Miragem

I saw this movie on Channel 5 in the UK nearly 10 years ago, I never heard of it before but quite liked it, it was about a group of young friends who go the desert to party but someone with a pick up truck with darkened windows follows them and starts killing them one by one, it was not as typical as other slasher films this one was quite quirky, I would not mind seeing it again.

The soundtrack to the film introduced to me to the American underground rock scene from the 1980's most notably fIREHOSE and The Minutemen, every other low grade horror got released on DVD I cannot understand why this one never got re-issued.

Although clearly made on something of a budget, this film has many striking qualities.For fans of shock/horror the explicitness of the violence will be well received. For those of a more nervous disposition,close your eyes. However,the acting is quite poor and the dialogue is stifled and unrealistic. And the director seems very keen to focus on the ample and very visible bosom of the leading female character.Overall,the movie is quite passable for the genre and in this viewers opinion is definitely worth a look.

Three couples are having a vacation in the desert, drinking beer playing football, you know the usual. But when an uninvited guest in the form of a psychotic killer in a black jeep. The party's over and the 6 friends soon find themselves running for they're lives, but there's no place to hide in the middle of the desert.

Mirage is an odd little slasher, it's really any different from other slashers, except the only thing is that the people are partying in the desert (an odd choice) if you ask me. But the fact that the killer drives around in a creepy black jeep creates fear for the group and for the audience, because how can you get away from someone whose's driving a car and it works well for most of the time.

Maybe the script wasn't long enough or maybe it needed a small subplot, either way, it felt as if several scenes were played in slow-motion just to kill running time. Anyhow, Mirage is one of the few slashers from this era which is actually worth watching.

It's a shame really that this flick is so forgotten because it's actually really good, the acting is well a mixed bag but the main girl Jennifer McAllister did a pretty good job and she was really stunning. An annoying aspect is that we don't get to find out why the killer is there or why he's killing everybody off, but he does play his part well.

All in all "Mirage" is an entertaining slasher flick, not the most original movie ever made but then again Slasher flicks never are. A little odd but still worth watching.

Here we have a film that would not appear to work on paper, but goes and works exceptionally well on the screen. It has so many generical good points that when watching it you forget how bad the acting really is. I would not personally say that it is a 'tongue in cheek' film but that it has some of the points that make it a film that will go down in history as being undernoticed and in turn underrated, i mean that it is a relitivly 'small' film in relation to some of the other ones that follow a similar plot but in many ways in mirrors and somtimes passes them in its plauseability(this could happen)and the boundrys that it goes to.

It really has a lots of great stuff to be loved by fans of horror. a great looking cast, an unusual location for a slasher flick. a great eerie (although set during the day) atmosphere.

Hope some distribution company gives this title a second life.