Hard Ride to Hell (2010) Reviews

• looks like exploitation only it isn't

  trashgang2010-06-24

  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.

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• Wow...it's not THAT bad

  Heislegend2010-06-08

  Sometimes IMDb baffles me. I fully expected this movie to at least be in the high 4s or low 5s. But it's currently at 3.3? Geez...it's not awful. Sure, it's got it's problems, but I can think of at least a dozen movie that have come out in theaters within the last 6 months that I'd pass over for this one. As I said, the movie has problems. First of all, it's trying a little too hard to be the sort of terrorizing biker gang grindhouse kind of movie that it wants to be. It totally lacks the gritty feel of those movies. Plus the plot as a whole is a bit lame. Not bad, but it kind of feels stale. I understand the satanic biker angle, but making them some sort of immortals practicing black magic seems a bit much. Then the final 20 minutes or so feels more Dusk Til Dawn more than anything, so it's kind of all over the place. It's got a fair amount of splatter for the horror fans, but far less (I don't remember any) nudity than you'd expect from this type of movie. All in all I think a 5 is a fair rating. It's got problems, but it's not total crap. Just watch it for what it is...a mid-budget throwback wanna-be

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• Decent little throwback with plenty of blood and boobs

  IHeardYouWereDead2010-05-30

  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.

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• Nothing special but it could have been worse.

  poolandrews2012-07-17

  Hard Ride to Hell is set in Texas & starts as a group of teenage friends travel through the open isolated desert wastelands in their camper van when they pull over for the night & meet Bob (Brent Stait) a travelling salesman who sells knives. Bedding down for the night the dopey Dirk (Brandon Jay McLaren) decides to wander off to go to the toilet & stumbles upon a gang of Satan worshipping bikers sacrificing some young girls & eating their flesh, the biker's hear Dirk & go after him. Dirk heads straight for the camper van & his friends which lead the cannibal biker's to them as well & they are all held hostage, beaten, tortured & killed. The biker's leader Jefé (Miguel Ferrer) is looking to father the child of Satan, the Antichrist himself & decides that the pretty young Tessa (Laura Mennell) will do so spares her & her boyfriend who sets out to fight back against the biker's & save himself & the love of his life but the biker's have dark supernatural power's that make them nearly impossible to kill... Co-written & directed Penelope Buitenhuis this supernatural horror action thriller isn't too bad but at the same time will struggle to be remembered as a classic, Hard Ride to Hell is passable low budget straight-to-video fare that is maybe better than usual for this type of film but that in itself isn't saying a lot. This runs a fairly predictable path, teenagers get stuck in the open desert & come under attack from some various threat, in this case Satan worshipping cannibal biker's. It moves along at a fair pace, it has a few decent moments in it, some gore, there's a bit action & some vehicle stunts but I found it quite forgettable & nothing special without being utterly terrible. The only real problem I had was that Dirk remains awfully calm considering he has had his arm cut off & I salute his ability to crack a joke at any given moment despite missing an arm & the fact that the biker's can only be killed inside a Church on Holy ground & just by some complete coincidence the survivors decide to hide & fight it out inside a Church yet not knowing about their weakness. Oh, & I don't understand why Jefé just doesn't kill Bob at the end when he has the chance but, you know, whatever. There's a bit of gore here, an arm is chopped off, someone is made to walk over broken glass, there are a few stabbings, some chainsaw mayhem at the end as hands are cut off & people are sliced open but like the rest of the film while it's entertaining enough it's forgettable & doesn't leave much of an impression. The supernatural & action aspects aren't particularly well balanced but at least there's something happening more often than not. This is actually quite similar in theme to the classic Race with the Devil (1975) but is maybe a touch more generic. Probably shot on a low budget this has decent production values & is reasonably well made. The acting is nothing special with Miguel Ferrer who played the guy in Robocop (1987) who gets kneecapped the only face I recognised, he gets to shout & say all sorts of evil sounding lines & has fun with it but like everything else about Hard Ride to Hell he's forgettable. Hard Ride to Hell is a better than average straight-to-video low budget horror thriller that is mildly entertaining for what it is but I would struggle to say that it's a classic or anywhere near approaching one. You could do worse but then again you could do better.

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• Hard ride to the 70s

  kosmasp2012-09-13

  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

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