Sean Parker
Indie horror projects often surprise me with the level of creative ingenuity on display. Many of these movies get overlooked by the broad majority of movie enthusiasts, but we–the Tubi hunters and physical media bargain bin super-divers of the genre—know there are more than a few diamonds in the rough just looking to be found out there. These horror fans may find just what they’re looking for with the release of J. Horton’s (Craving, VHS Violence) latest film, A Hard Place.
With A stacked cast of horror movie veterans such as Felissa Rose (Sleepaway Camp, Terrifier 2), Lynn Lowry (Shivers, The Crazies), Glenn Plummer (Saw II), Sadie Katz (Wrong Turn 6: Last Resort, The Beast Inside), and Bai Ling (The Crow, Scalper) it’s hard to feign interest for A Hard Place. This marks the sixth film Rose and Lowry have appeared in together, with the actresses’ seventh feature, Grind, currently in post-production. The cast alone will draw many people to the film, but once you hear the wild plot Horton and The Once and Future Smash director Michael J. Epstein have written for A Hard Place, it may end up on your watchlist pretty quickly.
At a remote drive-in, a small group of bandits have concocted the perfect heist, setting them all up for life if they’re able to get away. With abject cruelty, the theater owners are gunned down in their lobby, leaving no witnesses for the authorities to speak to. Zenia (Lowry) knows the perfect place to lay low for a while at a supposedly abandoned farm upstate. However, the moment they arrive, they’re attacked by inhuman tree-monsters as they discover they’ve interrupted a centuries-old feud between creatures who roam the area during the day, and the creatures that protect it at night.
Zenia and her crew find themselves relying on the kindness of strangers, as matriarch Henrietta (Rose) and her crew fight back the monsters and save the robbers from certain death. Though the old adage “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” may apply, the group soon finds themselves in a fight or flight situation as the feud gears up and the night creatures want to assimilate some new blood into their ranks. Zenia’s team finds themselves between a rock and A Hard Place (see what I did there?), as they need to escape just as much as they need help defending themselves from both sides of this ancient war.
Horton and Epstein deliver a very ambitious script on a low budget of about two hundred thousand, but there are many pieces that feel shoehorned in and never completely fit within the story. In true Roger Corman fashion, it almost feels like Horton combined a couple of concepts to deliver a full-bodied eighty-eight minutes of gore-soaked entertainment. And yes, the blood does flow.
A Hard Place starts with zombies—lots of them. As a dazed Sadie Katz awakens to a horde slowly making their way toward the Jersey barrier she’s hidden behind. She quickly gets to her feet to find Bai Ling and Glenn Plummer fighting off the undead surrounding Katz. As the audience gets their bearings on what’s transpiring, the action on-screen becomes a diegetic film on the drive-in screen, occasionally seen again when a character is watching TV. There are also little moments, like a humorous human reproduction video, where crowdfunders for the film’s Indiegogo campaign have contributed scenes to the movie. While all of this technically fits within the confines of the script, it also comes across as superfluous and curbs some of the momentum the film has behind it.
On the other hand, the zombie movie sequences continue to show off A Hard Place’s best attribute: the makeup and creature effects. Robert Bravo (Virgin) outdoes himself at every turn with the incredible creature design and implementation. The monsters are terrifying: the daywalking tree-people, the night-protecting lizard-people, and the film-within-the-film’s zombies. Viewers will find themselves enthralled by the action when these creatures are on screen and will find themselves waiting for their return.
But therein lies another part of the overall issue with A Hard Place. There’s a lot of disconnectedness here. Between the diegetic film and the small cutaways, and even the Hatfield and McCoy’s monster feud leads to some monotonous downtime between the action as the robbers and Henrietta’s crew set their opposition in place. Rachel Amanda Bryant, Kevin Caliber, Ashley Undercuffler, and Jennifer Michelle Stone II emerge as the film’s real helmers. Though they have no problem building tension with constant monster attacks, their underwritten dialogue can sometimes come across slightly underwhelming.
While I’m no stranger to underground films, A Hard Place is rough around the edges, to say the least. Still, there is some fun to be had here if you’re in the right headspace for it. The CGI effects are fine about half of the time, but they can occasionally pull you out of the experience, yet it’s offset with stunning creature effects work. The plot set up feels very familiar. I can think of two movies called Hideout (both are on Tubi), one with witches and one with zombies, that use very similar plotlines, though A Hard Place benefits from a little added chaos. And while the cast is stacked, most of the names you know only appear in the film for a few minutes, while, between their scenes, we have some new names vivaciously working on their craft.
If I’d had the opportunity to see the film with friends, the communal experience would have made the film a better experience. Horton has been out on the road bringing A Hard Place to indie theaters and drive-ins around the country, and I genuinely believe that’s the best way to see the movie, with like-minded people laughing and wincing in disgust at some of the gory kills. There are a lot of positives, but they end up getting overshadowed by the negatives. Audiences will be mixed, with the people who only watch studio-produced films turning their noses up at it, while the horror nerds who love this stuff will revel in it. As I see it, the film is a bit of a mixed bag.
A Hard Place comes to VOD, including Apple TV and Prime Video, on May 27.
A Hard Place | HD Trailer
Six Criminals find themselves caught in an ancient feud between the creatures that roam the day and the monsters that rule the night. starring Felissa Rose, Lynn Lowry and Rachel Amanda Bryant with Bai Ling, Glenn Plummer and Sadie Katz. ✅ Want to help support what I’m doing for free?
