Part of Nashville: A City On Film
Sun, Sep 21 at 12:00pm: Introduction by T. Minton, Belcourt’s public historian and archivist | BUY TICKETS
Equal parts occult thriller and road-action mayhem, RACE WITH THE DEVIL follows two couples on what begins as a carefree RV trip from Texas to Colorado. But when they witness a ritualistic human sacrifice deep in the woods, their vacation spirals into a desperate fight for survival. Hunted by a shadowy, small-town Satanic cult, their journey becomes a white-knuckle escape through backroads and paranoia.
Produced and co-written by Nashville’s own Wes Bishop, the film embodies the gritty, adrenaline-soaked spirit of 1970s exploitation cinema. A nephew of Grand Ole Opry stage manager Vito Pellettieri (who began his work at the Belcourt in the 1930s), Bishop cut his teeth in local theater and went on to continue Nashville’s unlikely legacy of genre filmmaking — stepping into the legacies of the Ormond Organization with this made-for-the-drive-in-meets-Blockbuster exploitation horror film. With a cast anchored by counterculture icon Peter Fonda (EASY RIDER) and the always-intense Warren Oates (BADLANDS), this cult classic is a grindhouse gem rooted in Nashville’s filmmaking underground.
“A wittily efficient quickie, the film is a winner all the way.” —Time Out “A thrilling, original experience…Think:THE HILLS HAVE EYES meets DEATH PROOF.” —R.L. Shaffer, IGN
