(aka Hellfire)
I’ve given a lot of attention over the last few years to small films — whether SOV, DIY, or low budget Indies from dedicated creators and production companies — and to their special place in the film world. But I haven’t written much about the role played by small distribution companies who put out strange and obscure films most of us haven’t heard of. Not only have they given us the work of people like Joshua Kennedy and Brett Piper (Alpha Video), but they’ve been hard at work finding lost, or nearly lost, films, including several I’ve reviewed, like The Visitor (1979) (Drafthouse Films) and Foes (1977) (Garagehouse Pictures).
This time around we’re talking about a quirky little film from the Eighties, the third offering from Code Red’s Dark Force label. Like Foes we’re talking about a film which barely existed: it was never released in the U.S., and as far as I’ve been able to discover, only made a brief appearance on VHS as Hellfire, in Australia, of all places.
You have to admit that’s a strange fate for a movie made in New Jersey. At least Foes made it to the British theaters.
Primal Scream is an odd little film, one I quite enjoyed despite its flaws.
There is a new power source called Hellfire, which promises to give us almost unlimited power. It is mined in space, and if human beings are exposed to it, they burn up from the inside out.
A mysterious blonde — the sister of the head of the Hellfire Corporation — shows up at the door of Corby McHale, a former cop turned Private Eye turned record dealer.
Corby stumbles about, asking questions and getting shot at. He’s not much like Humphrey Bogart, more of a bungling Seventies comic PI who trips over things rather than detects them.
All in all, it’s a strange film, complete with spaceships, an outer space highjacking, corporate intrigue, a MacGuffin everyone is after, and some very fake looking but “A” for effort Eighties handmade gore for those people burning up from the inside.
Think Blade Runner meets Chinatown, not that it is much like either one of those films. Instead, it is lighter and not weighted down with either philosophy or irony, which looks like it is in the modern world yet has a few deft Science Fiction ideas worked into the mix here and there. And spaceships.
It’s not a lost classic. It’s a low-budget effort which stumbles and bumbles at time, just like its hero.
But it is entertaining enough if you can accept it for what it is and get into its goofy frame of mind.
Just stay away from the Hellfire.
If you don’t, the effects will seriously strain our budget.
rivets on the poster 
I’m glad you wrote this review! I’ve been trying to remember the name of this movie, which I saw on VHS years ago, and all I could remember was that there was a fuel called Hellfire that harmed people who came into contact with it, it was from the late eighties, and it might be an Australian movie. Also I vaguely remembered that its name Hellfire came from the chemical formula looking sort of like the word. Now I can track it down and re-watch it! Thanks! 🙂
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Glad to help! For years it was only available on an Australian VHS, which is why you thought it was Australian — even though it was actually made in New Jersey! (which is rather strange, really…)
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