The Freeway Maniac

Well, no need to beat about the bush, this is probably one of the worst films I have ever seen. Everything looks so false that it made me laugh (literally)... Most of what happens in this 'film' is simply ridiculous. For instance, in the asylum where the psycho is confined, one of the watchmen is explaining to a new recruit that the cell he is going to open contains the most dangerous madman he has ever seen. However that does not seem to bother him since he opens the door without any caution. Of course the psycho escapes as he was apparently hiding behind the door with a chair !!!(yes this crazy killer has furniture in his room and even a telly !!!) After having murdered one or two guards, the man finally escapes the asylum by jumping from a tower and landing on a guard's belly... That was probably one of the funniest scene from the whole film. Other than that, the film is full of inaccuracies and incoherence: The desert where most of the film within the film is set is probably the most crowded desert I have ever seen (you have of course the film cast and crew, but also campers, a sheriff, a carpenter, an old lady (interpreted by a young woman whose way of acting reminded me of Steve Urkel from Family Matters...), young lovers, and so on); the psycho slaughters half of the crew but no one seems to care for those who have disappeared; the killer kills someone with plastic bear claws !!!; no one notices the killer's presence despite his uncommon lack of ability for hiding, and so forth. In short, this film is a real disaster but as funny as Hell.

This low--budget flick concerns a young actress who stops at a desolate auto shop one day when her vehicle breaks down and is nearly murdered by the psycho of the title. She narrowly escapes and a year later is stalked by him again on the set of her new movie. This film is alternately hilarious and dull. I can't even begin to describe everything that is wrong with this movie, from the acting down to the gore effects, but I can mention a few of the more ridiculous moments. For instance, it's astonishing to discover that the film crew and director of the victim/actress's new film actually think they're making an intelligent sci-fi film! We see several sexy women walking through a desert in one scene. There is no dialogue other than when one of the women woodenly lifts up her arm and says "Look". Then one of the women is devoured by a gigantic mouth with sharp teeth protruding from the ground. I laughed hysterically at this scene! The film tries to make a statement by portraying the maniac/hero as a complete savage in every way, thus the hilarious scene where he picks up a live snake and takes a bite from it (you can plainly see that he's eating a chunk of food sitting on the snake's skin). And then there's the "climax" on top of a giant wooden spaceship, which will leave most people screaming "What the f***!?" This is a must-see for fans of truly terrible cinema . . .others beware.

Wow - this film is fun. Inept in every way - our group just LAUGHED at everything. The acting is horrid - the filmmaking is terrible, there are some decent stunts but the script sounds like it was written by drunk 7th graders trying to write a slasher film. The film wastes no time. A little boy kills his slutty mom and her lover with a giant fake knife. And then of course he's put in the nuthouse, where I guess he had a personal trainer and access to a 24 hour gym and a personal hair stylist. And this escaped maniac justa starts killin'. And one bimbo gets away and he must have her - he must kill her. And of course she is cast in a sci-fi film (where the auditions are held in a school auditorium). And the maniac follows her to the desert where they are making the film and starts picking off people one by one. (too bad he didn't strangle the real director of the film). The scene where he kills a rattlesnake and then "eats" it is hysterical. The quickly made prop looks like a Snake Sub - he is so clearly eating bread that has been covered in green food coloring. Actually Rural Dirt Road Maniac is more accurate.

This is a good slasher film with decent kills and acting. Definitely worth watching.

Homicidal maniac Arthur (James Jude Courtney) escapes from the psychiatric hospital where he has been a patient since a child (when he murdered his mother and her lover for recreating the table-top shag scene from The Postman Always Rings Twice) and makes his way to the desert where aspiring model/actress Linda (sexy blonde Loren Winters) is filming her debut movie, the woman having escaped the killer's clutches the last time he broke free (security is not the institution's strong point, but the patients do get a daily smoke break with free cigarettes).

Low budget slasher The Freeway Maniac is knowingly dumb, as evidenced by the schlocky z-grade sci-fi movie that Linda is starring in and the fact that Arthur knows how to drive a rig despite being locked up for almost all of his life; as such, it is quite a lot of brainless fun, Arthur more than living up to his title of maniac, the man killing virtually everyone he meets, howling at the moon, and snacking on the rattlers and ants that he catches in the desert. In addition to the movie's many murders, writer/director Paul Winters features lots of crazy stunt-work, with impressive vehicular action, a full body burn gag, and an explosion, all of which keeps the film trundling along at a decent lick.

Unfortunately, the kills in the film are largely free of gore despite Arthur's weapons including claw-hammer and chainsaw - more blood and guts would definitely have helped to make this one a more memorable bona fide trash classic - and the ending, in which Arthur poses as an actor to get near to Linda, is a total mess, the film closing in an unsatisfactory manner with the maniac still at large. Also, it would be remiss of me if I failed to mention that the very lovely Winters doesn't have a shower scene, although there is a strip routine by one of the supporting actresses.

5.5, rounded up to 6/10 for IMDb.