Hell's Highway

HELL'S HIGHWAY is a low-low budget film starring Phoebe Dollar as Lucinda, a hitchhiker who is far more than she appears to be. She's an unstoppable, murdering force without any sense of right or wrong. Though human in appearance, Lucinda is actually a relentless, demonic spirit. When she's picked up by four college kids, she begins unraveling their sanity and their lives in several blood-soaked attacks.

What this movie lacks in big effects, it makes up for with sheer brutality! Ms. Dollar makes the best of her role, filling Lucinda with pure eeevil!

Watch for Ron Jeremy as a doomed motorist...

This one ranks with "Dead Girls" as a movie that had a pretty neat twist, but also as a movie where the pretty, neat twist that was shot all to hell by how bad the movie was. This one does deliver with the gore, though. One sign that this movie is going to be worse than bad appears early on in the movie when characters exchange dialogue that is lifted shamelessly and DIRECTLY from "Detroit Rock City" (of all movies!). You can even see this part in the trailer, as if they were proud to be ripping off said goofy teen comedy. Not much later, dialogue is lifted from "The Hitcher" ("I'm gonna sit here... and you're gonna drive.") Now some of this dialogue-lifting could be a tribute (as opposed to blatant ripping off of others' material), but these filmmakers seem to be the former types when looking back at the scene with "Detroit Rock City" dialogue. As a horror movie, it has some moments of dread and such, but most of this was so bad I couldn't even laugh at it. The gore FX were done better than I've seen them in many no-budget movies, but when the gore (aside from the would-be interesting twist ending) is the only redeemable point, there is a problem. It was a great idea put to death as horribly as the victims. And, as for the scene where they rip off "Blair Witch" and want to be taken seriously, I wish I could've laughed at that, but the joke was already stale aside from the fact that these people aren't good at jokes (again, they ripped-off dialogue from "Detroit Rock City"!), unless you consider this whole movie as a joke. Still, even though I like schlocky stuff a lot more than you might think ("Terror Toons", from the same company, being a personal favorite), this movie sucks even by bad movie standards.

If you ever decide to watch a film like this, please take into consideration that it was probably shot for the price of a used car and in the spans of a week. Total Roger Corman/Ed Wood style, so you should never expect a Spielburg quality film(His catering budget is usually bigger than the entire budget of a film like this.) So what does a film like this have to offer a viewer? A dialog heavy script with thick subplots and well known actors? Mind blowing special effects? Beautiful breath-taking 35mm Cinematography? No, but it has couple things that make it unique. Despite the fact that it was probably shot on a camcorder, some of the shots were well planned and executed. Unlike the normal all-hand-held Shot-on-Video features usually do. Of course the Director and the Cinematographer were the same person, which can be difficult. The Characters were unique, yes at sometime they were over-the-top or flat at certain times, but I feel that they were tolerable. It's also obvious at time there was a lot of ad libbing and some of it didn't work. I am a fan of Beverly Lynn though. She started out in the Brain Damage world and has definitely out-shined many of her counterparts. I do hope that she will grow in her craft and lands roles that will gain her the respect that she deserves. This was Phoebe Dollar's first film credit, she definitely shines as the evil Lucinda. She is definitely a presence that will go far in the future. The story also is unique for the fact if you actually try to follow what's going on, you will be pulled in many different directions and will be left still wondering what exactly happen. It definitely had some interesting twists in it. Now onto the special effects, outside the low quality of the video image the special effects look even worse than normal. They are totally laughable. Especially Joe Haggerty's blow to the head.( Which can really be the charm of a film like this, where the gore is so over-the-top that it's actually funny. I can imagine how a movie like this would be in a college dorm, with a room full of drunk men.) Especially when watch the toy model cars driving by or see the miniature gas station blow up! That was funny!! I had to rewind to make sure I saw what I thought I saw!! The Sound was something to be desired. It was for the most part inconsistent. Some of the sound effects were very "fake" sounding and again laughable at times. There also obvious continuity issues like switching props, road movement in the background in a car scene when the car is supposedly stopped. But what do you expect when you can afford re-shoots? To me this movie, seems to be a turning point for the whole Brain Damage world. Where their movies started moving up the ladder from their pocket-change budget beginnings. Good job Jeff LeRoy!! If you want a movie that scares you, it probably won't. If you want a movie that will challenge your intellect, don't rent this. But if you appreciate the micro-budget, and want to see something different that the normal movie studios wouldn't put out, then you might want to check it out.

What can I say, what can I say?? "Hell's Highway" is a piece of art. Well, not really but, then again, it was not meant to be. This is a straight to video movie about four friends traveling from PA to CA, who meet up with a "sexy thang" who just might be the devil herself, himself, itself...?? Look past the Matchbox Cars and the horrible effects(personally I liked the feel they bring to this movie), and what you get is no better or no worse then any other straight to video horror movie you have ever seen. With an ending that caught me off guard and, hold your breath, makes sense!@#, some decent acting, eye candy for both the men and the women, and a short enough running time to hold one's interest, you can do a lot worse then "Hell's Highway". P.S.- As a side note, these film makers obviously have an affection for what horror movies once were, the gratuitous nudity and all out gore show it!

*** 1/2 out of *****

What can I say? My fiancee and I one night decided that it would actually be fun to go ahead and rent some low budget horror films to get us laughing. C'mon, what other horror movie could you see Ron Jeremy in? This plan worked effectively. We were rolling on the floor even before the previews were over.

The special effects were horrible (i.e. the priest's head exploding after being hit with a shovel, the missing appendage of Mr. Jeremy, and the incredibly gory dragging torso), the acting worse, and the characters out of a low budget porn movie.

If you need a laugh, rent this!