Skip to content

ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE

Written By:

Andrew Marshall
all-hell-breaks-loose-pic

Newly married young couple Nick and Bobby Sue find the start of their life together interrupted when a biker gang kidnaps Bobby Sue. The Devil has unleashed the demonic riders to sacrifice beautiful virgins to him, so Nick must fight if he wants to save his new wife’s soul.

Another month, another faux-grindhouse exploitation throwback. There’s something inherently appealing in the idea of a film being made to purposefully look bad, since many people out there joyfully lap up the shameless trash produced in decades past. The problem is that so-bad-it’s-good is often something that comes about accidentally and to produce something entertainingly bad is harder than you might think, more often than not ending up as so-bad-it’s-worse. At least in terms of visuals, the sleazy aesthetic of All Hell Breaks Loose is perfectly realised. The picture is altered to look like grainy film stock, intentionally bad sound editing abounds and gore effects are wonderfully low-tech and messy; it’s just a shame that the technical prowess on display isn’t matched by the story. 

It takes almost half an hour for all the pieces of the plot to be set up, and once in place things proceed in a state of drudging stagnation, largely consisting of Nick being killed by the bikers, only to be resurrected by God (here portrayed as an apparent riff on Sam Elliot in The Big Lebowski) to face them again, only to be killed again then brought back to life again and so on and so forth. This is interspersed with random acts of pointless sadism from the bikers to emphasise the environment of tedious misogyny where men are paragons of machismo and women are prizes to be won in some purgatorial contest of cosmic dick measuring. Yes, this is all supposed to feel ridiculously dated – after all, that’s the whole point of films like this – but unless the histrionics are presented in such a way as to make them at least mildly engaging it becomes difficult care about anything that happens.

Given the prominence the biker gang is given, it seems like we are supposed to perceive them as the most interesting aspect of the film, except they are all so generically thuggish that you discern between them by appearance rather than personality. It’s something of a stretch to ask for relatability when the best thing you can say about a group of people is that none of them are paedophiles or rapists, as if this makes casual murder and mutilation or offering up young women to be the sexual playthings of the Prince of Darkness somehow forgivable in comparison.

God doesn’t come off any more sympathetically, being portrayed as a lazy hypocrite who damns people for doing exactly what he told them and who could easily wipe out the demonic evil in the world if only he could be bothered. While the canonical omnipotence of the Almighty makes his appearance a literal deus ex machina that can prematurely put an end to any story in which he appears, there are far less lazy ways of keeping his intervention out of the narrative. Although given the boredom that the film’s events induce, maybe that wouldn’t be such a bad thing.

ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE / CERT: 18 / DIRECTOR: JEREMY GARNER / SCREENPLAY: THE VOCABULARIAST / STARRING: NICK FORREST, SARAH KOBEL MARQUETTE, JOSHUA FRAZIER, TODD ROBINSON, JOSEPH SULLIVAN / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Andrew Marshall

You May Also Like...

black widow star scarlett johansson in talks to lead new universal jurassic world film

Scarlett Johansson In Talks To Join JURASSIC WORLD Film

Another MCU star appears to be taking up the reins for Universal’s new Jurassic World movie: two-time Oscar nominee Scarlett Johansson is reportedly in talks to lead the franchise that
Read More

Exclusive Reveal! Titan Comics to Deliver Prehistoric Hysterics in First 2 DUMB DINOS Collection

Titan Comics have exclusively revealed to STARBURST that they’re gearing up to publish the first-ever collection of the hilarious cult digital comic strip 2 Dumb Dinos, and we’re not the
Read More

New Dates For Lovecraftian Key of Dreams

Key of Dreams has announced new spaces for its titular immersive luxury horror event. The critically acclaimed company is known for its overnight experiences that dunk you into a strange
Read More

FAB Café to Host Free Film Screening of New Indie Comedy SECRETS OF A WALLABY BOY

We’re well known for our championing of truly independent filmmakers here at STARBURST, so it’s doubly exciting to be writing about one of our own! After joining the crew in
Read More
colin farrell returns as oswald cobblepot in the penguin series trailer

Colin Farrell Returns In THE PENGUIN Trailer

Colin Farrell returns as Gotham City’s answer to Tony Soprano in the first trailer for Max series The Penguin, which spins out of the world of the 2022 DC film
Read More
michael keaton as beetlejuice in beetlejuice 2 trailer

First Look At Jenna Ortega In BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE Trailer

Almost 40 years down the road, the infamous bio-exorcist finally returns in the first trailer for Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, a sequel to Tim Burton’s 1988 cult classic film. Jenna Ortega (Wednesday,
Read More