Race with the Devil (1975)

User Rating:

6.4/10   

Director:

Jack Starrett

Writers:

Wes Bishop (writer)
Lee Frost (writer)

Release Date:

June 1975 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Horror | Mystery | Thriller

Tagline:

If you're going to race with the devil, you've got to be as fast as Hell!

Plot:

Two couples vacationing together in an R.V. from Texas to Colorado are terrorized after they witness a murder during a Satanic ritual.

Plot Keywords:

Vacation | Cult Film | Survival Horror | Gothic | Cult Horror

Cast

Peter Fonda	...	Roger Marsh
Warren Oates	...	Frank Stewart
Loretta Swit	...	Alice Stewart
Lara Parker	...	Kelly Marsh
R.G. Armstrong	...	Sheriff Taylor
Clay Tanner	...	Delbert
Carol Blodgett	...	Ethel Henderson
Phil Hoover	...	Mechanic
Ricci Ware	...	Ricci Ware
Paul A. Partain	...	Cal Mathers
James N. Harrell	...	Gun Shop Owner
Karen Miller	...	Kay
Arkey Blue	...	Arkey Blue
Jack Starrett	...	Gas Station Attendant
Wes Bishop	...	Deputy Dave

Runtime:

88 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

Spain:18 | Iceland:16 | Australia:M | Finland:K-18 | Norway:16 (1976) | Norway:18 | Sweden:15 | UK:15 (cut) | USA:PG

Filming Locations:

Bandera, Texas, USA

Company:

Saber Productions

Trivia:

Director Jack Starrett claims he hired real life Satanists as cult-member extras.

Goofs:

Continuity: When the motorhome is being pursued by the white pickup truck, Peter Fonda's character throws one of the scramblers off the rear bike rack. When we see him doing this, the motorhome is driving down a narrow single track road with bushes on each side. Immediately afterwards, the view switches to the pickup, which is driving along a much wider road with a central divider.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in An Evening with Kevin Smith 2: Evening Harder (2006) (V)

Defending the Ending ***SPOILER***

For years I've listened to nitpickers attack the ending. "Why didn't they just drive away?" If you recall, the attendant at the last gas station they stopped at warned, "You got a busted headlight on that thing". Not to mention half of the front end torn off, exposing the engine compartment.

Fonda's character pulls off the road to repair the headlight "while there's still enough light to see what I'm doing". The cultists last contacted them at the roadside construction project, and followed them to where they stopped -- at twilight.

When night fell, they either smashed the other headlight or disabled the engine by quietly pulling a cable or belt. In the dark, with no headlights, surrounded by hills and dales and rocks and streams and trees, that big behemoth isn't going anywhere, if it's even still running.

The couples originally see their $26,000 Vogue as a castle on wheels -- king of the road. "We don't need anything. We are self-contained, baby!" They quickly realize that it is in fact a lumbering, vulnerable deathtrap that makes them easy prey in isolated, unfamiliar territory. This refusal to accept that they are so out of their element -- in a race that they can't possibly win -- is the movie's entire point.