{"id":3749,"date":"2024-08-29T21:48:38","date_gmt":"2024-08-29T21:48:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=3749"},"modified":"2024-10-14T11:16:18","modified_gmt":"2024-10-14T15:16:18","slug":"hard-to-die","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/08\/29\/hard-to-die\/","title":{"rendered":"Hard to Die"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Hard to Die <\/strong>(1990, aka Sorority House Massacre III)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 New Horizons\/Horror\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 83 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated NC-17 (extreme horror violence [?], nudity)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Jim Wynorski (as \u201cArch Stanton\u201d)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Mark Thomas McGee and James B. Rogers\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Chuck Cirino\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Jurgen Baum\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: March 10, 1993 (US, video)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Robyn Harris, Lindsay Taylor, Debra Dare, Melissa Moore, Bridget Carney, Jurgen Baum, Karen Chorak, Don Key, Forrest J. Ackerman, Dominic Muir, Carolet Girard, Eric Baum, Amelia Sheridan, J.B. Rogers, Monique Gabrielle (as \u201cLucy Burnett\u201d), Jim Wynorski (uncredited), Don Peterson, Kelli Maroney (as \u201cD. Mason Keener\u201d), Greg LaVoi, Cirsten Weldon, Bob Sheridan, \u201cOrville Ketchum as Himself\u201d (Peter Spellos).\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: N\/A\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Body Count: 7 \u00bd<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ** \u00bd<\/p>\n

\u00a0Don\u2019t believe everything you read on video boxes. On the cover, Hard to Die<\/strong> is described by drive-in movie critic Joe Bob Briggs as a \u201cfemale version of Die Hard\u201d. It even has a title meant to evoke the classic Bruce Willis actioner. Well, it\u2019s NOT that even though it has machine guns and takes place in a high-rise building. It\u2019s actually a DTV slasher flick featuring five hot girls in various states of undress running from a mad killer (NOT Eurotrash criminals) in an office building after hours. Gotta love the old bait and switch technique.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Hard to Die<\/strong> goes by a couple of other titles, Tower of Terror and my personal preference, Sorority House Massacre III. It\u2019s a follow-up to Sorority House Massacre II in that it tells essentially the same story (in a different location) and it has some of the same characters and actors including three of the five original lead actresses (who play different characters). So who\u2019s back for another go-around? The two cops, Lt. Block (Jurgen Baum) and Sgt. Shawlee (Chorak), are once again on the case. And once again, it takes them all night to get to the scene of the crime. Also returning is our old friend Orville Ketchum (Spellos), as creepy and unkillable as ever. He just happens to be the nighttime janitor at the building where the latest massacre goes down.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The plot of Hard to Die<\/strong> is basically recycled goods with a few changes. The five girls- Dawn (Harris), Tess (Moore), Shayne (Carney), Jackie (Dare) and Diana (Taylor)- are office workers tasked with working an overnight shift doing inventory for a lingerie company. Why a lingerie company? It gives the girls a logical reason for wearing only sexy underwear for most of the movie. Of course, that\u2019s after each one of them takes a hot, soapy shower (T&A, baby!). ANYWAY, a package meant for a museum with an almost identical address is mistakenly delivered. They accidentally open it and find an ancient Egyptian puzzle box inside. Before you can say \u201cHellraiser rip-off\u201d, they solve it and unleash the evil spirit inside. Shortly thereafter, a hooded figure starts bumping them off.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Where does good old Orville fit in? He serves the same function as in the previous movie. He tells the new girls about the original sorority house killings. The girls scream their heads off every time he shows his face. He\u2019s the main suspect when the new killings commence. Block still thinks he\u2019s guilty of the original murders and intends to prove it despite orders to stay away from him. Each girl gets a turn trying to kill Orville. He won\u2019t stay down. He keeps on coming and coming. Then he helps save the day at the end.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Don\u2019t look to Hard to Die<\/strong> for good acting, brilliant writing or anything else you might find in a film that won multiple Oscars. You certainly won\u2019t find any of it here. Of course, that goes without saying. We\u2019re talking about a movie produced by schlockmeister Roger Corman. It\u2019s cheap, trashy and dumb. It\u2019s also fun. It\u2019s more fun than it ought to be. Let\u2019s set aside the cheap production values, bad acting and recycled plot to talk about what really matters in this case. Is it effective as a silly slasher flick? I\u2019d say yes, mostly. I was disappointed in the lack of gore especially with its NC-17 rating for \u201cextreme horror violence\u201d. It\u2019s not all that bloody. It\u2019s not nearly as violent as the average Friday the 13th<\/sup> movie. The kills lack creativity. This part of Hard to Die<\/strong> is a letdown.<\/p>\n

\u00a0What it lacks in blood, Hard to Die<\/strong> makes up for in spirit. Returning director Jim Wynorski (Chopping Mall) takes a tongue-in-cheek approach to the material. He endows it with humor that walks the line between twisted and goofy. Take the scene on the set of what has to be the cleanest porno movie ever made. The director, played by Wynorski in an uncredited cameo, gets into a debate with his clothed cast over his decision to have lead actress Fifi Latour (Girard) wear her shoes in bed. They argue that it makes no sense to wear shoes in bed; he counters that dirty feet aren\u2019t a turn-on. I can see such a conversation taking place on the set of a movie not directed by Quentin Tarantino.<\/p>\n

\u00a0While the writing isn\u2019t exactly stellar, Mark Thomas McGee and James B. Rogers clearly enjoyed coming up with story elements like having the girls stumble across a cache of automatic weapons at just the right time. The sight of scantily clad women firing machine guns is classic exploitation movie stuff. And how convenient is it their employer has plenty of product samples on hand? It\u2019ll come in handy in case they need dry clothes for some reason- e.g. a sprinkler suddenly turning on. Also, this way Wynorski has an excuse for showing boobs.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The female leads, Moore in particular, are attractive. Their characters are dim but they can all scream really loud. What else do you need? Jurgen\u2019s character is a goof on every TV detective. Orville Ketchum is awesome as Orville Ketchum. I love that Wynorski once again uses scenes from The Slumber Party Massacre for flashbacks. It totally fits the movie\u2019s goofball sensibility. And I think that about covers everything I wanted to say about Hard to Die, <\/strong>Sorority House Massacre III or Tower of Terror, whatever you choose to call it.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hard to Die (1990, aka Sorority House Massacre III)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 New Horizons\/Horror\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 83 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated NC-17 (extreme horror violence [?], nudity)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Jim Wynorski (as \u201cArch Stanton\u201d)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Mark Thomas McGee and James B. Rogers\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Chuck Cirino\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Jurgen Baum\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: March 10, 1993 (US, video)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Robyn Harris, Lindsay Taylor, Debra Dare, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4904,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-b-movies","category-horror"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Hard-to-Die-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3749"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3749\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4906,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3749\/revisions\/4906"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}