DEVIL RIDER (1989)
Directed by Victor Alexander
Magnum Home Video VHS
Reviewed 01.11.07
Review by Joseph A. Ziemba

THE FILM
Life is a constant barrage of difficult questions. Thanks to Devil Rider,
we now have the answer. It's a question. Yes -- an answer that is a question. Hold that thought.

For the first 18 minutes of Devil Rider, 19th century cowboys (jeans, Doc Martens, large wallet lumps in back pockets) meet their demise with the guns and sabre of The Devil Rider. He's just a regular guy in a white trenchcoat. His catch phrase is "Heh heh heh." During this time, a particularly burly cowpoke answered a friend's question with the following retort:

"Does shit go through a goose like lightning?"

Now, I don't know about you, but this is the first I've heard of this potent metaphor. It struck a chord. Since Devil Rider morphs into Iced set at a "dude ranch", only with one fourth the laughs of that coked-up classic, I had time to think. Devil Rider walked around a barn for the umpteenth time, peeping on girls in showers and/or shooting people. I asked, "Is there life after death?" An old man sharpened his target skills while quick edits interspersed some tame barn sex. I thought, "Is Paris really the city of love?" Finally, around the hour mark, after an endless battery of horrid post-dubbing, pointless padding, bloodless kill scenes, and embarassing synth-flutes, I wondered, "Would Devil Rider be better if it was shot on video?"

The means to answering all of these questions, and several thousand others, was, of course, plainly obvious.

Somebody find me a goose.

AUDIO AND VIDEO
This tape, part of Magnum's last ditch "M2" line, looks brand new. Clean, clear, and shiny. A couple of video burps trickled throughout. The stereo sound shone a spotlight on the vomitous soundtrack. Bad move.

EXTRAS
"And Tag Groat As THE DEVIL RIDER." Tag, baby, this is your big break!

FINAL THOUGHTS
South Of Hell Mountain this ain't. Devil Rider is a western-horror that shoots for the bare minimum and achieves just that. Is this the only straight-up cowboy slasher in existence? Could Devil Rider over-enunciate even more than he already does? I think you know the answers -- or is that -- the questions?

Smile, you're The Devil Rider


Hot Patrol


Goosed!


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