this. And what was with the weird sex education film that went on forever and was ultra cringeworthy? Were these friends of the writer/director? Just awkward and weird. The only positives are the creative lighting and some on the camerawork. Just please skip this and thank me later. PS: you want to know how the rating is so high on this? Click on the reviewer names and look at their rating history. Notice any patterns? Yeah, it's either their first review or they're all for projects they themselves are connected to.

I tend to be little more kind to indie stuff. Really I'd probably put it at 6 or 7 tops. But I know movies like this always end up getting hit by a bunch of unfair one's by incels.

Anyway, an, A Hard Place was wild. It's got monsters, action, and just enough heart to keep you locked in. The story pulls you in quick-some bad guys get caught up in something way bigger than them, and it goes off the rails in the best way. The acting was solid, the creatures looked awesome, and it didn't feel like some cheap movie. Honestly, I didn't know what to expect, but I had a blast watching it. Definitely worth checking out.

Yeah one more of those movies that uses friends network to upvote the movie and write a good review so unsuspecting victims would buy DVDs so the team would make at least some profit. I will be short and sincere. It is one of those movies that makes even time spent on toilet seat is more fun and everything about it, the story, acting, qality of production feels like a damage for ones intelligence and general wellbeing. Such movies really feels like the entire team which was involved into making this movie is either mentally sick, heavily drugged or both. And not in a good way like some good psychedelic music from 60s or some good psychedelic movie like those from David Lynch. Just the opposite and like wrote before a general damage to your wellbeing. Problem is that such movies are now spreading like a mushrooms after the rain - Lets make movie for thousand dollars, let us record it with good quality phones and let us invite various people we meet on the street. And then let as make as much account as possible and make sure to involve all our friends to write positive reviews and click a high ratings. Of course the value of such movies are not above 2 and you can catch them in act either by watching the trailer or by very low ratings number.(usually below 1k). In this way you know that high ratings are made by movie team and their friends 90%.

A Hard Place is a fun Horror movie with real practical effects and flourishes of drama and comedy. The cast and crew did a great job delivering this indie film. Rachel Amanda Bryant for example did a fantastic job portraying a member of these criminal group who still had a moral compass. Fun twists and turns are in the narrative mixed with the action and horror elements.

The creature effects were good considering this is an indie film. It had some unique story elements as well. It was great to see Bai Ling in her role kicking but and delivering one liners. A hard place had a strong opening and closing as well.