Hayride to Hell is a horror film directed by Dan Lantz featuring two iconic horror actors, Bill Mosely and Kane Hodder. Farmer Sam (Bill Mosely) executes the perfect bloody revenge against his ‘critics’ who wants to steal the farm that’s been in his family for 200 years and get rid of his town famous annual hayride. If you’re a fan of either or both of these actors and enjoy wacky fun horror movies, this one is perfect for you.

The first two thirds of the movie do feel really casual and silly (in a good way), but the third act takes advantage of this and sweeps you off your feet with how crazy and intense it gets especially with the kills. They don’t shy away from gruesome kills at all, taking advantage of the farm location to utilize the heavy machinery and nature aspects creatively; Karen’s death in the cornfield is the perfect example for this. The main cast of characters are sure to remind you that this is a horror movie in the third act, they’re “normal people” demeanor being completely dropped once they initiate the nightmarish hayride plan. What I do appreciate is that even with them getting creepier towards the end, they don’t completely drop the humor and deliver some funny lines in between kills. There is a scene between Mosely’s and Hodder’s characters after someone’s son is killed that I did love a lot, it felt like a bit of Otis Driftwood came out there…so good!

The characters are all fun in their own ways, especially Farmer Sam. He has this unhinged aura to him that always leave you wondering what he’s up to, especially towards the end. The funny thing is that he never loses this silly fake seeming persona he displays to the townspeople, even when he’s orchestrating all these deaths; we get a small glimpse of some anger from him when he’s burning down the employee who had been stealing money from the farm but that’s it. Bill Mosely has this way with his characters of doing the worst things ever while keeping this cheery and clown-like persona which is displayed here. Kane Hodder’s character was also a funny one to follow. He plays this corrupt and always angry cop, always calling his co-worker a dumbass and saying “fuck” a lot – a stark difference from his quiet and brooding Jason Vorhees roles.

I’m not sure if it was intentional but there are a couple of scenes that make you smile as they feel like a small nod to the actor’s characters. For Kane Hodder, there’s a scene with a lake where a character comes up from the swamp to kill a towns person which gives off total Friday the 13th vibes even down to the way that this character walks backwards into the lake. For Bill Mosely, there really isn’t much of a scene like this for him except one where the characters are all drugged up and one of them chuckles and says “fireflies” while Farmer Sam (Bill Mosely) is around; this may be a reference to his character Otis in House of a 1000 Corpses, who’s a part of the Firefly family.

Overall, I think this is a solid fun horror film. It’s silly, it has fun characters and great kills. It’s a perfect film for someone who doesn’t really like horror movies but still wants something to watch since it’s not super gruesome or a drag to follow. It’s a good hour and thirty minutes and each scene keeps your eyes glued to the screen.

We give Hayride to Hell a 4/5.