theRealEnAr When I saw the words "muscle-car" in the TV guide write-up I thought "all right, not a bad way to spend a wintery afternoon." Cripes, was I wrong ! Who wrote this piece of crap, preteens jacked up on CoCo Puffs?? This piece of crap has a bad story line (son finds dead-dads amulet which drips blood and apparently is capable of making you drive faster - no evidence of that as there were no racing/speeding scenes to speak of), horrible acting, silly dialog with equally bad presentation. The worst dialog comes from none other than AUTO or is Otto. Who cares.... Apparently the word "muscle" in the title refers to Auto's overtly-gay gang members, who every 15 minutes or so, sensually rub blood onto someones bare muscular chest while dancing around a pentagram drawn onto the floor of their ....'hideout'.... The more I watched this piece of crap, the more it became clear that I was watching some sort of homo-erotic film. All in all, the best part of this movie were the sweet sounds emanating from the Chevelle's mufflers when the engine was revved. Otherwise, a terrible waste of time and probably rates as the worst movie I have ever seen.If you have 85 minutes or so to spare, visit a lonely senior citizen and chat it up with them, they'll enjoy the company and you'll have done something worthwhile.

brando7604 Going in I knew how bad Decoteau was. I accidentally saw The Brotherhood and The Killer Eye. If you like bad movies, and are prepared for Decoteau's style, you will find the movies entertaining in that they are so laughable. One thing about Speed Demon, in the director's commentary he says he wanted to make a possessed car movie, which is totally not what this movie is about. Found that funny. Also, read an interview with him and he keeps producing these straight to video movies because he has made a lot of money off of distribution via blockbuster. He has a somewhat cult following. There's rarely any blood and no cursing as he said he wanted to avoid R ratings. He is openly gay and thought it would be interesting to put a homo-erotic spin on horror movies since it is usually women who are objectified. Signature Decoteau elements: usually one 4 max 5 locations; extended slow motion scenes, gratuitous crotch shots of guys in boxer briefs; very limited dialog (scripts can't be more than 4 pages long); group casts; holes in the plot; and random scenes. Film students should write a paper on his work and how bad it is. I actually kinda like the guy's stuff now, well except Wolves of Wall Street - that one was lame. :)

Hunter1114 When I saw the movie 'Shock Waves' (1977), I thought I had, without a doubt, seen the worst movie ever made. I must now apologize to director Ken Wiederhorn for having thought so. Director David DeCoteau's 'Speed Demon' (2003) is worse. DeCoteau can do good work but this isn't an example of it.(Potential Spoilers Ahead)Let's start with the setting. Wherever this town is that these kids live, there is almost nobody else living there but them. The film was very shy on, almost devoid of, extras to give the feel of an actual living, breathing community with some depth to it. Perhaps this is because the director moved from his familiar campus settings, with a heavy student population to draw from for extras, out into a wider world where extras cost more money. I can understand wanting to keep costs down, but the lack of a believable population gives the movie an odd feel to it.This town also, apparently, has some odd ordinances that require men under the age of, say, 25 to all wear sunglasses but mostly prohibit the wearing of shirts, except to funerals and other public functions. It's a shame that the story was not as well built as the bodies.Good horror depends on proper setup in order to make the viewer suspend disbelief and buy into the world that the director is creating. A brief mention of a 'Speed Demon' near the beginning of the film does not suffice. Flashbacks, or some other device, could have been employed at the beginning to set the stage and give more depth to the premise. When the lead actor talks about the speed demon before a fateful race, it rings hollow, more like high school gossip than urban legend.The fateful race was entirely predictable and came too early in the film to allow the viewer to develop any empathy for the unlucky character or his brother. It had none of the tension of, say, any of the race sequences from 'Rebel without a Cause' or even 'The Fast and the Furious' and 'The Wraith', which were the most likely inspirations for this film.The characters were shallow and did not elicit the empathy, sympathy or strong dislike that good characters have to do if the movie is going to work well. This was due in no small part to the fact that, generally, the acting was poor and distracted from what story there was. As an example, the lead villain delivered his lines in a consistently stiff, emotionless manner that was guaranteed to cure insomnia. To anyone who has seen other DeCoteau movies, the villain's wooden delivery would remind one of Bradley Stryker (The Brotherhood, et al), except that Stryker's tone of voice occasionally varied. However hokey the supernatural premise, almost any occult ritual scene can be made to work on some level if the lead actor has enough charisma to pull it off; think Michael Des Barres in 'Ghoulies' (1985). Des Barres performance was definitely over the top but it definitely didn't put the viewer to sleep, either. The lead villain in Speed Demon's occult ritual sequences leant no charisma whatsoever to the scenes and they came across as tedious frat initiations. This was not helped by DeCoteau's now-familiar, and tired, device of massage, to say nothing of underwear, either by doing it to one's self or with the help of a friend.Forgive me for picking on the lead villain...there's plenty of banality to go around for the whole cast.And the twist ending? Please. Not believable. The dark driver should've just driven off into the west, leaving them wondering about 'his' real identity similar to Eastwood's Preacher in 'Pale Rider'.Let this be a warning to young, aspiring directors: Well developed pecs and abs are no substitute for a well developed story. To you young actors out there: There's absolutely nothing wrong with developing one's body, but pay attention in drama class; don't just sign up for it and then head for the gym. Develop and work at your craft or you may someday find yourself living back home with your parents while trying to scrounge money for head shots and wondering why your agent doesn't return your calls.

Bigtip Part fast and furious part satanic teen homo-erotic thriller with a mind blowing twist ending. Nobody wears a shirt in the first hour of this movie except for the 2 female actors, which left me wondering when DeCoteau would just give up and turn this one into a porno. Glacial acting skills as one would expect from the director of such fine films as Creepozoids, Voodoo Academy and American Rampage.