Road Train

Australian genre films are rare, and good ones are even rarer. Unfortunately this isn't one of the good ones.

Flat, uninspired characters populate this Duel/Jeepers Creepers/Maximum Overdrive/Texas Chainsaw Massacre/Wolf Creek rip-off. Not one of the characters is interesting or well acted enough to inspire anything but annoyance from the audience. The script is a failure in all departments.

The whole film is just... off, from direction to editing, to acting and writing. Sure, it's clear they had a low budget... but it's also clear they had enough of a budget to make a good movie. There were some interesting ideas there with the truck and whatever the whole story was behind it, but it was all undercooked and fulfilled the small amount of potential it presented.

There's a definite underlying psycho-sexual theme in there too, replete with phallic and yonic imagery. Too bad the film isn't good enough to earn a thorough analysis of the stuff going on underneath the surface.

With such a small selection of genre films emerging from Australia these days, one tends to pin their hopes on any new entry that trundles along the beaten path. It's sad that out of all the scripts out there, this is the one that got made.

The teenagers Marcus (Xavier Samuel), Liz (Georgina Haig), Craig (Bob Morley) and Nina (Sophie Lowe) are camping in the remote outback of Australia. While driving on the road, a road train crashes on their car that leaves the road in a serious accident. The quartet survives and Craig breaks his arm, but their car is totally wrecked. However they see the train truck parked on road and Marcus and Liz walks to the vehicle to ask for help. They do not find the driver and sooner Craig and Nina arrive. When they see the driver shooting them, they decide to carjack the road train. Sooner they begin to act strange possessed by some evil force.

"Road Train" is a gruesome supernatural journey to hell of four teenagers. The story and the screenplay have many flaws, and there is no explanation why the two couples are camping together in a desert area if they have problems of relationship and grief with the betrayal of one of the girls. The beginning has a free exploitation of sex with an unnecessary scene. The characters are unlikable and it is impossible to feel empathy for any of them. The screams of the girls are unbearable. Marcus drinking urine is nasty and also unnecessary. There is no explanation for the three hound dogs on the hood of the train truck. What does Liz drink in the can? For foreigners like me, the term road train is mostly used in Australia and means a line of linked trailers pulled by a truck, used for transporting stock in remote areas of Argentina, Australia, Mexico, the United States and Canada. My vote is four.

Title (Brazil): "Terror Sobre Rodas" ("Terror Over Wheels")

Note: On 20 November 2020, I saw this film again.

I do not want to ruin the movie with the premise or the secret of the Road Train but I have to say it comes across as Silly. The actors were competent but not too likable. The FX were really bad in some places but I can excuse this due a low budget. The movie was soundly made from a technical standpoint.

However, the movie is not scary at all and really is stupid with the twist that occurs slightly more than half way through the flick.

This movie like all low budget movies has a 10 star review from someone obviously involved in the film at some level. No rational person who has seen more than 10 movies would give this movie more than 5-6 stars.

The movie is trying to be compared to Spielbergs very well made Duel and to a lesser extent Joy Ride. Anytime a movie comes out and the marketing mentions good films that it is similar to is the ultimate red flag. It is a dead giveaway the film is not good.

This is slightly better than most DTV low budget horror flicks but that is not saying much. I gave it a 4 out of 10 but will say the director shows potential.

Dean

This movie has 22% of its votes giving it 10/10 stars. Every single one of these votes is, without a doubt from someone working for this movie in some capacity. This was one of the worst films ever made easily. The acting was the worst I've ever seen by far, it often seemed like a bad joke at times, characters becoming angry and hysterical for absolutely no reason. Not much of anything actually happens to anyone in this movie, yet they all completely loose their marbles, WHY!? Anyway, IMDb.com, you really need to moderate your voting system. Terrible low budget pieces of crap like this shouldn't be able to earn more than a 2 or 3 stars without getting thousands of votes first.

It's extraordinary that Sophie Lowe made this movie after "Beautiful Kate". Talk about coming in at the top floor... and riding the express elevator all the way to the basement.

I don't even know what "Road Train" is about, and I just finished watching it. It lost me and didn't find me again. Sure, I got the bits you already know if you haven't seen it already: two girls and two guys are travelling through the outback and are run off the road by a "road train", ie. a truck pulling more than one load. Their car is destroyed but they commandeer the titular train when they discover it apparently abandoned.

Then, all hell apparently breaks loose. Characters go crazy and kill each other for no reason I could discern. Is the truck haunted, and making them go crazy? What a stupid and unfilmable idea.

Aside from Lowe, the acting is also pretty bad, which just adds to the overall tackiness and ineffectiveness of the experience, which ends up feeling tiresome and annoying.