Miragem

I've seen some really obscure slashers in my day, but MIRAGE has to be one of the hardest to find. Never released on video in the US (no idea why not), it's near impossible to find on the internet or elsewhere. Sometimes, with certain movies, the obscurity is understandable (HEAVY METAL MASSACRE), but here, I am very perplexed.

Three couples decide to head out to the middle of the desert for a little R&R. However, they soon begin being menaced by a black truck and an unknown driver. Then the mysterious driver begins bumping them off one by one. Who is this man? What does he want with them? Is he real, or is it all just a mirage?

I imagine MIRAGE came about when someone thought to his/herself, "Say, I wonder what would happen is Steven Spielberg's DUEL was a straight-up slasher, and with a group of teens instead of Dennis Weaver?" Well, that idea culminates here, and it's actually not as campy as you would think. Sure, the acting isn't the best in certain spots, and some of the characters do dumb things, but those can easily be forgiven through what good things MIRAGE has to offer.

I've always said that in order to create a perfect (or at least near perfect) slasher is spend thirty minutes on character development and maybe one or two murders, forty to fifty minutes on stalk and slash, and ten to twenty minutes on killer confrontation. MIRAGE follows this nearly to a tee and it works wonders for it.

The characters were all likable and believable, and even the "jerk" character was likable to a degree. The setting doesn't feel forced (it doesn't feel like these characters came here just to get killed), as they actually partake in believable activities instead of just constant sex. They also act like they're all friends, as opposed to just non-stop bickering. There's also some entertaining montages, such as them playing football or one of the couples making love in the back of a pick-up while a weight presses on the gas as they roar across the desert.

The kills in MIRAGE are all gory and well-done, even if they aren't too creative. We get to see the aftermath of a messy meeting of a head and a grenade, an arrow through the head, a dismemberment, etc. However, don't think that the kills are all MIRAGE has going for it. There are some brilliant suspense sequences involving the truck menacing the final girl and whoever else is with her. The desert is one of my favorite underused slasher settings, and it's done to perfection here. They make this desert seem so vast and endless, which really builds on the isolated atmosphere.

I don't think it would be too much of a spoiler to say that the killer is someone completely random, however, one might get the feeling the film is trying to be a whodunit because of how the audience never sees his face until the final ten or so minutes. There is some good suspense when he gets out of his truck and chases the final girl around some rocks while taunting her. There's also a twist ending that I didn't care for, but oh well.

I love this movie with all my heart. It has nearly everything I look for in an entertaining slasher flick: Likable and fun characters, good gore, great pacing, lots of suspense, a phenomenal setting, and good acting to boot. I just wish they had used the concept of mirages more.

Highly recommended, if you can find it.

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.

Mirage (1990) is a very rare horror/chiller from 1990, released here in the UK on the "New World Video" label.

It's a desert based horror film about a group of young friends who are partying for the weekend, only to be killed off one by one by an unknown force who drives a menacing black truck!!! This film has some creepy scenes, and some gore here and there, but i have to say that the acting was so lame, even by low budget standards! But the film was oddly addictive and i liked it, and i never fell asleep or turned it off, which is always a good sign! I nearly gave this movie 6/10, but seeing as it built up steam along the way, had some good moments of gore and suspense, had some good nudity, and the fact that the blonde in the main female role was a hottie too! i'll give it 7/10.

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.

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.