Released in 1975, "Race with the Devil" stars Peter Fonda, Lara Parker, Warren Oates and Loretta Swit as two couples harassed in their RV by a group of Satanists in central Texas after accidentally witnessing a sacrificial murder.
This is a decent horror/thriller with quite a bit of action, mostly of the car-chase variety, but it's held back by its lack of depth and routine style. There's a secret group of Satanists in central Texas and they seem to be everywhere and COULD be anyone, even the sheriff and his deputies, but this is the extent of the film's depth.
In one sense there's nothing wrong with this approach because there are serious Satanists out there and some of them have been known to engage in human sacrifice; Adolfo Constanzo's Mexican cult in the late 80s is a good example (for which the 2007 movie "Borderland" is loosely based). Satanists and human sacrifice have been around for centuries. So it's a great story idea, but it's necessary to add meat to the bones, so to speak, to maintain the viewer's interest. If the filmmakers can't do this then they have to make up for it with exceptional thrills.
While there are thrills in "Race with the Devil" they're rather pedestrian and on the level of the average 70's TV movie. Speaking of which, more than anything else "Race with the Devil" comes across as a prosaic made-for-TV movie. Still, it's worth catching (or owning) if you like the stars and the subgenre, just don't expect anything exceptional.
The movie runs 88 minutes and was shot in areas West of San Antonio, Texas.
GRADE: C+
This is a decent horror/thriller with quite a bit of action, mostly of the car-chase variety, but it's held back by its lack of depth and routine style. There's a secret group of Satanists in central Texas and they seem to be everywhere and COULD be anyone, even the sheriff and his deputies, but this is the extent of the film's depth.
In one sense there's nothing wrong with this approach because there are serious Satanists out there and some of them have been known to engage in human sacrifice; Adolfo Constanzo's Mexican cult in the late 80s is a good example (for which the 2007 movie "Borderland" is loosely based). Satanists and human sacrifice have been around for centuries. So it's a great story idea, but it's necessary to add meat to the bones, so to speak, to maintain the viewer's interest. If the filmmakers can't do this then they have to make up for it with exceptional thrills.
While there are thrills in "Race with the Devil" they're rather pedestrian and on the level of the average 70's TV movie. Speaking of which, more than anything else "Race with the Devil" comes across as a prosaic made-for-TV movie. Still, it's worth catching (or owning) if you like the stars and the subgenre, just don't expect anything exceptional.
The movie runs 88 minutes and was shot in areas West of San Antonio, Texas.
GRADE: C+