Director – Charlie Steeds (The Barge People, Escape from Cannibal Farm)
Starring – Deiondra Teagle (Painted in Blood), Faith Monique (Spider-Man: Homecoming, Zero), and Travis Cutner (MacGyver, Spooked)
Release Date – 2020
Rating – 3.5/5
Most of you have heard this before but I always feel the need to reiterate how much I fucking love blaxploitation flicks. When I was younger my dad bought a few tapes from someone in a parking lot on our way to visit my brother. The guy hawking the tapes was clearly “medicated” and I begged my dad to buy the tapes. In them was several blaxploitation flicks. Once I got big into those films Snoop Dogg released his blaxploitation horror flick Bones which only fueled my love for the sub-genre.
Over the years I’ve reviewed a couple dozen blaxploitation flicks and I’ve loved every minute of it. A few weeks ago I received the press release for Charlie Steeds’ Death Ranch. The trailer looked absolutely fucking mental so I reached out for a review copy.
**Spoiler Alert** The film is set in the early 70s when Brandon (Teagle) escapes from jail. He meets up with his brother and sister and the three visit their families abandoned farm deep in the mountains of Tennessee to hide out. What they don’t expect to see is a clan of cannibalistic KKK members who prey on people of color. **Spoiler Alert**
Death Ranch was everything I wanted it to be after watching the trailer. It was extremely bloody and violent with a great blaxploitation meets hixploitation tone. I absolutely loved it and I can’t wait for others to enjoy it as well.
The acting in this one is fun but there is plenty of room for improvement. Teagle and Monique are the stars of the show and they both deliver fantastic performances. Their characters are very grounded and real with both really giving the film their all. The supporting cast is fun to watch with all the faceless KKK members dying but no one shares the screen as long as these two do. The story for this one is a brilliant mixing of blaxploitation meets hixploitation. Racism finds it’s end with the story and the set up is absolutely brilliant.
The story does start out a bit slow but once it picks up it holds a steady pace of bloody action and social justice. I couldn’t have watched this story unfold over the course of three of four hours in all honesty.
Finally, the film is extremely bloody and action packed. The kills we get do not shy away from the red stuff and fit the style of the film perfectly. A good portion of the deaths we get are the results of various gunshots. The squibs look great and the amount of blood we get is almost comical. I absolutely loved the look of these kills. Not to be too repetitive, we do get some other kills using various tools found around an old farm. These kills are just as bloody and the practical effects make them even more entertaining. Overall, Death Ranch is absolutely fantastic. Fans of old school horror and exploitation will want to spin this one. It’s bloody and combines some of my favorite exploitation sub-genres to create something that not only fits the social commentary of the early 70s but today as well. I highly recommend it.
