"A Hard Place" (2025)

by Joseph Perry and Mike Imboden

In our “The Good, the Bad, and the Verdict” film reviews, Joseph and Mike give their thoughts on a slice of cinema. For this installment, they’re between a rock and A Hard Place, by J. Horton.

Synopsis

A group of criminals on the run find themselves caught in the middle of an ancient feud between the monsters that roam the day and the creatures that rule the night.

The Good

Joseph: The suit designs and practical effects makeup and gore are the highlight of A Hard Place, and both creature-feature devotees and gorehounds should find this reason enough to check out the film. Horton had a vision for this feature and he certainly saw it through, giving the story a nice sense of world-building and just enough back story, along with a good deal of heart among the mayhem.

Mike: Horton certainly had an idea for a story that made it onto film. Some decent creature designs and practical effects stand above the rest of the film, showing that sometimes more CAN be done with less.

The Bad

Joseph: If the family has truly been on Earth as long as they claim (trying to avoid spoilers here), why would they not be more advanced than the clichéd “simple rednecks” depicted here? These and other questions are likely to befuddle viewers who care to think about A Hard Place details beyond just watching for fun. The acting ranges from scenery chewing to highly broad to suspect. The dialogue is often cliched and the situations and story beats are quite predictable. Some of the monsters lumber around like robots from 1930s serials. The comedy, which often comes in asides spoken too softly to fully catch and at other times is quite broad, seems out of place given the serious tone of the rest of the film, making it neither a horror comedy nor a straight horror with comic relief, but somewhere in limbo between the two.

Mike: Not too long ago I said to myself that I was done with films like this. Like what you ask? Like low budget, poorly acted, and badly written films. Since starting The Good, The Bad, and The Verdict I’ve grown softer in my approach to being overly critical of indie films, after all, even the worst films are probably better than I could put together. Of course, the old saying of “those that can, do, and those that can’t, teach” holds true and so let’s consider myself the teacher for this review.

Clearly there’s some decent plotting going on here, but a good plot can sometimes be nothing more than a single sentence scribbled onto a beer-stained napkin. A decent plot needs character development, good writing, consistent tone, acting that reaches above stereotypical portrayals, and that certain Je ne sais quoi that can turn a bad film into something palatable. Sadly, A Hard Place doesn’t hit the target often enough to make that stretch and further solidifies my promise to myself

The Verdict

Joseph: If you’re simply in the mood for some entertaining B-movie creature feature action that boasts plenty of gore and some cool-looking practical-effects monsters, A Hard Place should be an amusing enough way to spend an hour and a half.

Mike: If you’re looking for a good film, A Hard Place probably isn’t going to make the grade. That’s not to say it has no redeemable qualities, but what there is just isn’t enough to rise above the level of this being something for the Felissa Rose completeists out there to enjoy.