Damned River
Damned River
R | 13 October 1989 (USA)
Damned River Trailers

A group hires a guide to take them whitewater rafting down the Zambezi River in Africa, but what they don't know is that the guide is actually a deranged psychotic killer.

Reviews
MoPoshy Absolutely brilliant
Teddie Blake The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.
Griff Lees Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.
Lidia Draper Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.
Leonard Smalls: The Lone Biker of the Apocalypse "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.
Martin Onassis 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.
merklekranz 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
trust-3 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.