Race With The Devil (1975) – Review

As satanic panic washed over cinema in the 70s, it seemed it was getting progressively more difficult to get anything done without the evil threat of some devil worshiping cult sticking their nose into your business. You couldn’t move into a swanky new apartment block, or even raise your daughter as a single parent without some sort of demonic force turning your life upside-down at every turn. In fact, in 1975, not even the act of taking a holiday was sacred thanks to the ramped up paranoia of Race With The Devil.
Starring Peter Fonda and Warren Oats and directed by Jack Starrett (possibly most famous for playing the sadistic deputy who pushed John Rambo over the edge in First Blood), it’s time for a good old, seventies mash-up as we blend the tension of Satanic Panic with the thills of a robust chase flick – Rosemary’s Baby meets Vanishing Point? Surely the devil made them do it…

Roger Marsh and Frank Stewart own a successful motorcycle dealership in San Antonino, Texas, and when they’re not racing around their own tracks and being all competitive, they’re splashing the cash on things like a gargantuan recreational vehicle to take them on a skiing holiday in Aspen. Loading up the RV and setting off, Frank brings his wife, Alice, while Roger brings his spouse, Kelly and their small dog, Ginger. But while we’re immediately working out the odds of Ginger surviving a 70s satanist movie (not great, I’m afraid), Frank takes great pride in being utterly self sufficient and poo-poos any notions of parking at any conventional resort for the night. The way he sees it, his immense RV means his party can park anywhere, and so he finds a desolate meadow where the group can chill out, enjoy nature and race their dirt bikes to scratch that masculine itch.
However, it soon becomes apparent that this meadow isn’t as desolate as they’d like as, after witnessing a burning tree in the distance, Frank and Roger witness a satanic cult engaging in some sort of ritual that ultimately results in the human sacrifice of a shapely, blone woman.
Before you know it, the holiday makers are spotted and have to high-tail it out of dodge as the robed marauders give chase. But even after escaping and going to the local authorities, it seems that no one is ready to believe their wild tale. Frank is still adamant about getting some skiing in and so the quartet continue on their way, but as they continue on their journey, it becomes clear that the cult has no intention of letting them get away.
With creepy notes, creepier locals and unsettling occurrences mounting up the quartet has to fend off an infestation of snakes and paralysing paranoia as they start to suspect that the cult has hit the road with them and are scattered along the entirety of their route. But what to they want, when will they strike and what’s the average gasoline budget for your traditional band of devil worshipers?

Blending dusty road movies with sweaty horror tropes isn’t exactly a new thing. For a start, Steven Spielberg gave us a marauding truck masquerading as a smoke belching monster in Duel and even Wes Craven’s savage The Hill Have Eyes sees a similar trip in an RV end in disaster at the hands of desert dwelling mutants. However, despite never being lauded as much as those other films – or even the likes of other Satan-related flicks released the same decade – Race With The Devil proves to be something of a rollicking ride that deserves to be mentioned in the same sentence as some of those other titles. Relying on simplicity to carry it’s thrills and chills across, director Starrett delivers an unnerving, it-could-happen-to-you, adventure that keeps you guessing for just long enough before cutting loose with some high octane destructo-porn that easily matches up with other car chase movies of the time.
While the film isn’t overly concerned with reinventing the wheel (after flipping the car it’s attached to into a ditch), one of its greatest strengths is in the casting, that sees Sam Peckhinpah stalwart Warren Oates and Easy Rider veteran Peter Fonda as exactly the sort of old school, macho guys who, in any other movie, would probably promptly take care of business. But casting them here as two guys horribly out of their depth as they struggle to understand the scale of the conspiracy against them proves to be a masterstroke – because if these guys can get overwhelmed, what chance would an average Joe have? Oh sure, both get ample amounts of hero moments during that crazy finale, but up to that point, Race With The Devil keeps them and their wives decidedly on the back-foot and horribly slow to comprehend.
Starrett keeps that paranoia a-flowin’ freely by casting memorably odd-looking folks as the passers-by the group encounter after escaping that murder of a young woman. Odd bone structure, missing teeth, threatening mullets – literally any one of the people they come across on their quest to Amarillo (where’s Tony Christie when you need him?), from mechanic to sheriff, could be in on this and the movie manages to keep you guessing while interspersed setpieces (snake attack, the inevitable slaughter of Ginger) keeps them off balance even further.

However, beyond the creepy, Rosemary’s Baby type shots of strange folk goggling unsubtly at our heroes with diabolical yearning in their eyes, the movie knows when to drop the build-up and unleash automotive hell in a barn bursting chase that reminds us just how deranged stunt performers used to be before the days of green screen and digital wire removal. As the huge bulk of the RV barrels down the highway like a tank with all mod cons, the (possibly inebriated) stunt team go to work, delivering Fonda blasting shotgun rounds at pursuing satanists from the roof while Oates struggles to keep the vehicle on the road. Cars flip, one guy gets flung from a moving car off a bridge into a lake, and there’s even a moment where a careening pickup truck roars along while precariously balanced on two wheels for an unnaturally long amount of time – and it’s all fucking awesome. In fact, you could measure it against any brand of cinematic, black-top warfare and it’ll walk away with high marks – but what works even better is that after this burnt-rubber blow-out, the film still has the balls to shell out a downbeat ending that skimps on easy answers and explanations and delivers on ambiguous chills aplenty.
A tight and genuinely terrifying premise mixes with car smashing thrills and a counterintuitive cast (you wouldn’t expect to see Major “Hot Lips” Houlihan from MASH in something like this, but here she is) to deliver a horror/thriller that really deserves a higher profile than it currently earns. Maybe someone could do a deal with the devil….

This absolute belter of an old-school horror thriller, may not have the nuance of an Exorcist or a Rosemary’s Baby, but when it comes to movies where vacations get royally fucked-up, Race With The Devil puts that pedal to the metal and keeps it there. In fact, you could say it moves like a bat out of hell.
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