Damned River (1989) User Reviews

better than most disposable B movies

[photoe · 5/10 · 5 October 2010]

It's your typical vacation-goes-really-bad movie with the guide going wacko, and the resulting helplessness of the couch potatoes in the hands of a brutal alpha type.

Lisa Aliff is gorgeous, and all the actors are good, especially the psycho. What's bad is the writing, and the implausability of much of the action. Three's one scene where the psycho chases down one of the gang who has run off at dawn trying to climb out of the river valley. Meanwhile, the other three hostages escape in the raft and try to take it down river. They get turned over in a rapids (this scene is beautifully intercut with the psycho chasing the one hostage down). Then incredibly, the raft ends up in the same area that the psycho has chased the other hostage down. HUH? When I first saw it, I thought they were introducing new characters into the movie, until I saw that it was the same people. Crawling up a river valley does not put you in the same place as a raft that has gone at least a few miles downstream.

It's this kind of inattention to script or continuity that destroys what could've been a decent movie. The action is also the cheesy, slo-mo type of this era, with opponents standing in ways asking to be shot and squibs exploding, and bodies contorting so much it just looks ridiculous.

The cinematography is fantastic, unusually great of the rapids and the falls, benefitting from its location in Zimbabwe, a place you wouldn't go to now. Anyway, fault the producer and the writers.

Better than you might expect...

[merklekranz · 6/10 · 9 April 2008]

No one is ever going to mistake "Damned River" for "Deliverance", but it would be a mistake to dismiss "Damned River" as non-entertainment. Filmed on location, this Zimbabwe rafting adventure has photography that is simply outstanding. The Zambezi River raft sequences are terrific. The acting is less than marginal, but that is no surprise. Character development is not great either, but in this type of low budget flick, you rarely get a fully developed script. What you do get is four against one, but of course the one has the guns. The story pretty much plays out in a linear fashion, with the crazed 'River Rat Ray", dishing out the orders and brutality, until the tables are finally turned. - MERK

Damn!

[videorama-759-859391 · 6/10 · 16 July 2020]

This movie was better than I thought it'd be, as judging by it's cover, and B grade status. We have a sort of Deliverance and River Wild geld together. Instead of going for the gore, this goes for suspense, but some idiotic choices and moments sort of kill it, in part. Hunky Shellen indeed plays a good Mitch Hedlberg looking psycho, who hottie Aliff can't keep her eyes off, until he goes nutty and the attraction quickly sours. Shellen plays a rafting tour guide, who has may'be led one too many tours, throwing his anger on competing African tour parties, who are actually the law. They know who this guy is, and set wary eyes on him. There are great shots of white water rafting, a little occasional violence, including a beheading, and like his new rivals, we too so much want him to die. This film showed promise, and sexy Aliff is really good to look at, but DR is a B grade Deliverance, that really doesn't have enough plotting, and gives way to the obvious. There were some real stupid moments in this film, but there was some real suspenseful ones. Terlesky's demise was affectingly sad. The film just didn't have enough ingredient, but a truly memorably haunting closing credit, music score.

A "Deliverance" that doesn't deliver.

[vandino1 · 7 October 2005]

Stephen Shellen plays an African river guide with a serious screw loose who takes three young men and a woman on a white water boating experience down the Zambezi river in Zimbabwe. What his new boat-mates think is just Shellen's bad temper becomes their undoing when he loses his mind and takes them all on the ride of their lives. This little mediocrity does have the advantage of being shot all on-location in Zimbabwe, but as a story it's mostly a rehash of 'Deliverance', with the main variation of having the Burt Reynolds character from that classic film become the bad guy as he does here. There are no hillbillies, but there is a clueless chubby guy (a la Ned Beatty) as one of the riders (and he gets razzed continuously by Shellen over both issues, but strangely the guy's cluelessness was explained early on to Shellen (the poor guy is an admitted amateur at this water rapids stuff) and the actor cast is hardly chubby (in fact you'd need a pinch test to find much fat on him). This is called bad writing and miscasting. But the acting is bad all around and the storyline has far too many scenes of Shellen losing track of, or getting attacked by, his charges and overcoming both problems with the greatest of ease. Flat music score doesn't help.

"Ain't no way of winnin' when you're playin' with the devil's odds."

[tarbosh22000 · 5/10 · 14 May 2010]

"Ain't no way of winnin' when you're playin' with the devil's odds." A bunch of stupid, unlikable party dudes go to the Zambizi River in Africa for no reason. If they wanted to "par-tee down" there are a lot of better places to do so.

Their tour guide down the Damned River is Ray (Shellen-A Treat Williams doppelganger) an American running away from his past by living and toting tourists around on his raft. His accent comes and goes, as he is southern in every other scene in the movie.

This particular group of tourists includes a poetry-spouting nerd, a hippie who ends every sentence with the word "man" in true Tommy Chong style. And the most unlikable character of all (and that's saying something…): Jerry (Bancroft) a big fat party animal who isn't fat and who whines about the lack of MTV in rural Africa. Jerry also demands his "Chow-ski" when he is hungry (because he is "fat") and the audience is rooting for his demise from the get-go.

Normally these characters would be seen in a 80's romp. Think "Up The Creek" meets "Deliverance". "Damned River" is in the tradition of other survival-river movies such as the aforementioned "Deliverance", "Rituals" (1977),"The River Wild", and "Survival Quest" (1989). "Damned River" is the bottom of the barrel of this bunch. If you have seen every other river flick, and are hankering for more river madness, check this out, otherwise, steer clear.

Ray tangles with a great white hunter type named Von Hoenigen (Louis Van Niekirk) and it ends with fan favorite death, decapitation. It livens up the proceedings. Also on hand is Mavuso, a kindly local. Ray get crazier and crazier as the movie progresses, eventually reaching "Daget" –from-"Twice Under" like proportions. Shellen overacts in much the same vein.

Bradford Bancroft is actually effective as the annoying Jerry because he achieved his aim of getting the audience to hate him. Bancroft can also be seen in "A Time To Die" and "Dangerously Close" The movie is very dumb as it is but it pretentiously tries to not be, "casually" throwing in high-minded references to such authors as Zola and Byron. Sadly, this wasn't enough to set it apart from the pack. Watch this "Damned" classic tonight! Comeuppance Review by: Ty & Brett For more insanity, please visit: comeuppancereviews.com

Somewhat predictable but well-shot outdoor action trash.

[coldwaterpdh · 7/10 · 1 March 2012]

"Damned River" is like a mix between "Deliverance" and "Treasure of the Amazon." It has elements of Euor-trash and I happened to like that a lot. It also has some comic relief...which I didn't really like.

The main star is pretty convincing in his role, but slips a few times. The part is somewhat poorly written because he has this alter-ego as a rough around the edges 'hunk' and the movie suffers a little for this.

Perhaps the most impressive element to be found is the beautiful cinematography on the river and the surrounding African nation of Zimbabwe. This movie would make a nice travelogue of the region. I was impressed to say the least.

For fans of trashy 80's action adventure and perhaps jungle/cannibal/euro trash flicks, I think there is some fun to be had here.

7 out of 10, kids.

Great Movie Stephen Shellen is a great actor

[trust-3 · 10/10 · 30 August 1999]

Stephen Shellen is a great actor totally animated and hostile in this film and you cant help but to love him. Check out a river runs through it and you will notice how his part in that movie wakes you up and makes you laugh and you feel sad when his character leaves.

Mildly Entertaining little diversion

[BloodTheTelepathicDog · 9 April 2011]

Four American silver-spoon fed would-be adventurers travel to Zimbabwe for their vacation with the desire to go river rafting. They hire Stephen Shellen to lead them down the river. Before they embark on their journey, mysterious cads show up and disagree with Shellen while Shellen's sidekick opts to leave the expedition when said cads begin grilling. However, the four sharp Americans can't see this as an alarm so they head down the river with Shellen as their only guide.

Shellen is quick to display his short temper as the fun-guy keeps goofing off which perturbs Stephen. Shellen accosts the loser throughout the film but his buddies are too spineless to stand up to their short-tempered guide. Their meek ways finally become understandable when Shellen sneaks off and murders the aforementioned cad and then tosses his severed head toward the four vacationers. This scene is the highlight of the film. The four vacationers then spend the remainder of the film trying to keep the psycho from further carnage, but with the tasty Lisa Aliff around, Shellen's psycho has a morsel that has captured his twitchy eye.

STORY: $$ (This film came well before the A-list "River Wild" and essentially has the same plot. But the script here doesn't effectively build any tension since Shellen easily subdues the minor little uprising the vacationers try. Shellen is almost unreasonably one-jump ahead of the foursome).

ACTING: $$ (Nothing of real note here. Stephen Shellen (The Stepfather) is okay in the main role as a psycho but he doesn't effectively go "over-the-top" in his crazed role--he's more laughable than convincing at times. John Terlesky (Chopping Mall) plays the lead rafter and Lisa Aliff's boyfriend, but he's just too much the coward to, like his two friends, to pull for. That being said, all you have left to root for is Lisa Aliff (Playroom) as the only dame on the vacation. There is chemistry between her and Shellen at first but when he ogles her bathing in the river, she loses interest. Lisa gives the best performance here but the screenwriters didn't help her any. After she is sexually assaulted by Shellen, her character is essentially a non-entity until the last minute of the film).

NUDITY: $$ (Lisa Aliff has a few brief nude scenes but they are of the blink-and-you-missed-it variety. She changes in her tent and bathes in the river, with a shirt on, but there is still plenty of titillation for the skin-crowd. Miss Aliff, a former Miss America contestant, is an extraordinary beauty with the loveliest set of come-hither eyes ever put on a woman).

Poor adventure/exploitation movie

[lor_ · 11 May 2023]

My review was written in April 1990 after watching the movie on CBS/Fox video cassette.

This United Artists pickup, originally lensed two years ago with moniker "Devil's Odds", tries to be a coed "Deliverance" without much success. Pic had minimal theatrical exposure last fall and is now in video stores courtesy of UA's output deal with CBS/Fox.

Four Americans are in Zimbabwe for a white water adventure vacation, with rugged former soldier Stephen Shellen as their guide. After some nicely lensed footage of rafting in treacherous waters, the film disintegrates into a corny battle for survival against Shellen. Climax is set at a dangerous rapids called "Devil's Odds".

A rape scene involving lovely herine Lisa Aliff is gratuitously graphic. Her presence on the expedition is unconvingily explained as a substitute for a guy who had to bow out.

Cast is okay: youngsters' camaraderie carries the pic, which would have benefited from more rafting action scenes. Helmer Michael Schroede, a Paul Bartel protege who previously directed "Mortuary Academy", doesn't come up with a consistent tone.