Hard Ride to Hell (2010 Video) User Reviews

looks like exploitation only it isn't

[trashgang · 4/10 · 24 June 2010]

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.

Hard Ride to Hell

[Scarecrow-88 · 5/10 · 3 September 2010]

Riders of the Apocalypse, Desolatores, are Satan's followers, immortal, only needing to consume human flesh to attain their status with the dark lord, have been trying to find a woman to plant a seed so that the end of days can commence as a child is conceived. Miguel Ferrer is their leader, Jefé, once a Castilian priest, he found a temple of worship dedicated to the devil and discovered the means to eternal life. With others joining his side, Jefé may've found the woman he's been searching many years for, to bring darkness into the world, Tessa(Laura Mennell), traveling with her husband, Danny(Brendan Penny), Danny's brother(Sebastian Gacki), and their friends, Kerry(Katherine Isabelle)and Dirk(Brandon Jay McLaren). Terror will befall these twenty-somethings as Jefé and his evil companions prepare for the birth, having fun with these mere mortals in the process. They will get some help in a traveling knife salesman, Bob(Brent Strait). Bob equips himself quite well with his seemingly endless supply of knives, and even drives Danny's RV while trying to evade Jefé's biker gang, following close behind, eventually catching up to them. There will be a showdown in an abandoned Texas town's church, the fate of the world hanging in the balance. Tessa resists Jefé, at first, as he demands she carry his seed in exchange for her husband's life. Impregnated and carrying to term fairly quickly, Tessa's giving birth is a no-no, but Jefé will do whatever it takes to see that she does exactly that.

The plot is so ludicrous that I think one has to shut their brain off and just watch HARD RIDE TO HELL for entertainment purposes only. It's loaded with sadistic ultra-violence because Ferrer and his men are so completely evil and cause such bloody destruction to the cast, including flesh-eating. Poor McLaren loses his arm, and is yanked from a speeding RV to the road by a hook while Isabelle's Kerry spends most of the running time in hysterics. Stait's Bob is a hoot, slicing and dicing a steady stream of devil-worshiping bikers throughout the movie. Ferrer seems to be at home playing vile, unsavory sorts and his Jefé is no different. Jason Logan is Tito, the priest at the end, with a powerful Mayan medallion his father left him upon death, who tries to assist Bob, Danny and company against Jefé and his goons. Lots of arterial spray, including one scene where Bob goes berserk with a chainsaw. Isabelle is a riot(maybe unintentionally)as the frightened-out-of-her-mind Kerry, not much help to Bob who tries to get her to help him out. Bob seems to be the only character able to do anything of merit against the villains of HARD RIDE TO HELL.

A Pretender to the Throne

[lovecraft231 · 2/10 · 5 August 2010]

Bikers and horror are two things that has been done several times. One of the best loved examples is the 1975 classic "Race With The Devil" starring Peter Fonda, with the British oddity "Psychomania" right behind it. It makes since really-hot rides and horror elements mixed together sounds like a fun mix, and in the right hands it can be. Unfortunately, "Hard Ride to Hell" isn't a fun movie at all.

A group of family and friends (including "Ginger Snaps" star and all around attractive lady Katherine Isabelle) are on an camping trip through Texas. Well, it seems that buddy Dirk (Brandon Jay McLaren) witnesses a ritual being performed by a Satanic Biker Gang led by a one eyed creep named Jefé (Miguel Ferrer), and the next thing you know, they are being pursued by these heretic hog-riders.

"Hard Ride to Hell" comes from Vivendi, a studio that gave us the pretty dull and generic "Backwoods." Unlike that movie, this movie actually delivers in the gore and nudity department, with hunks of flesh being bitten off, arms being lopped off with a chainsaw, and more nasty surprises. Sadly, that's all it has going for it. Like what? Well, at least "Backwoods" had passable performances. Ferrer, who is usually a great actor, here phones it in, looking like he's about to fall asleep at any given moment, and seems like he's only there for a paycheck. Isabelle does a fine job for a while-until the third act comes in, and she inexplicably becomes a cowardly comic relief character. There's no reason given as to why-it just happens, and it's so abrupt that it comes off a really lazy writing.

The biggest problem though, is that director Penelope Buitenhuis (herself a veteran of directing TV productions) and the writers have no idea what made the movies they are paying tribute to (the aforementioned "Race With the Devil" in particular) so great. They think "Hey, tits and violence is what the people want!" However, they forget it takes more than that for a movie like this to work. You need something that really stands out, and this has almost nothing that stands out. The third act gives the viewer a few fun moments, but it ends up feeling like "From Dusk Till Dawn"-if that movie was really bad and felt like it was made for the ScyFy channel.

It's too bad, because with better direction, acting and writing, this could have been a fun time. Instead, it's nothing but a pretender to the throne. Skip it.

Hard ride to the 70s

[kosmasp · 4/10 · 13 September 2012]

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

Nothing special but it could have been worse.

[poolandrews · 4/10 · 17 July 2012]

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.

Unimpressive ride to hell...

[paul_haakonsen · 3/10 · 9 June 2018]

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.

B-movie horror

[SnoopyStyle · 4/10 · 18 April 2016]

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.

Decent little throwback with plenty of blood and boobs

[IHeardYouWereDead · 10/10 · 30 May 2010]

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.

From Dusk Till Dawn meets Rosemary's Baby

[asgard-5 · 6/10 · 14 June 2010]

This is a very solid DTV movie. In fact, it could've been a part of those Masters of Horror series had it been shorter and tighter, the atmosphere is exactly that. The pacing is fast, the stuff that's supposed to be funny is funny, and what's meant to be scary - is scary enough. Hard Ride to Hell doesn't just feel like some grindhouse movie, it feels exactly like a sequel to From Dusk Til Dawn. I wasn't bored for a minute. The presence of Miguel Ferrer adds to it, but doesn't overshadow the movie itself, which says something about the director. Look at her resume, at least by now she definitely knows how to make a movie look good.

Campy, knee-slappin' cinematic grotesquerie at its finest

[jennifer_konig · 10/10 · 17 August 2010]

I frikkin' loved this movie. It's pure grindhouse schlock, and I say that with the utmost affection. You root for Bob the hero when he starts flinging knives like a circus star, you want to poke out Miguel Ferrer's other eye for seeming like he doesn't give a crap about anything, you smile wide when you realize the little by in the opening scene grew up to be the lone ghost-town priest in the final scene, you feel the quintessential crying girl's fear when she sobs all over the broken CB radio, and you may never want to eat apple pie again. My single favorite moment is when the girl's hiding in the confessional, and the hands trying to grab her get chopped off, flailing in front of her face as she screams -- knee-slappin' cinematic grotesquerie at its finest. I also loved the ending. You sort of expect loose ends to be tied (or chopped) off, so the notion of poor, beleaguered husband walking away with his red-eyed wife and antichristy stepson, you sort of sit there waiting for the sequel to start right after the end credits. (Hint, hint.)

Devil worshipers on wheels.

[HumanoidOfFlesh · 6/10 · 3 May 2011]

A group of teenagers whilst on their camping trip in Texas witness an obscene blood sacrifice performed by Satanic bakers on two nude girls.Our young friends must fight for their lives.The remaining survivors gather in an abandoned church for the final battle between good and evil..."Hard Ride to Hell" is obviously influenced by "Race with the Devil" and "Devil's Rain".Unfortunately the script is woeful and the characters are irritating.There is some decent gore,but I expected more blood spraying.Katherine Isabelle of "Ginger Snaps" fame is pretty wasted here as is Miguel Ferrer as the leader of devil-worshipping bikers.A generous 6 out of 10.Rather bland and forgettable horror flick with corny dialogue.

Heavily-entertaining cheese-fest

[kannibalcorpsegrinder · 9/10 · 20 August 2012]

Attempting to go on a camping trip, a group of friends in Texas runs afoul of a group of Satanic bikers looking for a live offering to birth the return of the Antichrist when they chase after the group to get the girls and must fight to get away from the crazed cult alive.

This one actually wasn't all that bad at all. One of the better features of the film is the atmospheric setup that ends up managing to feel pretty tense and creepy during the opening despite not having a whole lot of action at all. Getting the opening ambush in the deserted town with the possessed woman and the cult members before leading into the group arriving for their trip, this all comes off rather nicely which sets this one up on a nice note while getting to know the group and their own issues really just selling itself on the ways in which they're conducting affairs. Once they witness the cults' activities and find themselves targeted by the group, the atmosphere established gives this a fine starting point. That said, once they get found out and captured it turns a lot more fun. The attack on their campsite once the group sees their sacrificial ceremony offers a startlingly brutal and vicious scene showing their determination and ruthlessness in completely overwhelming the group with some nice blood and gore. The encounter at their compound is just as much fun with the full display of their supernatural powers, a couple of nice torture scenes to prove their point, and some more solid action in its rescue attempt which is mixed nicely with its chase scene that is a really bigger scene than expected from this kind of film. With some impressive stunts, solid action, and a nice bit of energy leading into the final confrontation, this gives a lot to like which holds this one up for the most part. There isn't much wrong here but it does have some flaws. Its main issue is that the film loses some energy with the finale, mainly due to it losing the supernatural angle and opting for a normal bloodbath which has its own pluses but it feels a little out-of-place in a film with the atmosphere it had previously built up, yet it has its own fun with its gore-soaked shenanigans. There's also little need for it to constantly keep characters alive far longer than they really should be, suffering multiple deadly or life-draining wounds on multiple occasions yet showing them either living through the incident or fighting on far longer than they really should which is quite unrealistic and unnatural. Overall, not all that bad and a pretty enjoyable time.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language and Nudity.

Wrap Everything Horror Into One Crazy Flick And You Got HRTH

[chicagopoetry · 7/10 · 11 July 2010]

I was in the mood for a hardcore horror flick so I went a-searchin' and stumbled across Hard Road To Hell and I gotta say, I wasn't disappointed. There is just about everything thrown into this soup of gore. You got your crazy bikers terrorizing young teens, possessed young woman spitting up vomit while impregnated with the devil's child, flesh eating ghouls, with a low budget hero straight out of Assault on Precinct 13 up against some bad ass Legion villain. I'm tellin' ya it's Race With The Devil meets the Exorcist if it happened in the Hills Have Eyes world. Some of it is just hokey like the big dudes with leather masks but that at least offers some fun between scenes of amputation and throat cutting. Toward the end it really transcends the whole straight to video genre with a John Wooish church scene of good against evil. Young adults in a camper being chased by Satanic flesh eating bikers: ah, hell, how can you go wrong. It's horror galore.

this is sick but good

[ismael-freytes440 · 10/10 · 14 January 2012]

this movie is great & perfect mix satanic film & biker film, with more film without stupid cgi blood in horror film, Hard Ride to Hell is best of 2010, the horror movie with cgi suck so bad ready. with 80's & 70's movie back to movie Industry in 21 century, the bad remark of horror movie now.

this is the great movie & more action & gore is fun & sick, is not twilight or other rip off, watch this movie is entertainment for all horror movie fan, this the best satanic movie like the other satanic film there more the some & what happen with horror movie there robber own money & time, im sick of this Hollywood idiot said to us to watch or to buy 3d film on horror film, stop with this lies.

My Review Of "Hard Ride Into Hell"

[ASouthernHorrorFan · 7/10 · 16 July 2013]

At first when I sat down to watch this film I only barely had expectations for the little blended flick. I went in to the picture expecting minimal story and bad acting that seem to dominate and overshadow a lot of smaller films story and concept. However with this film I was wrong completely. It had an almost Evil Dead cult aspect to it that I felt back when I was a kid and watched that damn evil dead woman fight her way into that cabin. It was low budget and independent and full of energy and the same with this film.

If you like your demon cults and devil worshipers with leather and gasoline then this film is for you most definitely. The story was a cool through back to films like "Devil Rider" and "Hell Rider" blended with satanic ritual and devil possession and action it is a great exploitation/horror flick. The acting as a little generic but a few characters pull of real emotion and believability. The effects and action sequences though make up for it. Mostly stunt and organic effects used here with a very minimal cgi other than what is mystically necessary for a scene or two.

The film was enjoyable and I found myself thinking ahead to a sequel coming down the pike maybe for 2012 or something. There is still a lot more story here to explore. However the dialogue could have been a little deeper and fluid with the story. As some characters pulled of noticeable plausibility others seemed to almost phone it in just waiting for a payday.

This film is a good one to see and if biker exploitation horror is a thing your into definitely pick it up. It has everything you may like. I don't normally go for biker horror stuff but I am not hetero so that pretty much should solve that. This film I liked a lot. It had psycho bikers, satanic worship, mythology, gore, action and possession. So yeah definitely a film for the collection.

Quite a ride

[pennyfilms-1 · 8/10 · 19 April 2011]

I found Hard Ride to Hell a classic in grind house full-on biker action. It was entertaining and full of crazy surprises. A young group of travelers voyaging across Texas in an RV, innocently stumble upon a satanic group of bikers performing a disgusting ritual. All hell breaks lose after that and I really was scared for the kids being attacked by such horrible beings. Sure the film tries to pack a lot in, with a heavy back story dating back to old Spain, but the bikers do some serious damage and Katherine Isabelle is a knock out as the screaming girl who fights back. The chase sequences and stunts are great making it is more of an action horror than pure horror. The immortal bikers are both threatening and sometimes humorous, as I think they are supposed to be. The film spirals out of control as the bikers chase the motley young crew across Texas. The climax of good against evil is a spectacular show down. I would watch this film again.

Satan Is Alive And Well, And Possessing Bikers In Texas...

[azathothpwiggins · 23 December 2021]

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...