Empire of Ash

1989 "...They turned america into a wasteland"
3.5| 1h26m| R| en| More Info
Released: 24 February 1989 Released
Producted By: North American Pictures
Country: Canada
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Synopsis

In post-nuclear "New Idaho," a lone warrior teams up with a girl to help rescue the girl's sister from a hostile warrior clan.

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Reviews

Scanialara You won't be disappointed!
Mjeteconer Just perfect...
Adeel Hail Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.
Janis One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.
SnoopyStyle In a post-apocalyptic future, a virus has destroyed much of the population. In New Idaho, commander Baalca leads her group in kidnapping and collecting fertile young healthy women. The Shepherd leads the ruthless campaign to kill non-believers. Danielle convinces drifter Orion to help her rescue her younger sister from these marauders.This is low-budget amateurish effort. The acting is horrible. The lead actress' best move may be taking her top off. There are lots of fun badly-filmed stunts. The dialog is badly written when they actually have any. The editing and directions are probably the weakest part of the movie. There are some good campy aspects to this movie. They put in lots of guns, trucks, crashes and stunts. It's low grade Mad Max wannabe. The effort is there but it's a bit of a mess.
Comeuppance Reviews In a post-apocalyptic future, cities have been destroyed so the survivors roam the remaining forests. An aggressive, traveling gang of "maniac warriors", named LARD, which stands for, what else, Leukocytes Acquisitors for Remission of Disease, go around terrorizing and killing people. Who they don't kill, they kidnap and steal their blood so they can continue to survive. Naturally they are led by an insane, shroud-wearing preacher, and when they kidnap the wrong girl, her sister and a defector from LARD who is now a good guy team up to try and rescue her. Who will prevail - the survivors pure of blood or the MANIAC WARRIORS? While this movie is set in the fictional town of New Idaho, it was in fact shot in Canada. It's your standard Road Warrior/Mad Max knockoff, but presumably they thought by shooting the film in the forest, viewers wouldn't make the connection. Naturally, AIP picked it up and released it in the U.S. Confusingly, this very film is also known as Empire of Ash 2 (the original title is Empire of Ash). This must mark the first time in movie history that a movie and its sequel are THE SAME MOVIE. Well that saves time. There is one sequel, titled Last of the Warriors (1990). (That movie is known as Empire of Ash 3, for those that are still keeping track).There is some interesting camera-work and notable stunts, especially considering its restrictive low-budget status, but the fact remains that this is a middle-of-the-road outing at best, and it doesn't even have the power of a Ron Marchini to keep it afloat. Just think about that. Try to imagine a Ron Marchini movie without Ron Marchini. What's left? But you have to love some of the outfits and vehicles - you know it's a post-nuclear future because the main villainess has crimped hair. And, sensing that there isn't enough plot to sustain 90 minutes, the film veers into the story of two survivalists (potentially named Cochran and McKenzie, but we're not sure). They play Gunsmoke and Ikari Warriors on a post-apocalyptic Nintendo so we guess you have to care about their plight. Additionally, there's some reasonably rockin' music, including a cover of "Born to be Wild", and an original tune by one John Wednesday entitled "Gonna Get Some", but let's face it, he's no Billy Butt.Last but not least, we would be remiss if we didn't mention that this movie has a rocket launcher hat. Apropos of absolutely nothing, a character comes on screen with this contraption on his head, blows up a barn with a projectile launched from his fisherman's hat, and walks away. Why it's easier, much less cooler, to shoot a missile from your headgear remains unexplained. Besides the obvious question of WHY??????, we commend the use of the rocket launcher hat. It was a welcome invention in this dire world. Sure, one year earlier Heather Thomas sported some wicked-awesome helmet lasers in Cyclone (1987), but this bit of utter wackiness remains a movie highlight here.For that rock-bottom budget, AIP style, this movie delivers it in spades. It features some other weird scenes (we won't spoil them) - but the movie as a whole isn't weird enough to quite warrant full cult status. If you find this style too much to take, stay away.For more action insanity, please visit: comeuppancereviews.com
evilrobotsfromthefuture Empire of Ash was released as Empire of Ash 2 a year later, i just bought the vid at a boot sale. Genius! think of the money they saved...Actually i think a good effort, looks like budget didn't stretch to employing any great actors, but the film focuses on action mainly anyhow so they may not have been given an opportunity to shine. The directing is probably not the best you're ever going to see but again budget may have influenced this and overall feels and looks like a student film. However some of the plot was very well thought out, the concepts behind the two rival groups brilliant, and the music (although some a bit derivative, think ZZ Top) and big hair superb!
anxietyresister In your typical post-apocalyptic drama, we have mutated survivors and men dressed in rags sparring off against each other. They drive around in big trucks, swear a lot and take orders from scantly clad ladies with massive fringes. If anybody is captured, they have the white blood cells and bone marrow literally sucked out of them to preserve the lives of the people at the top. The heroine is a young woman who goes on a journey to save her sister from this terrible fate. She is a bit handy with a gun, and picks up a mysterious hunk on the way, with whom she shares an obligatory sex scene (after the obligatory shower scene, of course). There is lots of bullets flying around, some very unconvincing explosions, plenty of incoherent dialogue and a mad preacher guy who baptizes, then kills you. Viewer gets bored around the hour mark, removes cassette from VCR and throws it across the room. Want to know the end? Waste your own time.. 2/10