GRIMMFEST 2020: Death Ranch
grimmfest 2020If you thought the Ku Klux Klan were bad enough as they are, Death Ranch ups the ante and turns them into cannibals too. Thankfully, that’s the most ridiculous that this blaxploitation horror gets. Although it certainly tries to maintain that tone with a barrage of occasionally hilarious splatter gore — sometimes seeming intentional, sometimes not.
Set in the 1970s, somewhere in Tennessee, a young African American man named Brandon Cobbs has just escaped from prison and is picked up by his siblings, Angela and Clarence. They decide to take shelter in a rundown ranch in order to hide until things have cooled down for Brandon. Unfortunately for them, the ranch is on land and belongs to a group of KKK members, who quickly gain the upper hand on our three heroes.
Director Charlie Steeds is smart enough to avoid falling into the ‘torture porn’ category here, which is something that could very easily have been done. One cuckoo Klansman kicks off the action with a short — and squeamish — sequence in which he mixes a lighter with Brandon’s testicles. But it’s over quick enough and once Brandon is free he is absolutely relentless.
The blood and guts is beautifully overdone, but also never overwhelmingly gross. Part of that may be due to the fact that over ninety percent of it is targeted on the Klan members. Not one character in the film escapes without blood on them after the first fifteen minutes and the creative ways that Brandon and his siblings take on the Klan are enough of an excuse for the gore to stop from getting boring.
Deiondre Teagle plays Brandon in his first role and there’s hints of talent in the actor. He’s cool enough to pull off the cheesy ‘line before the kill’ without it falling flat and certainly looks the part — striding across a farmhouse carrying a shotgun, he cuts an imposing figure. In some brief moments too, Teagle even comes across as a young Chadwick Boseman; certain expressions and an air of grandeur occasionally flicker across the screen in a reminiscent manner.
It may be unfair to compare Teagle to Faith Monique and Travis Cutner, who play Brandon’s siblings. The simple reason behind that is they aren’t given nearly as much to do and don’t really get a chance to shine. Monique, as Angela, does earn herself a couple of cool moments (look out for a cheap, but funny testicle gag here — and this scene doesn’t involve a lighter) but also feels strangely absent for a lot of the action.
It’s over before you know it and is never dull. There’s not much characterisation, but there really doesn’t need to be because the point of this is to see a group of Klansmen get their comeuppance in the bloodiest way possible. Steeds hasn’t achieved art here, but Death Ranch is a tasteful love letter to the blaxploitation genre with a gory twist thrown in for good measure.