A Hard Place Movie Review

“A Hard Place” puts an ‘indie’ spin on a 1996 action horror movie called “From Dusk till Dawn”. The older movie shows a group of nasty criminals hiding out after a robbery. They get caught in an unexpected supernatural trap where monsters are there to prey on the robbers. In this movie, the robbers get in the middle of two ancient evil forces. It is very much ‘a hard place’…

The very first thing you see is a few people in a fight against zombie creatures. Locked in some building somewhere, Barbara (played by Sadie Katz) is fighting off many of the undead. She is with a fellow named Dutton (played by Glenn Plummer) who is finding some creative ways to kill the walking dead. They are joined by the mysterious Zuri (played by Bai Ling), who can use some martial arts on the horde of monsters coming at them.

But wait! That is not really what is going on; it is a movie being played on a screen in a drive-in theater. There is a truck with two people in it, watching the movie — and waiting. This is Steve (played by Steven Morris) and his sister named Fish (played by Rachel Amanda Bryant). They are waiting for a robbery to take place.

In the concession stand building there are the other people with Fish and Steve. This is the robbery ringleader Zenia (played by Lynn Lowry). She is with her boyfriend White (played by Scott Alan Ward). There are other accomplices in the robbery. There is the murderous loose cannon named Candy (played by Jennifer Stone). Candy has a boyfriend named Hurt (played by Kevin Caliber).

Soon, there is a dead body and they all get out of there and out on the road. Zenia says she knows of a place to hide out for while until the heat dies down. Candy was pretty much a ‘shoot first, ask questions later’ kinda gal. Now, there is a robbery and on top of that a murder. These people need someplace to stay that is way, way off the grid.

Zenia gets these desperados over to a very remote farm house. There is a barn where they go to hide out. Candy is still ready with an itchy trigger finder. She shoots a woman who is in the barn. This is Naja (played by Ashley Undercuffler). Naja tells them they are making a terrible mistake. This is not a safe place for any of them.

Steve and Zenia go out into the woods, and find there are crazy monsters out there. Fish is able to give Naja some quick first aid on her wound. Candy and White go out to fight the monsters.  Soon, Steve is goner.

Zenia, White, Hurt and Candy are captured. But they are held at gunpoint not by monsters. Instead, they are held by a group of gun-toting, backwoods-living, gap-tooth yokels who plan to take the group to see ‘Ma’.

Naja and Fish are able to get out a different way and are not captured. Naja does her best not to explain anything too much to Fish. There are many secrets that this group has, because they live so far out in the woods – and off the grid.  But she does explain that the monsters are a group called the ‘Guardians’.

The Guardians are an ages-long breeding of part-human and part vegetation. Like a weird shrub with arms and legs and a head. These things are an abomination from Biblical days. But they are here to ‘Guard’ something. Fish and Naja come to a distant farm, and there is where they will see ‘Ma’.

‘Ma’ turns out to be a woman named Henrietta (played by Felissa Rose). She has a compound way far out in the woods, populated by all the local yokels who have captured the others in Fish’s group. Naja is one of the people in compound, but she is unlike the other yokels. She thinks for herself, and she has some issues with how Henrietta is controlling the place.

It is explained that the folks in the compound are called the ‘Caretakers’. They have been at endless war with the plant-people called the ‘Guardians’. It all has something to do with the Garden of Eden, so this goes back a while. The people in the compound are ‘recruiting’ for new folks to join them.

But late at night, it is discovered that the ‘Caretakers’ have another secret. After the sun goes down, they can also turn into some hideous monster type creatures. This is so they can have an equal fight against the ‘Guardians’. Naja is not interested in the fighting and the constant warfare. She would rather find another way.

The next day, there is going to be a big pow-wow between the Caretakers and Guardians. But the people in the compound have a secret weapon. They know a total solar eclipse is coming that day. They will be able to turn into hideous monsters so they fight the plant-people on a more equal basis. But the only thing that will equal is the amount of red blood (and green sap) that will be spilled.

Sylvian (played by Miranda Bourke), who is the leader of the Guardians, has it out with Henrietta. There are deaths everywhere. Zenia and White are secretly aligned with the Caretakers. They perish with a well-planned explosion that takes out a large group of vicious plant warriors.

The only human people find a way out of there. Naja lets them all go. She is in charge now she will find a different way to live in peace. Fish escapes with Hurt and Candy. They have all the loot from the robbery. And Candy has ideas about how to get all that loot for herself.

“A Hard Place” becomes a ‘hard watch’ after a while. There is some potential to take a story line to a fresh and new place. But it seems willing to recycle many old ideas instead. It could have leaned more into a campy comedy, such as with “Tucker and Dale vs Evil” or even “The Cabin in the Woods”.

All the acting is OK, and there are some roles that are really well-cast (mostly the ‘hillbilly’ crew). The creature effects are not that impressive. But given this was probably made on a very tight budget – I guess they are fine. The writing could have been taken to a few more drafts until it was more polished.

This is one that you might find popping up on a channel like ‘Shutter’ before too long. There is a lot of initial promise, but all the air is out of balloon before the final scenes.