Octane

Ah, the adorable Mrs.Stowe… I sure miss the late 80's/early 90's, back when she was an elite member of the chosen few actresses club (alongside Linda Fiorentino, Lara Flynn Boyle and Sherilyn Fenn) who's every new film became instant priority-viewing on my movies' list. I wonder if she herself regrets the glorious days of "China Moon", "Blink" and "Unlawful Entry" are gone forever, especially now that she has to appear in below par and allegedly 'hip' new horror movies like this dreadfully irritating "Octane". This film is, briefly put, a big fat steaming & smelly pile of utter garbage. The story makes no sense whatsoever, the terribly slow built up atmosphere of mysteriousness leads absolutely nowhere, the "villainous" characters are pathetic & all but menacing and there's a seriously frustrating shortage of gore and sleaze. The ravishing Madeleine Stowe plays the uptight mother of an equally ravishing teenage girl (Mischa Barton) and the two are on a long and nightly homeward car journey. Things heat up when mommy forbids her daughter to go to a music concert and, bang, the girl promptly runs off with a bunch of rebellious teenagers in a giant truck. The fact she wanders off with complete strangers is already quite implausible, especially in this day and age, but the script even gets sillier when the strangers turn out to be members of some sort of bizarre cult. I think it's even hinted that they are a modern type of vampires, but that's never really confirmed. And then it even gets more retarded when literally everyone on the highway appears to be involved in this fiendish organization, including a female police officer and random motor home people in a restaurant. Stephen Volk's screenplay is truly unimaginative, borrowing even elements from 70's chillers like "Race With The Devil", Marcus Adams' direction is totally uninspired (not at all stylish, like some reviews I encountered dare to proclaim) and you know you're in trouble when someone without charisma like Jonathan Rhys Meyers is supposed to play an evil personified type of character referred to as The Father. Give me a break. "Octane" is a pretentious, pitiable and miserable excuse for a thriller, and if you have idea what good film-making is about you'll stay the hell away from it.

Could it my valves rattling from cheap gasoline or is that me banging my head upon the wall for having allowed myself to watch "Octane"? This movie appears to be a good example of what happens when someone has a vague idea of a film story but doesn't bother to hash it out on paper before turning the cameras on. Not surprisingly, about half way through the film, the story gets lost somewhere on the interstate between stupid and boring. I wish I could give you an idea of what this film is really about but I'm as clueless as director Marcus Adams and writer Stephen Volk. Take some advice guys, get a tune up and consider going back to film school. Only this time, try attending class once in a while.

The involvement of Johnathan Rhys-Meyers and Madeline Stowe made me interested in seeing Pulse/Octane. For the first part of the movie I was rewarded with cool photography, a nightmarish tone and the increasingly complex portrayal of a messed up mother-daughter dynamic. I began to get excited about what was to come as I was reminded of great classics like The Hunger, Aliens or Near Dark. Unfortunately, this potential never came to fruition.

What begins as an examination of a mother's will to protect her petulant daughter from herself soon decays into just another "B" horror movie full of clichés and buffoonish action. Shifting the perspective from Stow's character to the daughter's (Micha Barton) removes all weight and tension from the story since Barton's character is as fluffy and foolish as any MTV V-Jay. Why should we root for the mother when the heroin-chic daughter would so obviously be more happy partying with Bijou Phillips' vacuous hitchhiker?

Jonathan Rhys Meyers uses his trademark sensuality to good effect here, but his character, "The Father," is given such short-shrift that he never becomes more than a caricature. Still, if he is some kind of symbol for wanton lasciviousness, it looks so good on him one roots for Barton to accept his advances and ditch her mother's increasingly silly attempts to save her.

Movies like this are really irritating because of what they could have been with a bit more vision on the part of the writer and director. I'm sure Stowe and Rhys-Meyers saw the potential in the script and were then disappointed. For me, Pulse/Octane is one that got away...

I did miss some of the beginning, but I think it's obvious right up to the last scene that this is a movie about a woman's last moments. She was involved in a wreck and is dying but doesn't quite realize it, and instead of facing up to reality is trying to "find" her daughter who was in the car with her, to prevent her soul from going with the Evil forces, before she herself gives up and goes into "the Light". Those who insist on seeing this as an actual movie about a blood cult, I fear, are sadly superficial. Unfortunately, that seems to be the case with all of the actors, director and crew. Stephen Volk, where are you?

While a lot of people are going to disagree with me, I think "Octane" (aka "Pulse") is an underrated horror movie. The film begins with a horrible car accident scene, where a dying man is suffering within the wreckage. A squad of impostor medical workers show up on the scene, but soon scramble to leave the scene after the actual medical crew arrives. We are then introduced to Senga Wilson (Madleine Stowe) and her teenage daughter, Natalie (Mischa Barton), who are on a late-night road trip on their way back home. Senga gets tired at the wheel, nearly crashing the car, but insists that she's fine and that they need to get home because Nat has school the next morning. After convincing her mother to stop, Nat and Senga enter a truck stop for a coffee-break. The people within the truck stop seem a little weird too. After picking up a disappearing hitchhiker (Bijou Phillips), Senga and Nat get into a heated argument, and Natalie runs off with the hitchhiker (who re-appears) and a group of strange people. Now it's up to Senga to get her daughter back from the blood-letting cult, with the help of a truck-driver (Norman Reedus) who also is aware of the psychotic blood-drinkers.

The whole film's idea and premise is intriguing, albeit a little strange. While this film may seem like a clichéd horror flick, "Octane", also known as "Pulse" from the video release, has a lot more going for it. The story is fairly well-written, the cinematography is very stylish and adds an eerie texture to the movie, the music is surreal and fitting, and the performances were all-around well done. The foreboding atmosphere of no escape is extremely consistent throughout the film, giving the movie a surreal and nightmarish feeling that works for the film's benefit. The entire thing almost seems like one big bad dream that you can't escape, and I think that is what made this film so interesting to me.

The movie was nicely shot and has some really eerie sequences tied into the plot, mostly Senga's encounters with the bizarre, extensive group of cult members that seem to run the entire area, mostly in the strange little off-road truck stops along the way. The opening is a great start, and the last twenty minutes or so- while they are a little strange - work out well and were all the more bizarre. Madeleine Stowe and Mischa Barton have surprisingly good chemistry, and play their roles as the troubled single-mother and the rebellious, bratty teenage daughter. I like both Stowe and Barton as actresses, and they do a good job here. The rest of the cast gives good performances also, nothing I saw was necessarily bad.

Although "Octane" has a few minor flaws (mostly some of the semi-confusing material that the plot revolves around and leaves unexplained), the film is done with a distinct surreal style, and uses some great imagery and a haunting score. While most people disagree, I think this film isn't nearly as bad as the reputation it seems to have. Granted, it's one strange movie, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's bad. 7/10.