A not half bad chase/survival thriller concerning six easygoing California teens on a cross country fun trek who run afoul of a lethal drug dealer gang led by suave, assured, laid-back smoothie Peter Graves and cranky, severe, uptight old bastard Ray Milland when their van breaks down in the middle of the desert. Larry Spiegel's snappy direction keeps the compact narrative zipping along at a reasonably punchy tempo, keeping exposition to a bare minimum, staging the action scenes with praiseworthy vigor (there's an especially stirring and well-mounted motorcycle chase towards the end of the movie), and creating a fair amount of gritty tension. Alex Phillips, Jr.'s slick cinematography makes expert use of expansive helicopter shots and sweeping pans, thus lending this tightly self-contained outing an unexpectedly substantial sense of scope and polish. The remote desert location is likewise finely utilized; it naturally evokes a feeling of grim hopelessness and utter desolation. Moreover, the dope peddlers are a suitably gross and scummy lot, with reliable old pros Graves and Milland making for a perfectly hateful pair of nicely contrasting head slimeballs (Graves in particular shines as a calmly malevolent jerk who hides his true pernicious nature behind a deceptively pleasant and polite veneer). The kids, who include "Hell Night" 's Vincent Van Patten, are a genuinely likable bunch. However, the film never fully develops the necessary hard, sleazy edge required to measure up as a complete trashy exploitation feature contender, but overall still makes for a satisfyingly brisk and efficient item just the same.

Spree is one of those movies that has fallen through the cracks and landed in cinematic oblivion. The only people who seem to remember Spree are those who found it distasteful or exploitative. The reason for Spree's surprising inability to find a cult following probably has something to do with the fact that the film straddles the no man's land between the mainstream and the video nasty. This is unfortunate because Spree is a good film and, even by today's standards, still packs a punch.Like many films of the period, the basic set up involves a group of teenagers meeting the wrong people, in the wrong place, at the wrong time. In Spree's case, a group of friends drive into the desert for a weekend away. The film begins tamely enough, with conversations about condoms and a run-in with the police. Spree even has its own hilariously upbeat theme song which admittedly helps give the impression that the film is some kind of demented teen comedy. The tone changes rapidly, however, when their van crashes and they are forced to walk through the desert to find help. Unfortunately the saviours they stumble across are drug dealers, who are none too happy to have witnesses to their business dealings.From the time the teenagers land in Kandaris' drug camp, the film becomes increasingly tense. The hospitality shown to the group rests on a knife's edge and it becomes glaringly obvious that everything could turn very bad, very quickly - which, of course, it inevitably does. This is the point at which the film briefly enters the horror realm. One of the girls is gang raped and her boyfriend is killed. The others flee into the desert but are pursued by Kandaris. This kind of chase and kill scenario is an old horror favourite and the film manipulates the situation for the most suspense possible. The desert location is beautifully filmed and some of the car and motorbike chase scenes are reminiscent of "Mad Max". The film has a reasonably high body count and the various shoot outs are well choreographed and bloody.Spree is a very well paced movie. As soon as the action begins, it never lets up. The result is pure entertainment, the likes of which Hollywood inexplicably finds impossible to replicate these days. This film is lean and mean, without crossing over into realm of pure horror. Which is actually the film's biggest problem - it is too tame for horror fans, yet possibly too excessive for viewers who like their teen movies rape and murder free. The biggest surprise is the quality of the acting and directing. Peter Graves is great as Kandaris. He is menacing without being ridiculous and his helicopter retreat scene is a delight. Ray Milland more than matches it with Graves, as Kandaris' business partner, "the professor". Milland gives the film a huge dose of class and he seems to thoroughly enjoy one of the better roles of his latter career. The teenage actors are adequate without being brilliant, while the actors who play Kandaris' henchmen inject the film with some real bile. Larry Spiegel's direction, particularly of the initial car crash and subsequent chase scenes, is excellent. It's perplexing to learn that he only made one more film after this.Spree might have been a hard sell back in the glory days of the video nasty. However, given the increasingly lame nature of mainstream horror, the film packs more punch today than it did on release. Spree is the perfect anecdote to the comedy/horror currently being churned out en masse. This movie is definitely worth checking out.

"Survival Run" has all the elements of a whimsical teen flick: likable young characters get out on their own by taking a road trip, only to be faced with a tough situation that they must overcome as friends.But wait, this ain't no regular teenybopper fare. Enter Peter Graves and Ray Milland, two cantankerous old dudes doing some kind of shady deal out in the desert--not far from where our heroes have lost their van in an offroad accident.Well, push comes to shove. Stuff happens. Gunplay ensues. Will the kids be able to kill the killer old guys? You've gotta watch it to find out.Now, I did enjoy it. But I like these kinds of movies. And I can easily see how someone might not enjoy it. So you've got to judge this one for yourself. If you have low standards and are pre-disposed to liking stupid 80s action/teen movies, I am positively sure you will not completely hate "Survival Run." But if you're a movie snob...stay away from this at all costs. Don't say I didn't warn you.

I had the great [mis]fortune to find this on local tv at 3 in the morning this week - and what a treat! At those wee hours of the night, something like this becomes a surreal, dreamlike oddity instead of the bleeding ulcer it would seem in daylight hours. This is a film that is too bad even for MST3K - it makes its own laughs. Your jaw will drop at how absolutely bad - BAD - this things is, and poor Ray Milland is on hand, sleepwalking like Im Ho Tep through this mess. Actually, he just sits in a lawn chair and mumbles much of the time. There is an incredible moment halfway through where the director seems to have gone berserk, asking for all 5 of his protagonists to spout the entire range of tragic pathos: where the film has just had lazy, bad performances, at this point they seem to turn on a dime and try to re-enact scenes from The Trojan Women. It's unbelievable, and I honestly can't figure out how Graves and Milland ended up in it. They were frequently in bad movies, I know, but this is ridiculous! Amateur hour is too good for this, it seems like this was made by a bunch of junior high kids on a weekend. Check it out.