Hell's Highway

Normally I am forgiving of most low-budget "young folks in danger" types of low-grade horror films because they sometimes rise above expectations, the shot-on-video HIGHWAY TO HELL being a good example. But this one is a mess of missed opportunities. Same premise as HILLS HAVE EYES, but a group of teenager/early 20s rather than a family. That in itself is a missed opportunity (but not a big one) because we all know where horror films go when there's a gang of gregarious kids around. There's a stupid and unnecessary prologue where we see 2 girls get killed that pretty much gives away the whole story in 3 minutes. If these kids were any goofier, they'd be in a cartoon instead. There's no build of suspense, the frights are few, the cannibals look like friends and family of the film-makers with very little make-up or reason to be the way they are. And there's too many of them anyway. The cannibal hide-out is a cave and then it's an old building, then a cave again. There's no good sense of where anything is here. The leader of the cannibals, while plenty big enough, has the most ludicrous facial appearance and isn't at all scary, his mate is just a screaming mimi. With a decent effort on makeup and a bit of style and maturity this could have been pretty good, but save your time and watch HILLS HAVE EYES instead. Heck, even HILLS HAVE EYES 2 is grade A compared to this.

Low budget or no budget horror flick that is so damn dumb you can't help yourself from watching. A grisly and gruesome fate is in store for a group of teen rebel-rousers in an RV borrowed without permission. The seven ravers find their partying days coming to an agonizing end when they turn off the highway in search of a secret cache of peyote hidden in the dessert. The scantly clad group still reeling from the rave the night before crash their RV and find themselves the targets of drug-addicted, bloodthirsty cannibals. Slash, chop and poke...blood drips, splatters and oozes. Most of the foul language comes from an obnoxious white boy gansta wannabee. Tight butt gripping shorts liven the dessert scenery and adds a little sex appeal other than some lesbian groping and horny, sizzling grinding on a hot rock.

This straight to video trip of violence and gore features: Aaron Buer, Kelsey Wedeen, Brent Taylor, Jessica Osfar and Renee Madison Cole.

This update of the classical Craven's movie The Hills have eyes emerges from the mass of the direct to video slasher road movies of the last few years for a very good use of colors in its cinematography. This is the only redeeming feature for a movie with a young cast that could be used with more reasons in a Playboy soft core movie (and one of the actress has indeed been in a Palyboy video), it is totally boring as a real horror movie, with ridiculous special effects (with running blood that is really colored water), almost no new ideas in the use of the killers or in the killings their-selves and an hysterical cast. Anyway, it could be enjoyed by the fans of the genre because the production values are really very high for such a blame.

While returning to Los Angeles in a trailer through the desert, the driver Neil (Brent Taylor) convinces his friends Tara (Ashley Elizabeth), Harmony (Danna Brady), Loopz (Aaron Buer), Michelle (Jessica Osfar), Lee (Ryan De Rouen) and Cashie (Kelsey Wedeen) to take a detour to an isolated mine where it could have a plantation of peyote. The owner of a gas station advises the group to not go to the place, but the stubborn Neil does not pay attention to his words. While driving in a secondary road, Neil sees a girl and wrecks the car in a rock. He decides to walk back to the gas station to call a tow truck, while Michelle and Lee climb a hill trying to get signal to their cell phones. Sooner the teenagers find that they are under siege of a group of sadistic deformed cannibals and they have to fight to survive.

"Detour" is a teen rip-off of "The Hills Have Eyes", using the same storyline but with many silly dialogs and situations. I like horror movies, and "Detour" is not among the worse that I have seen, having beautiful and sexy actresses and a good conclusion with the scary little girl in the best scene of the movie. Unfortunately the annoying character Loopz spoils what could be worthwhile in this movie, plagiarizing the way of speaking of Eminen and having imbecile lines and attitudes. In a certain moment I was so irritated with this actor that I almost stopped the DVD. The screenplay is very weak, without suspense or tension. If you have not seen this movie yet, better off watching "The Hills Have Eyes" instead. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "Detour - Rota 666" ("Detour - Route 666")

WOW... could a movie suck more. Beside horrible acting, the plot it self sucked. Do Not Watch This Movie it is a waste of 2 hours. Never once will u be scared, if u wanna laugh, u can watch so u can make fun of the girl with the long blonde hair who couldn't act if her life depended on it. My God... who the hell payed for this movie to be made, a five year old could write a better movie than this. Not only has this movie been done 80 times before, from 2000 Maniacs, to Texas Chainsaw, Wrong Turn, Campfire Tells, or House of 1000 Corpses all with the same plot of DON"T TAKE A WRONG TURN. O GEEZ, and the talking/script was written in the most unreal speech. You would think that the actors in this movie would say NO ONE IN REAL LIFE WOULD TALK THIS WAY or that some one on the crew would say THIS MOVIE IS GOING TO SUCK, or This is retarded. LISTEN TO ME GANG... Don't See This Movie-- IT SUCKS... A lot!