Octane: O Caminho do Mal

Ah, the adorable Mrs.Stowe… I sure miss the late 80's/early 90's, back when she was an elite member of the chosen few actresses club (alongside Linda Fiorentino, Lara Flynn Boyle and Sherilyn Fenn) who's every new film became instant priority-viewing on my movies' list. I wonder if she herself regrets the glorious days of "China Moon", "Blink" and "Unlawful Entry" are gone forever, especially now that she has to appear in below par and allegedly 'hip' new horror movies like this dreadfully irritating "Octane". This film is, briefly put, a big fat steaming & smelly pile of utter garbage. The story makes no sense whatsoever, the terribly slow built up atmosphere of mysteriousness leads absolutely nowhere, the "villainous" characters are pathetic & all but menacing and there's a seriously frustrating shortage of gore and sleaze. The ravishing Madeleine Stowe plays the uptight mother of an equally ravishing teenage girl (Mischa Barton) and the two are on a long and nightly homeward car journey. Things heat up when mommy forbids her daughter to go to a music concert and, bang, the girl promptly runs off with a bunch of rebellious teenagers in a giant truck. The fact she wanders off with complete strangers is already quite implausible, especially in this day and age, but the script even gets sillier when the strangers turn out to be members of some sort of bizarre cult. I think it's even hinted that they are a modern type of vampires, but that's never really confirmed. And then it even gets more retarded when literally everyone on the highway appears to be involved in this fiendish organization, including a female police officer and random motor home people in a restaurant. Stephen Volk's screenplay is truly unimaginative, borrowing even elements from 70's chillers like "Race With The Devil", Marcus Adams' direction is totally uninspired (not at all stylish, like some reviews I encountered dare to proclaim) and you know you're in trouble when someone without charisma like Jonathan Rhys Meyers is supposed to play an evil personified type of character referred to as The Father. Give me a break. "Octane" is a pretentious, pitiable and miserable excuse for a thriller, and if you have idea what good film-making is about you'll stay the hell away from it.

This is a strange movie with a super cast. No wonder it isn't famous or didn't do to well despite the talent.

Mischa Barton at her prettiest, Madeleine Stowe post lip job but still lovely, Jonathan Rhys Meyers at his most way off. What more could you want? A good story. It's a strange mix of thriller horror cult with vampire like blood stuff going on.

A mother and daughter are on the road but get mixed up in strange cult led by JRM. There are slow moments then some horror and action. It's all rather distasteful and meaningless and the story isn't well written. Things don't really add up to much or come together well.

Only worth watching if you are want to see the main stars in an obscure movie.

Could it my valves rattling from cheap gasoline or is that me banging my head upon the wall for having allowed myself to watch "Octane"? This movie appears to be a good example of what happens when someone has a vague idea of a film story but doesn't bother to hash it out on paper before turning the cameras on. Not surprisingly, about half way through the film, the story gets lost somewhere on the interstate between stupid and boring. I wish I could give you an idea of what this film is really about but I'm as clueless as director Marcus Adams and writer Stephen Volk. Take some advice guys, get a tune up and consider going back to film school. Only this time, try attending class once in a while.

Before I rented the DVD, I came here to check out some of the reviews ... and they weren't that good. But I trusted my gut instinct and rented it anyway. So now that I've seen Octane, I have to say it's far better then most people say, but I also agree that this movie could've benefited from some kind of explainable narrative. Only people like David Lynch can pull off extremely unlikely plot lines and weird twists that don't make sense, without the audience questioning them. In case of Octane your suspension of disbelief only goes so far, that's the only negative thing I can say about this film. the acting is good, visually the movie is worth watching (some fresh ideas and nice shots), the soundtrack is terrific and the overall mood is just the way I like it. It is a flawed exercise in style, but definitely deserves more credit than it's getting so far.

The pitch sounded good - a cult of modern day vampires stalking victims on freeways and neon lit service stations. The cast suggested quality - Madeline Stowe as the estranged mother, Bijou Phillips as the kidnapped daughter and John Rhys-Myers as the cult leader. So what happened?

As ever the script was mishandled or badly developed. The protagonists, mother and daughter are decidedly unlikeable and the POV of the narrative makes the mistake of switching sides half way through. As with George Sluizer's The Vanishing, the story should have stayed with the protagonists search for her missing loved one, but instead it focuses on the tearaway daughter and her frolics with a laughable cult of blood drinking travellers. What narrative there is soon disintergrates into a pop video and attempts to salvage the film with a third act denoument in a factory treads into Ed Wood territory.

So much for the much trumpeted Random Harvest/Four Horsemen british horror slate. Heads should roll for this one.