Hell's Highway

Part of the fun of watching this film is due to the "special effects", as they appear humorously unrealistic. Another element of fun are some of the lines and the way in which the actors deliver them. What is interesting is that these elements draw attention to the medium through which they are transported, which helps add to the surreal mood of the film. Phoebe Dollar is as irresistibly hot as ever (the finger bang scene is very erotic), even when she plays to the 'southern white trash' stereotype. All in all, this film achieves, what in my opinion, it set out to do: entertain the viewer. Give this film a look, and check out some of Phoebe's other work too (Goth), if you like, what I call, "surrealistic cinema".

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 nifty little NO BUDGET shocker was a surprise to me. It was made by talented kids but still they're kids and it shows. There's a lot of stuff that's either lifted from other films, or supposed to be in homage to other films. You'll know it when you see it, and this is typical of kids just starting out making films. They have this whole sensibility that it's funny and hip to reference other films in their work, little "in jokes" that their social circle all get. The interviews with cast and crew at the end show this level of immaturity. Still, there's enough original stuff here to make it worth seeing. I got this because of the nice box art and well written synopsis, but when I saw it was shot on video, and not even very good video, I thought it was a mistake to watch. But I gave it a chance and was surprised at the many good points, and of course it is uneven yet there's enough good in it to give congrats to the writer/director for coming up with a literate and interesting script with a nice plot twist that's totally unexpected. Good acting by Ms. Dollar as the evil "entity", and some good grisly effects, though I wish she had handled the chainsaw a little better. Plus there's not really any slow or tedious points. It would be interesting to see the director do this again but in about 15-20 years when he's grown up and got more experience and a bigger budget to shoot it on film or HD. The basic story is literate enough to do it again and make the weak parts stronger, cut out the silliness and kid stuff, give it an overall sense of maturity and really develop the twist ending more. It's actually a good enough weirdo story to rank with the film stories of DePalma and Stephen King. Anyway, you won't be bored.

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.