Hard to Die (1990)

Director:

Jim Wynorski

Writers:

Mark Thomas McGee (writer)
J.B. Rogers (writer)

Genre:

Action | Comedy | Horror | Thriller

Plot:

While doing the inventory for a lingerie outlet in a high rise office building, five attractive women are terrorised by a series of bizarre killings...

Plot Keywords:

Erotica | Cult Favorite | Bloody Violence | Female Nudity | Extreme Violence

Cast

Gail Harris	...	Dawn Grant (as Robyn Harris)
Karen Mayo-Chandler	...	Diana (as Lindsay Taylor)
Deborah Dutch	...	Jackie (as Debra Dare)
Melissa Moore	...	Tess
Bridget Carney	...	Shayna
Toni Naples	...	Sgt. Phyllis Shawley (as Karen Chorak)
Jürgen Baum	...	Lt. Mike Block
Bob Sheridan	...	Cop In Lobby
Carolet Girard	...	Fifi Latour
Peter Spellos	...	Himself (as Orville Ketchum)
Don Key	...	Brad Plympton
Forrest J Ackerman	...	Dr. Ed Newton
J.B. Rogers	...	Messenger
Domonic Muir	...	Larry Bronkowski
Eric Baum	...	Agent

Also Known As:

Nighty Nightmare II (USA) (working title)
Sorority House Massacre 3 (USA) (alternative title)
Tower of Terror

Runtime:

77 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

USA:Unrated | Germany:BPjM Restricted

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Trivia:

Director "Arch Stanton" is actually Jim Wynorski. "Arch Stanton" was the name on the grave next to where the loot was buried in 'Sergio Leone''s _Buono, il brutto, il cattivo, Il (1966)_.

Goofs:

Continuity: All five girl get in the elevator to go to the basement, however while in the elevator Shayna isn't present. Yet she comes out into the lobby as if she was.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Joe Bob's Drive-In Theater: (1994-10-08)" (1994)

Perfect for the intended audience.

To me, I know what to expect when I see a video box that has a woman on the front cover wearing a bra and holding a machine gun, along with a 4-Star Rating from Joe Bob Briggs. It always amazes me that people rent this stuff, apparently expecting Bergman or something, and THEN decide they have to write negative reviews denouncing the overall silliness, bad acting, cheap production values and amount of nudity and/or violence. To me, HARD TO DIE delivered exactly what it promised on the box...action, blood, babes, machine guns, Corman references (this is, after all, a New Horizons video) and loads of cheesy fun.

Five scantily-clad young women (Gail Harris, Karen Mayo-Chandler, Deborah Dutch, Melissa Moore and Bridget Carney) are hired to work a temp inventory job at "Acme Lingerie" in a closed down for the night high-rise. They all get naked in a touching group shower scene that alludes to the powers of female bonding (HA!), try on the new Fall lineup of underwear, then accidentally open a "soul box" containing the spirit of Hockstetter, the notorious "sorority house killer" (last seen in Wynorski's similar SORORITY HOUSE MASSACRE 2). Someone in the group becomes possessed by the evil spirit and starts killing the others with a hook. Thankfully there's an armory shop in the same building, so the surviving girls get to defend themselves with high-powered machine guns! Big Peter Spellos returns from SHM2 as hulking Orville Ketchum, who is mistaken for the killer and outlives a dozen or so knees to the crotch, stabbings and gunshots (not to mention a fall off the roof!).

If you decide to take these zany proceedings seriously, that is your choice, but approached in the right state of mind, it's often hilarious. There's B-movie ingenuity at work here in this silly time-waster. It is action, nudity and in-joke packed and the ladies are all all pretty fun and energetic, so it's fine viewing for the audience intended. If you do not like these films, simply do yourself a favor and stop watching them.

Score: 7 out of 10