jadavix "Hard to Die" is a quasi-sequel to Jim Wynorski's (here credited as Arch Stanton for some reason) film "Sorority House Massacre II". I daresay the title, location, and use of automatic weapons (unusual for a slasher) is also an attempt to cash in on a certain Bruce Willis movie.To make things more confusing, the movie features the character of Orville Ketchum reprising his role (as "himself") from "Sorority House Massacre II", and providing a summary of that movie, while clips play... of "Slumber Party Massacre". Did they get their own movie mixed up with someone else's? Regardless, the connection to "Sorority House Massacre II" is tenuous at best; it's not a continuation of that story in any sense of the word. It just uses some of the same actors.Anyway, the plot is five babes who work in a high-rise building having to go there one Saturday night to do "inventory". This job apparently involves taking boxes from the basement to another level. It never really progresses beyond that point: is that all the job involves? Not for the last time, after the ladies have accomplished this task, you might wonder why they don't just leave.The ladies decide to take a shower, so we get three shower scenes in which Wynorski makes the same mistake he made in "976 EVIL II": we are presumably supposed to believe the women are showering naked - because why wouldn't they? - and yet Wynorski shoots them with the camera low enough that we can see they are wearing underwear. Why didn't he just tilt the camera upwards, or put it a bit higher up? There are some developments in the story, both centered around boxes the girls find, one filled with lingerie, the other with an evil spirit. These discoveries mean that 1. the girls will spend the rest of the movie in underwear, and 2. they're going to start meeting a violent demise.The whole slasher movie aspect of "Hard to Die" is largely kept off screen. There is hardly any on-screen violence, with the killer pulling the victims into the shadows where we can't see anything, and the death represented as the obligatory blood spray. Perhaps the filmmakers blew their budget on the unique location, or maybe they had to pay the women more to get them to run around in crappy lingerie.Perhaps the most perplexing thing about this debacle is the fact that it was given the rare NC-17 rating in the US. In Australia, if this were released today, it'd probably be an M15+. What was the reasoning behind the MPAA's decision to give this film its highest rating? It doesn't even have any full frontal nudity, nor any sex, and most of the violence is kept off-screen.

Coventry The original title was supposed to be "Sorority House Massacre III: Hard to Die", but they wisely dropped the first part because … well … there isn't a sorority house in sight! Still, even if they kept the full title it wouldn't have made much of a difference, as the whole thing is already quite absurd and preposterous anyways. This incredibly cheap and trashy slasher flick is just an excuse to showcase a bunch of girls hysterically running around in sexy lingerie or – even better – with their prime cups exposed in extended soapy shower sequences. Oh yeah, there's also an ultra-thin plot line about a malicious parasite-spirit that floats out of a mysterious Egyptian artifact and possesses one of the chicks. For you see, they were all recruited to do the inventory of a lingerie company overnight, which gives them easy access to luscious outfits and the manager's private shower. Then there's also Orville Ketchum! He's basically the good guy who wants to rescue the babes, but since he looks and slavers like a big fat pervert, stumbles around like a decaying zombie and never opens his mouth when he's supposed to, the girls understandably consider him to be the killer. Then again, knowing that he's around doesn't stop them from going into the basement in thongs, though. Orville is a downright fantastic persona, and you'll quickly notice that he's even more indestructible than Arnold Schwarzenegger in "The Terminator" (and, as far as I know, he's not even a cyborg). "Hard to Die" gradually gets more absurd and over-the-top with every minute that passes. The girls defend themselves with heavy machine artillery that magically appeared and Orville staples bandages to his bloodied chest! The notorious Jim Wynorski directed this flick during the early nineties, when his work was still more or less watchable. Ironically enough, "Hard to Die" ranks as his best work, alongside 80's favorite "Chopping Mall" and the underrated horror parody "Transylvania Twist". After 1995, the best things about his films are the witty and imaginative titles, such as "The Devil Wears Nada" or "The Hills have Thighs". The five lead actresses obviously aren't selected based on their Oscar potential, but they inarguably have delicious curves and tasty blouse bunnies (and definitely not too shy to show them). Respecting the overall rules of cinema, I simply cannot reward "Hard to Die" with a rating higher than 3/10, but - make no mistake – it comes with my wholehearted recommendation.

clh9999 ORVILLE KETCHUM WILL NOT DIE!!!!!!!that is the overall theme of the unsung hero in this movie. ORVILLE KETCHUM RULES!!!!!!!!!! if you want to see plenty of hot chicks showering Goofy violence and the overall awesomeness of Orville check this movie out i first saw it on USA network years ago and have been wanting more Orville ever since Check it out!! and bring back Orville!!!!!! but what this movie is about is basically a serial killer chases around scantly clad women who have the weird urge to take showers while they are running from the killer. Orville is stabbed thrown off the building and other ways that would cause the demise of ordinary men. but not Orville. i think this movie is very underrated and wish that they would bring it back to put it on DVD. a famous quote from Me Ketchum throughout the film is "I Just Got To Tell You..." what does he have to tell the girls..... just watch to find out!!!

capkronos 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.