Déviation mortelle

Nice, quiet thriller with hitchcockian tones, with Stacy Keach as a truck driver would be Sherlock Holmes in the Australian wilderness, following a possible hitchiker murderer. With a young and pretty Jamie Lee Curtis and several curious cameos. Not to be missed if you like a strange, fascinating road movie.

In ROAD GAMES, a long-haul trucker in Australia named Quid (Stacey Keach) is moving a load of pig carcasses. Along the way, he witnesses what could be a murder. The tension builds, as things start to add up to a serial killer on the loose scenario.

Enter Jamie Lee Curtis as a hitchhiker who turns out to be very helpful in tracking down the murderer. Together, the pair get too close for the killer's comfort.

ROAD GAMES is a cat and mouse film full of mystery and suspense. There are also heavy doses of dry humor. Mr. Keach and Ms. Curtis make a wonderful sleuthing team. Highly recommended for fans of both...

I would not recommend you wait on this if you are a fan of suspense. There is also an early role for Jamie Lee Curtis, as well. There are decent performances all around, save for the horrible police officers. They must have been the real thing.

Pros: High suspense, well-written characters, great use of a low budget, good plot twist, keeps you guessing, fine ending.

Cons: Drags in spots, dialogue can be pretentious and unrealistic, a few continuity issues, with respect to sequencing.

For a PG rated movie, this is rather adult themed and creepy, if not scary. I recommend this film to all.

Truck driver Pat Quid (Stacy Keach), transporting meat across Australia, believes a suspicious van driver he continually sees on his trip may be responsible for a series of hitchhiker murders. Along the way Quid picks up a hitchhiker (Jamie Lee Curtis) and tells her his suspicions. The two try to track the van driver while Quid becomes the police's number one suspect for the murders.

I think Richard Franklin is one of the more under-appreciated directors from the '80s. He made several interesting films before fading into mediocrity in the '90s, a fate that befell many '80s directors. There's a strong Hitchcock influence throughout Franklin's work, including this film, which should come as no surprise for the man who would go on to direct Psycho II. For his part, Stacy Keach carries the movie with ease. He reminds me of some of the protagonists from great Hitchcock thrillers who were normal, easy-going guys that were thrust into dangerous plots. This is easily the best performance I've seen from Keach. Jamie Lee Curtis is likable in her small part as the hitchhiker, a role similar to the one she played in The Fog the year before.

I've always enjoyed this movie. It's a fun, suspenseful thriller with a good cast and some dark humor. One of the better "killer on the road" movies I've seen.

Stacy Keach plays a truck driver, he and his best friend, a dingo, are taking meat to Perth, along the way he wonders about other drivers and their life, a way to keep himself distracted. A suspicious green van catches his attention, later on when he finds out that murders have been taking place, he immediately associates them with the van. After watching the van's driver bury a couple of bags in the middle of the desert he has no more doubts about the relation of it to the murders. Braking "truckers" rules he picks up a hitchhiker, Pam (Jamie Lee Curtis), they'll complement each other perfectly, sharing murder theories among other things. The police ends up suspecting Pat (Stacy Keach) so Pam believes that the only way for him to prove is innocence is to find the real killer but he finds them first and kidnaps her, or is it that she went by her own free will?

Nice thriller, the acting as you can expect is pretty good. Keach and Curtis create a believable bond, a mutual crush develops but the age difference is a problem. The script is fairly intelligent and certainly effective. Keach's character is full of theories and anecdotes, which keeps the movie interesting at moments where all you see is the Australian outback. Well worth watching.