Death Ranch

I stumbled across this on Prime and the description of three black people running from the law and ending up on the hunting grounds of the Klan was enough to hook me. But wow, what followed was so unexpected! Cannibalism, extreme violence, bloodshed, and carnage - all the things you want in a horror movie. And even though the main protagonist was an escaped criminal, you couldn't help but pull for him to come out on top at the end. Ignore the lower rated reviews - this is pure fun and a total must see!

Lame, bad acting, bad effects, everything bad, even a real 70's movie had more flair. Sheesh. Avoid this one unless you love suffering as much as I did while watching.

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.

The movie starts out a bit slow. Basically we're introduced to the protagonists and find out why they are holed up in the middle of nowhere. Then the action begins when one of them sees a KKK execution in progress and intervenes. From there, you get pretty much non-stop action as the two factions battle it out.

What makes this a "horror" film instead of an "action" film is the copious amount of gore. The KKK, who are more akin to cannibal families a la Texas Chainsaw Massacre, than your usual KKK members in films are partly responsible for that gore and some of the sadism, but so are the protagonists as they quite sensibly avoid holding back while fighting a bunch of psychos who outnumber and outarm them.

And that's why I found it a guily pleasure. It doesn't have an amazing plot, or a profound message, or impressive fight scenes, or anything. But it is refreshing to watch a horror film and not have to keep thinking "WHY DIDN'T YOU MAKE SURE HE'S DEAD!!!". And, heck, it'll always fun to see any group of Klansmen get what's coming to them, and that's a major factor in making this a guilty pleasure. No woke preaching about intersectionality. No stunt casting (yes, the KKK are miraculously all white males in this one). Just good guys fighting evil racists.

It is well filmed -- no cheap digicam footage feel or anything like that. The fx are effective enough. Heck, I even like the titles which were pure Tarrantino. And I always liked a 70s rural setting for horror. And bonus points for not one single annoying teen in the film.