Race with the Devil

source: Race with the Devil

RACE WITH THE DEVIL has everything a cult film needs , unsubtle directing and acting , dialogue you can quote ( " Didn`t anyone see anything ? Didn`t anyone hear anything ? . This was opened with a cold chisel so don`t tell me nobody didn`t hear anything " ) , and lots of violent deaths that are funny more than anything else The only problem with RWTD I have is the extremely silly ending that throws away commen sense and will have you falling out of your seat screaming " Oh wait a minute how would that be possible ? " . As the man in CASABLANCA almost said " In all the fields in all the world...". But don`t let this review put you off , as long as you don`t love dogs and snakes this is a very enjoyable paranoid thriller

From a historical perspective, this is an example of the perfect Drive Inn flick. The acting is okay, the action is dated (this is the 70's)and the storyline doesn't have to make sense. As you enjoy this cinematic adventure (thank you Dane Cook) ask yourself these questions 1. Under the circumstances why buy one gun? 2. Just how far away is Fisher anyway? 3. what kind of communication network must those satanists have that allows them to transcend time and space? 4. Would you stop driving for anything? 5. Are there any normal people in that state at all? You may enjoy this film as a slice of 70's culture and when you consider that that time was a period of social change and uncertainty does the ending make more sense? Hey don't lay your morality on me man.

Simply because I haven't got any other negative points to make regarding this ultra-cool 70's horror road-movie, my main complaint is that the title isn't entirely accurate. Instead of racing Him, the protagonists in this film are merely CHASED by the devil, and even more particularly by His worshipers. There! That concludes the criticism. The rest of "Race with the Devil" is 100% entertainment and pure thrills, professionally filmed, scripted and acted by an incredibly enthusiastic crew! During the first night of their long-anticipated motor home vacation with end destination Colorado, two couples witness the murder of a young girl during a bizarre satanic cult ritual. From that moment on, they find themselves relentlessly pursued by a continuously increasing number of Satanists, until it seems like almost the entire state of Texas are hunting them down. After multiple fruitless attempts to flee from their opponents, Roger, Frank and their wives finally decide to fight back during the most exhilarating and blood-pumping car chase sequences ever brought on screen. The film's first hour doesn't contain much action, but director Jack Starrett ("Cleopatra Jones") cleverly uses this time to introduce the four likable main characters and to slowly build up an excellent atmosphere of paranoid tension and claustrophobia. Wherever they go, penetrating eyes always stare at the foursome and they even find several severely unpleasant 'gifts' in their recreational vehicle. Then, during the last half hour, the film becomes pure cinematic excitement when the battle is fought on the remote highways of rural Texas. The stunts are downright awesome and several times I caught myself yelling at the TV-screen and cheering for Peter Fonda and C° to kill all of them satanic bastards! Speak of the devil (pun intended); Peter Fonda is as charismatic and imposing as ever. Alongside "Dirty Mary Crazy 's Larry", "The Trip" and "Easy Rider", this movie certainly re-establishes that he was one of the coolest stars of the 60's and 70's decade. Warren Oates rocks too and, even though they should have been given a little more lines, the two ladies deliver fine performances as well. "Race with the Devil" is a total winner and endlessly recommended to die-hard fans of 70's pulp. * honorable mention to the rock song "Race with the Devil", by THE GUN

Race with the Devil is directed by Jack Starrett and written by Wes Bishop and Lee Frost. It stars Peter Fonda, Warren Oates, Loretta Swit, Lara Parker and R.G. Armstrong. A Panavision/ DeLuxe Colour production, music is by Leonard Rosenman and cinematography by Robert Jessop. Two vacationing couples have to flee for their lives when they witness a ritualistic slaying by occultists. Great fun. A raging "B" movie for the 70s drive-in crowd that tapped into the decades new found taste for the occult and highway speeding. Film is cloaked with a paranoia vibe as our two frantic couples desperately try to stay out of the clutches of Satanists. Life and death confrontations come and go, and as they are never sure who is in league with the hooded blood drinkers, they have to assume that they alone must fight the good fight. It all builds to a crescendo of exciting vehicle carnage, which in turn leads to the final denouement, which quite frankly is frustratingly brilliant. Oates and Fonda entertain with brisk and airy performances, though Swit and Parker are really only directed to be screaming banshees waiting to be saved by their burly men. Best served with lashings of Bourbon and Coke, and not designed to be scrutinised for moral or ethical worth, just enjoy the ride and try and stay one step ahead of Old Nick. 8/10

A very inspired and briskly effective handy dandy genre-blending combo of your typically creepy devil worship fright flick and a slam-bang exciting Southern-fried downhome car chase action thriller about two vacationing married couples traveling cross country in a deluxe, self-contained luxury RV who accidentally witness a black-robed Satanist cult in the bloodthirsty act of making a human sacrifice. The cult, whose members are frightfully legion, immediately realize that their allegedly secret ceremony was seen and pretty soon everything goes to hell, with pay phones proving to be inoperative, the couples' dog getting strung up, rattlesnakes springing forth from the cabinets, and the cult giving hot, tire-squalling, dust-kicking, metal-twisting pursuit in pick-up trucks. Directed with customary "no muss, no fuss, no pretense whatsoever" headlong efficient battering ram style by B-movie ace Jack ("Run, Angel, Run!," "Cleopatra Jones") Starrett, who took over the direction a few days into the shoot after original director Lee Frost got canned by the producers for doing too much in-camera editing and refusing to overshoot a single scene (Frost still receives a co-screen writing credit for the tightly constructed script he penned with longtime collaborator Wes Bishop, who also co-wrote Frost's "The Thing With Two Heads" and "Dixie Dynamite"), "Race With the Devil" works like a charm, thanks to Starrett's fiercely economical directorial finesse, Robert Jessup's lively, constantly active cinematography, breakneck pacing, Leonard Rosenman's pile-driving score, dynamically staged car chases (the final chase with several Satanists hopping onto the speeding RV especially smokes), punchy editing, an increasingly tense and moody sense of all-pervasive dread and paranoia, fine acting all around, and a splendidly black, nihilistic surprise twist ending. After teaming up in the excellent, unusually sensitive feminist Western "The Hired Hand" and Tom McGuane's terrifically off-kilter seriocomic delight "92 in the Shade," Peter Fonda and Warren Oates in their third cinematic pairing have developed a warm, easy, comfortable rapport that translates beautifully well on screen, making the friendship between their characters seem completely believable and engaging. "M.A.S.H." 's Loretta Swit and Lara Parker of "Dark Shadows" fame also hold their own as their wives. Popping up in nifty bits are veteran character actor R.G. ("Evilspeak," "Children of the Corn") Armstrong as a disbelieving sheriff, Bishop as Armstrong's dippy deputy, Starrett as a curious gas station attendant, and Paul A. Partain (the obnoxious fat cripple in "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre") as a member of Fonda's motorcycle pit crew at the very start of the picture. Often given extremely negative reviews in most film guides, "Race With the Devil" is a whole lot better than its undeservedly poor reputation would suggest and well worth checking out.

In the Summer of 1989, a major Italian TV channel used to have a Friday Horror night at prime time and again on Saturday nights around midnight, hosted by a cadaverous ghoul called “Uncle Tibia” and his pet monster “Golem”; I recall them showing this shocker but back then (being only 13), I was not into trashy exploitation fare as yet and, consequently, missed out on it. Eventually, I caught up with the film via Anchor Bay’s Special Edition DVD and, although there is virtually no touch of originality or imagination at all evident anywhere, the action-packed last third manages to redeem the lackadaisical hour that had preceded it. Typically, Peter Fonda and Warren Oates are motor vehicle enthusiasts who decide to take a vacation with their wives in a luxury trailer out in the Texan desert. Out drinking one moonlit night, the men are drawn by nearby chanting into witnessing a ritualistic murder of a nubile Satanic Cult member; predictably, the sudden appearance of the wife calling them to bed gives away their presence to the clandestine revelers…and the deadly pursuit across country is on. Sheriff R. G. Armstrong takes their claims of devil worship in his county with a pinch of salt, the girls go to a public library and sneak out the usual tell-all Occult tomes, their pet mutt is murdered and appended to the trailer while fellow vacationers are treating them to the local delicacies at a Country & Western bar, etc. The incident of two rattlesnakes found in the trailer compartments is creepy to be sure but it goes on far too long. As I said earlier, however, the last half-hour is satisfactorily intense as virtually everybody that had crossed their path before comes together to trap our unfortunate quartet into becoming the ultimate diabolical sacrifice – but not before giving them a chance to hastily blast a few diabolists off to Hades!

Two couples are on vacation and driving around in a huge motor home. They are Roger (Peter Fonda), Kelly (Lara Parker), Frank (Warren Oates) and Alice (Loretta Swit). One night while camping they see a Satanic ritual where a young girl is murdered. The members of the cult find out and the couples spend the rest of the movie with witches after them to kill them. The story is a little silly and the dialogue is pretty bad but this is the type of movie that used to pack them in at drive-ins. It's full of action, fast-moving and has likable (if one-dimensional) characters. It's basically a chase movie disguised and marketed as a horror film. The killing in the movie isn't that explicit and the nudity in it is purposely blurred out-some people think it was edited from theatrical prints but it was always that way. The acting doesn't really matter--I mean who's seeing this for the acting? Still all four actors give their all to this. The only thing that bothered me was Swit and Parker screaming nonstop when anything happens and letting Fonda and Oates "save" them. It's quite amusing to see Parker being attacked by witches in this one since she played the evil witch Angelique in the "Dark Shadows" TV series in the late 1960s. The climax is either a perfect one or a lousy one. I'm torn between the two myself. Quick and fun with a really incredible car chase at the end.

Two couples (and a pooch who senses danger!) take a vacation trip to Colorado traveling by motor-home; they stop off in a backwater town for some R&R and witness a Satanic ritual and human sacrifice. The ladies naturally are spooked and want to go home, but loving and devoted hubby Warren Oates tells spouse Loretta Swit, "No way! We're going SKIING!" Stultifying and dim-witted occult thriller has enough clichés and stock characters to sink any recreational vehicle (microwave included!). Peter Fonda, playing an avid fan of motorbikes, looks mighty uneasy sitting in the back of a patrol car listening to the local sheriff blame the whole ritual on "those damn hippies". How long ago was "Easy Rider" anyway? *1/2 from ****

As low budget horror movies go, "Race With The Devil" has aged well. The plot is simple--two couples en route to Aspen for a long overdue skiing vacation, end up in the wrong place at the wrong time, and witness a human sacrifice. The rest of the film deals with their attempts to escape their pursuers, who happen to be modern day witches! Peter Fonda, Warren Oates, Loretta Swit (M*A*S*H) and Lara Parker (Dark Shadows) are the couples in question, and R.G. Armstrong is the local sheriff they enlist to help them. All the performances are fine, especially the vastly underrated Oates, who is only now receiving the acclaim long due him, (he has since passed away) and his acting is as compelling as ever. The just-released DVD includes a commentary from producer Paul Maslansky and Lara Parker, a retrospective documentary with Peter Fonda, trailer, still and poster galleries and radio spots. Enhanced for widescreen TVs the film looks great, and is a great one to watch late at night (if not alone) when you feel the need for a few genuine scares.