All Hell Breaks Loose (2015)

ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE has no right to be as good as it is. It looked in the trailer like the sort of badly made goofy yuck fest that you watch once with friends and then never think of again. Instead it turns out to be a very clever, very well done action horror satire that you’ll end up recommending and loaning out to friends.

The most basic of plot summaries has a biker gang literally from hell going around kidnapping virgins. When they kidnap and kill a young bride on her wedding day, killing her husband in the process, they set in motion an escalating battle as the husband is brought back to life, repeatedly, to take on the bikers.

Funny for all the right reasons, tense because of well-drawn characters and situations and knowing enough to get 1970’s biker and horror film pastiche right ALL HELL seems like a film you’ve seen before but can’t quite place. You haven't seen it before, but you think you will simply because they get it all right.

 It’s a film that is smart enough to care about the story and the characters enough that the audience cares too. Who cares that the bar looks like a living room, it doesn’t matter because we believe the characters are who they say they are. This is the result not only because the script is so good but also because the actors play it straight. I can't tell you how great it is to see a film like this where the cast doesn't have a twinkle in the eye letting you know they arent invested. Here they are and everyone comes off as real characters.

Another thing that I love about the film is that the film is filled with in jokes and references that don’t get in the way of the story telling. In addition to the obvious  biker film references, the film also riffs Rocky Horror during the wedding scene,  any number of 70's satanic films not to mention bad 80's horror make up and the Preacher comic book (shots have artist Steve Dillion's sense of the American west). The filmmakers know their stuff and more importantly know how to blend it together into something fresh and alive.

I can’t tell you how much I like this film. As soon as it ended I started emailing my genre fan friends to tell them it existed.

This is one you’ll want to see for yourself, though if you don’t like squishy bits be warned there is blood and gore and intestines held in by duct tape

A real B-movie exploitation joy

ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE hits home video Tuesday and is a must