Race With The Devil (1975)

Dir: Jack Starrett

If I hadn't watched the film numerous times on late night television growing up and was reading a review of it today, all that review would need to say is 'Peter Fonda and Warren Oates fight Satanists' and I'd be there. RACE WITH THE DEVIL may not be a classic but it does belong to the pantheon of low budget drive-in exploitation actioneers that are must watches for all genre fans.

Two couples, Frank (Warren Oates) and Alice (Loretta Swit) and Roger (Peter Fonda) and Kelly (Lara Parker) set out in January in a newly purchased RV to leave behind Texas and hit the ski slopes of Colorado for a much needed vacation. The first night in the RV is spent in an open area next to a river in order to see America instead of the inside of a commercial RV Park. Late at night, under a full moon, Frank and Roger sit outside the RV drinking. Across the river they notice a bonfire. Moving closer to investigate they see a group of people dressed in robes dancing around the fire. Moments later a man wearing an odd mask plunges a knife into a young woman and she falls to the ground. Alice comes out of the RV calling for the men and the bonfire group notices the interlopers. Men from the group run down the hill and into the river to give chase to the escaping RV.

All it takes is just one wrong turn...

Barely making it out alive the couples stop at the police department of the small town they are in. Sheriff Taylor (R.G. Armstrong) is in charge of the investigation but writes it off as no murder but hippies high on dope killing animals. While the men are away with the Sheriff and his deputy (played by co-writer Wes Bishop) inspecting the crime scene, the women find a threatening note attached to the broken glass of the back windshield. Visiting the local library to aid in decrypting part of the note,  the women realise that they have been cursed by a Satanic group.

No one in the RV believes that the Sheriff is being truthful so the plan is to get to Amarillo and hand over the evidence they have to the authorities there. But the Satanists have other plans for the vacationers.

Just like in a game of Call of Cthulhu RPG!

I don't know why they didn't just turn around once they learned a Satanic cult is out to kill them but it wouldn't have been much of a film if they did. Second to the interaction between Fonda and Oates is the action. In a time before CGI it's great to see real cars and real stunt men performing real stunts. The RV chase scenes are thrilling and well staged even if they follow the old tropes of the good guys' vehicle getting stuck with their pursuer's closing in and any car that crashes has to explode. One aspect of films from this time and earlier and I'm glad has changed is the women folk screaming and looking for a feinting couch. I for one would have enjoyed seeing Swit and Parker kicking Satanic ass.

Look for director Jack Starrett (CLEOPATRA JONES) as a gas station attendant near the end of the film.

RACE WITH THE DEVIL is a helluva ride.

*** OUT OF ****