User Reviews

If you are not a fan of bad fantasy movies with caped heroes running around in the weeds shooting arrows at each other, this movie is not for you. The movie is played straight, there is no camp and no humor at all, so you really gotta be hardcore into fantasy to appreciate it.

The movie's weaknesses are difficult to get around; first and foremost the dialog is terrible. The actors are not very good and are unable to pull off their goofy lines. Editing is wobbly with scenes that jump from place to place making it seem a bit uneven.

If you are willing to see past all that, you might be able to enjoy the mythic Greek-style storyline.

Spoiler alert: here is a brief synopsis with several details glossed over:

Just after the hero Kleitos marries the princess Demetria, Demetria is secretly poisoned by a jealous childhood friend of both of them named Theron. Kleitos takes the body of a bridesmaid who was blamed for the poisoning of Demetria to a local Seer who tells him that somebody else killed the bridesmaid and Demetria , and also that the spirit of dead princess Demetria didn't go to Elysium but instead to Tartarus where the god Hades intends to marry her because she is still pure as her marriage had not been consummated yet.

Kleitos vows to go into Hades and save Demetria, and does so with a special elixir given him by the Seer he and a band of buddies (his brother Nikandros, 'best' friend Theron, stout war buddy Andronikus, and several proverbial red-shirts) who take a portal into Hades, cross the river Styx by bribing Charon with water, and then enter the maze of Tartarus to find Demetria's lost spirit. Eventually they do find her.

Several action scenes later, Kleitos is betrayed by Theron who tries to feed Kleitos to some hell hounds so he can have the princess for himself. Kleitos manages to escape and kills Theron, who's soul goes to a torture machine back in Tartarus where Hades gives him one last chance to get Demetria back for him; Hades gives Theron a special staff for controlling Hellhounds and he follows Kleitos and Demetria and the remaining band of buddies back out of the Portal to Hades.

Our band of heroes think they have saved the day, but it turns out that Demetria is dying and their friend Theron has risen from Hell to hunt them down. So they go back to the Seer who tells them that to keep the princess alive she has to drink water from a special spring mixed with Hades blood. Several action scenes later, most of the remaining band has been eaten by hell hounds.

Finally, its down to Kleitos and his brother Andronikus and a limp Demetria who's spirit is on the verge of leaving her body. Nikandros figures they can mix the blood of the Boss hell hound with the spring water to save Demetria, all they have to do is kill it. They do that, she drinks the water, happy ending.

The Sinbad movies we're cutting edge in the 70's and this movie Hell Hounds has definite similarities to those films. The movie was made in Romania in 15 days with a budget of two million. when you take that into account, it's a wonderful accomplishment. The story is solid and the special effects are good enough to tell the tale. Some of the fights are extremely well choreographed and exciting. the cast does a good job and production values are 1st class. Ricky Schroder's second film shows a lot of growth and has a strong sense of pacing and action. The music was well done and not distracting. The Romanian country side where it was filmed is beautiful and haunting. The one sequence where they cross"The River Styx" looks like a Tim Burton sequence, on a smaller budget of course. All in all I give the movie an 8 out of ten. Its the best SyFy movie in awhile.

This is a great movie to watch. If it comes on DVD I would buy. The acting is okay I like the way they mades hades also the river stix wasn't half bad If you like the dark side of Greek mythology this movie is great Not a movie for kids. But it has some flaws for one when the dog bites the guys leg A few second later he is walking perfectly doesn't make sense Before they get to the maze the explain how hard it is but yet they figured in out in a matte rof days it cant be that hard. Also the movie could have been a little longer. Also if hades controls hell The only thing he did was make it rain he couldn't do anything else more threatening if that was true they would have made it out