"Fight for Your Life" has a reputation as a nasty shocker, the kind of thing you might have found in a small, privately owned video store while digging through the crates, feeling like you'd stumbled upon an unholy grail of depravity.
But how extreme is it really? The answer is, not that much. If you're only looking to watch the movie for shock value, you're probably going to be bored for most of it. There's only maybe one genuinely shocking scene, which is only really shocking for what it shows, not how it shows it. Like the rest of the movie, it's not particularly graphic, nor convincing in its effects.
The movie stars legendary character actor William Sanderson as the "Krug Stillo" type role, the escaped psychopath with a couple of other psychos in tow who breaks into a bourgeois home and holds the family hostage.
This time, there's a racial aspect being that the well-to-do brood are all African American, and Sanderson is a Southern low-life.
What was probably intended as the movie's most shocking aspect is the racist language constantly used by Sanderson. In fact, the extent of the gruelling "torture" the low-life puts this family through is mostly just racial abuse, at least up until the end, when it's finally stepped up.
Once the low-lifes break into the family house, the movie seriously lulls, as if they thought the racism coming out of the character's mouth would be shocking enough to distract you from the inertia.
Sanderson is always believable as a Southern low-life, but he was miscast here. He's not scary enough, and looks like he would be easily overpowered.
But how extreme is it really? The answer is, not that much. If you're only looking to watch the movie for shock value, you're probably going to be bored for most of it. There's only maybe one genuinely shocking scene, which is only really shocking for what it shows, not how it shows it. Like the rest of the movie, it's not particularly graphic, nor convincing in its effects.
The movie stars legendary character actor William Sanderson as the "Krug Stillo" type role, the escaped psychopath with a couple of other psychos in tow who breaks into a bourgeois home and holds the family hostage.
This time, there's a racial aspect being that the well-to-do brood are all African American, and Sanderson is a Southern low-life.
What was probably intended as the movie's most shocking aspect is the racist language constantly used by Sanderson. In fact, the extent of the gruelling "torture" the low-life puts this family through is mostly just racial abuse, at least up until the end, when it's finally stepped up.
Once the low-lifes break into the family house, the movie seriously lulls, as if they thought the racism coming out of the character's mouth would be shocking enough to distract you from the inertia.
Sanderson is always believable as a Southern low-life, but he was miscast here. He's not scary enough, and looks like he would be easily overpowered.