Horror

Not the Female Version of Die Hard – Hard to Die (1990)

hardtodie
Hard to Die is a completely and utterly ridiculous movie and yet it is fairly enjoyable and even a bit of fun. This film wraps up the Sorority House Massacre series and is a direct sequel, sort of, to the second film which features the return of a killer named Hokstedter’s malevolent spirit. Calling it a horror film would be a disservice to horror films everywhere as there is nothing whatsoever scary about this film in the slightest and instead is more comedy than anything else. Starring Gail Harris, going by Robyn Harris for whatever reason, it finds her and her friends having to work on a Saturday sorting receipts or some such which really does not matter in the slightest, when they receive a strange box which is really some sort of mystical artifact that houses part of the killer’s spirit. That spirit is soon released, as are the naked bodies of the women from their clothes and the film just gets more and more unbelievable from there on, which in the end, was probably the point.

1Directed by Jim Wynorski, you can tell the man likes nudity judging by his resume, and the man does not fail to fill this film with a whole lot of it. It definitely caters to the male viewing audience in its exploitative nature and while it can be warranted at times, Wynorski just seems to use it for the sake of using it. None of it furthers the story, and really, it is not as if nudity is a bad thing, but it just got to be a bit laughable after a time, which would happen with many other aspects of the film as well.

HardToDie1990CThe dialogue was atrocious and there was not a single person in this film that could act even a little bit. That made the film both funny and cringe-worthy at the same time. The movie even went into the range of being nonsensical as it also featured the return of Peter Spellos whose character was still fairly gross and creepy and whose inability to die started to become a running gag which was the least funny thing about this movie. On the plus side, after Hokstedter’s soul is let loose, the pace of the film picks up as the girls start getting killed off and there is a ton of action as the remaining women try and fight back.

Aside from Spellos, the worst thing about this film is the way it started to borrow dialogue and do shot-for-shot scenes lifted from the second Sorority House Massacre. This film might not have had the largest of budgets nor was it ever going to be a masterpiece, but how hard would it have been to write a completely original script?

The funny thing about it all is that you actually do have a good time watching this picture. It is fairly terrible as far as slashers go, though most slashers tend to be terrible on the whole, and yet it has a certain kind of charm. If you like horror films or buxom beauties, this film has both and will fill any craving you might have. Unless it is for something with quality. For that, you will have to look elsewhere.

3 out of 5
hardtodie3 hardtodie2

11 replies »

  1. I’m impressed that you saw this whole massacre thing through!

    Actually, this is the only entry in the Slumber Party/Sorority House series that I never watched. It sounds worth checking out. It wasn’t until the mid 90s or so that I even realized it was a sequel.

    Liked by 1 person

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.