Death Ranch

Every now and then we get a low budget turd or gem, this time around a blaxploitation gem, a action-horror piece that take place in the 70's , about three siblings and two of them help out their younger brother who escaped from a prison down south, seeking a hideout until find out how to help their brother, they encounter a vicious KKK cult, all is not what it seem to be according to the younger brother viewing their activities in the woods, this sets off a chain of horrific events and totally nasty battle for survival between the siblings and the Klan, the director managed to pull off some pretty good gore effects and kept up the action all the way to the conclusion, I thought the acting between the siblings was pretty good as well, a gore hound we enjoy the hell out of this flick, watch this one late at night, when everybody is asleep, not for the kiddies or the squeamish.

While the acting isn't the best and the story & characters are paperthin at best, what surprisingly makes this British low-budget gem fun are the top-notch practical gore effects, the cool Grindhouse-style cinematography & visuals, really fast pacing, good direction and writing, and a cool premise/concept.

This movie is better than it had any business being, definitely worth a look!

I must say that I liked this 2020 movie's cover/poster and it definitely had a retro blaxploitation feel to it. And since I hadn't already seen this movie before, and I had the opportunity to do so now in 2021, of course I did so.

And while "Death Ranch" certainly is a watchable movie, it was sadly also a rather bland and mundane movie. "Death Ranch" doesn't bring anything new to this particular style of revenge horror movie that haven't already been seen or done better in other similar movies. Now, don't get me wrong here, I am not saying that "Death Ranch" was a bad movie. Not at all. It just was a mediocre one when it came to it.

The storyline was pretty straight forward, but to the point where it was rather predictable, and that was something that served as an anchor and held the movie back. So writer and director Charlie Steeds sort of shot himself in the foot here with the way he opted to take the story and the movie.

It should be said, though, that what made "Death Ranch" watchable was the amount of blood, gore and mayhem throughout the course of the movie. There certainly was more than enough to keep a seasoned horror veteran and gorehound such as myself content. And I will say that the this movie is rather visceral and visual, and that definitely worked well in favor of the movie.

The acting in "Death Ranch" was adequate, taking into consideration the type of movie that you are sitting down to watch. So don't go expecting any grand, stellar acting performances that will reap an abundance of Academy awards.

All in all, "Death Ranch" was a watchable, albeit generic and bland one. It can easily be watched a single time around, but I doubt that I will ever be sitting down to watch "Death Ranch" a second time. My rating of "Death Ranch" lands on a bland five out of ten stars.

Plays it way too safe, this film. Something like this needs to be over the top and extreme to be enjoyable and everything seems so watered down with most of the good bits off screen or obscured. And that's not down to the very low budget, they easily could have shown alot more than what's on offer but seeing the past movies the director has made, it was inevitable this was going to turn out a dud.

Nothing worth seeing it for at all.

If you read what this is about ... well even if you haven't - the movie becomes quite clear fast enough. That being said, there is a lot you have to "endure" until the movie gets into gear. But it still is relatively short running time wise.

And it also boasts quite the nice special effects. Which brings me to the point that you should not have issues with blood and other disgusting things that this movie is depicting. There is a lot of violence and there is a lot of "stabbing" and/or shooting. There will be blood and guts one may say. If that floats your boat, you could do a lot worse. Still this decent and has the social message of don't be racist ... and an empowering one at that ... even if the actors may not be able to carry that burden fully ... it still is there for entertainment values. Which also brings us to the uneven tone ... serious and bloody on one hand, ridiculous and goofy on the other ... doesn't quite work with one of the bad guys - who cannot be taken seriously and therefor loses some of his touch/menace ... but I may be nitpicking! You decide if it works or not ... just cut it some slack.