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.

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...

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.

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 would be a video nasty in the 70s I guess. It's up to you to decide if you think this means it is out of date too. I think there still is an audience for this and it isn't all that bad as the rating might suggest. Having Miguel Ferrer in there gives the whole thing a lot of credibility. On the other hand you have a lot of clichés played out, with kids acting up (or not acting, depending on your view of things, I guess).

While the kids could and should have been more sympathetic (a mistake other movies have made too), I did like the knife salesman. The actor who portrayed him had a good little job on this one. All in all, you can see where this is heading ... the first few minutes should indicate if you like it or not