Welcome to a new feature here at Horror Squad you can expect to find every Wednesday and Friday. It's called I Would Have Saved/Killed and it goes like this: one of our writers will pick a character, big or small, from a movie and explain how they, for whatever reason, would have altered the fate of that character.

Don't worry, we will never spoil anything pre-jump, though obviously everything after the break is operating under the assumption you've seen the film to the right, so be warned. And a big tip of our hat to Arbogast on Film for inspiring us with his post The One You Might Have Saved.

Ever gone on a road trip? Ever gone on a road trip in a motor home? Ever gone on a road trip in a motor home through the barren landscape of West Texas? Ever gone on a road trip in a motor home through the barren landscape of West Texas while being pursued by a Satanic cult that has every intention of shuffling your mortal coil? Let's take a look at Race With the Devil after the jump.


Names: Roger Marsh, Kelly Marsh, Frank Stewart and Alice Stewart.

Fate: Dead?

Cause of Death: Surrounded by innumerable cultists in a busted motor home in the middle of the Texas countryside, they're presumed sacrificed over a roaring fire during a creepy Satanic ritual.

Verdict: I Would Have Saved Them

Reason: One part horror movie and one part car chase action thriller, Race With the Devil spends the first 86 minutes of its 88 minute running time being one of the Best Things Ever before effectively shooting itself in the foot with an unsatisfying and abrupt closing scene. Not only is this ending do a disservice to the (admittedly thin) plot, it does a major disservice to the characters, implying that they're all about to die horrible deaths without giving them the dignity of at least going out with one final fight.

Roger (Peter Fonda), Kelly (Lara Parker), Frank (Warren Oates) and Alice (Loretta Swit) only wanted to go on a road trip from Texas to Colorado, take their time to see the sights and ride their dirt bikes through the wilderness. You know, relax and have fun and enjoy the company of their best friends and loved ones. Unfortunately, their impromptu camping spot gives them front row seats to a secret meeting of Satanic cult and they witness a young girl get brutally sacrificed to Mighty Lucifer. Of course, like any good, hardworking people, our heroes go to the police (after barely escaping with their lives) and attempt to continue their road trip. Only they're being followed. And someone is sabotaging their motor home. And someone is putting deadly snakes in their beds. And then they go and kill Alice's sweet little dog.

Too far! Our band of likable everymen have had enough! Newly purchased shotgun in hand, our intrepid heroes engage in a brilliantly shot and thrilling car chase climax where vehicles of every shape and size and seemingly dozens of armed cultists come after them on a long stretch of deserted highway. The whole movie has been building to this, a slow burn of tension and horror, danger constantly getting closer, the noose tightening. To say that this final chase is a great pay-off is an understatement. It's friggin' cathartic. After being so helpless and alone in the face of evil, Roger and Frank rise to the occasion and between some wild and crazy driving and a bunch of shotgun blasts, they win the day. They've gone through hell, they've been terrorized and assaulted, and they've lived to tell the tale.

But they don't. After this cheer-worthy, fist-pumping climax, they pull over for the night and suddenly find themselves surrounded by cultists. THE END.

Okay, I know that hopelessness and nihilism are required components of the horror genre, but do you know what the key difference here is? I actually felt for these guys and got personally involved in their plight. Do I care when Jason suddenly comes back to life to off the survivors in the final moment of a Friday the 13th? No, because I go to see that kind of horror movie to Jason murder one-dimensional characters I couldn't care less about.

The protagonists of Race With the Devil are good people who fight hard and win, only to have it taken from them at the last moment. I'm sure most horror fans appreciate this mean-spiritedness (and I think I normally would, too), but this is one case where I felt the heroes deserved an actual victory. Can't the good guys win a few times? Even in horror movies?