Review of Race with the Devil (1975) by Ben K — 02 Mar 2008

This film belongs to a tradition of 70s survival horror movies like Deliverance, Duel, and The Hills Have Eyes in that it pits urban suburbanites against rural horror, in this case a bunch of Satanists.

What I love about these movies is the way the heroes ultimately lose a lot of their humanity in order to survive. At the end of Duel, Dennis Weaver is shaking, muttering to himself, completely broken and fucked up; at the end of Deliverance, Jon Voight dreams of a hand emerging from the water to snatch him back into terror; in The Hills Have Eyes, the survivors survive by becoming animals & psychopaths like their mutant hillbilly persecutors.

While Race With The Devil is nowhere near as raw or powerful, and its protagonists don't come away anywhere near as damaged (though they soon will be), it still makes for a nice companion piece. Cinema is like steak knives really.

..