Munger Road

The other reviewers must be blind, friends or relatives of the writer/director of this film. I've never seen a film of any genre that had so many plot holes in it that it reminded me of a piece of Swiss cheese. Actually, there were two story lines playing out simultaneously that the writer could not tie together to save his life. I kept waiting for the film to improve but then gave up and watched in awe as it became more and more ridiculous and then ended in one huge mess. I kept thinking to myself how did this movie ever get out of pre-production without someone stepping in to doctor the script. I certainly wish I had the 86 minutes back of my life after watching this clunker, and I can only warn potential viewers to watch at their own risk.

So the first things you have to know about this movie are as follows: 1. It was supposed to have a sequel, but financial backing couldn't be drummed up, so it ends without an ending and will never be finished. See here for details as of 2013: http://goo.gl/Ba1gWH 2. It has all the trite expectations of a teen slasher flick with only one redeeming quality.

Now I am a horror and slasher fan, so I don't generally mind these things. But this one was over the top. Listed in no particular order of irritating:

*While trying to hide from a killer and be quiet, all the teens can do is scream at the top of their lungs.

* While running for help, teens run into an abandoned places where there is obviously going to be no help.

*Cops consistently "break up" even though there's no way any cop in their right mind would do such a thing.

*Somehow a very large city has only 2 cops who both work the night shift, and no one ever calls for backup!

*Cops clearly have no idea how to actually handle a gun as one of them could have shot his own head off several times and neither was holding it in a manner that would have involved any aim throughout the WHOLE movie. Even X Files got this right back in the 90s.

So what't the good part, the story development is well done and atmospheric. We flip back and forth from the teens (whom we obviously know are in danger) to the cops who bit by bit give the story of the killer. It was atmospheric as well and lacked the overdone movie style of giving the whole story of the killer near the beginning so that all viewers have to wait for is the inevitable deaths of most of the cast. This slow development, rather like a breadcrumb trail, allows the viewer to become involved in the story so that the irritating qualities of the teens can almost be passed over.

"Munger Road" doesn't break much new ground, but it covers the old ground nicely. Two St. Charles students (Trevor Morgan and Hallock Beals) get a video camera so they can go out with their dates (Brooke Peoples and Lauren Storm), to the tracks on Munger Road to check for supernatural activity. The car engine mysteriously dies and the four kids are marooned in the middle of nowhere.

From John Carpenter's "Halloween," director/writer Nick Smith appropriates the escaped serial killer plot, plus pays homage to the opening-scene tracking shot by having a cop investigate a dark house through a point-of-view camera.

Smith also lifts the swinging ceiling lamp effect from Hitchcock's "Psycho" and briefly the making-a-documentary premise from "The Blair Witch Project" which it stole from "Cannibal Holocaust."

So, don't go to see "Munger Road" for originality.

Go to witness how Smith and his young conspirators (including Polish composer Wojciech Golczewski with his edgy, alarming score) transform the sleepy little community of St. Charles into the scariest Illinois town since Michael Myers roamed fictional Haddonfield.

This movie Could have been Great! It's really creepy! It's well acted! It's well directed! The music is astoundingly good! St. Charles, Illinois never looked so good on the big-screen! However, watching Munger Road is kind of like watching The Blair Witch Project with the last 10 minutes of the film missing. The film is missing a conclusion. Munger Road does a wonderful job of creating tension, suspense and then pops all of that beautiful momentum like a balloon in your face without even attempting an adequate, plausible, or even fantastic explanation. It just ends! Which is really a big let down because most of this film is really good. So it you don't mind watching a good horror movie without an ending by all means check out Munger Road.

Had this movie sitting in my Netflix account for months, because it looked interesting, and the desperation to find some really good horror films. Went to it last night and stayed with it, then got into it, then it's abrupt ending. It brought up some remembrances of Jaws, Halloween, and yes I have no use for those films where you only have the view of one of the characters holding a camera. If the director meant to end the film this way, bad, bad, bad. Just about everything was left hanging. More should have been resolved. If his intention was to do a sequel, but the money dried up, then I'm sorry. You were getting there but it ended badly.