The Fearway

The Fearway is the feature length debut from fledgling director Robert Gajic.

It tells the story of a young, soon to be newlywed, couple, who find themselves caught in a loop, surrounded by a handful of seemingly malevolent characters- not all of of which mean to do them harm- while traveling down an isolated stretch of Highway 66.

While trapped in this bizarre experience, they find themselves being chased down by a demonic looking man, driving a black muscle car.

From whom they can't seem to escape.

Their only moments of respite come when they pull off at the Last Chance Rest Stop...where they meet a number of other odd characters.

Eventually, they do manage to put the pieces together, and figure out what is happening to them.

Leaving them to fight for a final chance to escape, what would otherwise be a grim fate.

Unfortunately the acting is pretty mid across the board.

While the storyline is a bit too predictable.

Making the whole experience a bit underwhelming.

But, with that being said...it's a valiant attempt at a first feature.

With some decent moments of cinematography.

Though certainly a film you won't be disappointed with if you miss.

2.5 out of 10.

The Fearway begins with a couple driving in the desert experiencing an aggressive driver until they pull off at a diner. Then, their trouble starts. They attempt to continue on their way, but somehow they end up back at the diner.

So, this movie attempts to provide some type of horror, but the elements dont create any horrorific moments. Supernatural elements leading to metaphysical pondering. Consider No Exit but quite pedestrian at heart. They dialogue snd plotting tend toward the stilted. I think they filmmakers were trying for mysterious, but instead, they hit upon trite and vague, starting the viewer down the path of pretention.

This film tries to present something greater than what the parts total. Acting is subpar, but earnest. And that doesn't help the production move away from annoying. There is no fear on The Fearway.

Sarah (Shannon Dalonzo) and Michael are driving down Route 66 in the desert. They are being chased by a crazed man driving a black muscle car. They stop at a diner in the middle of nowhere with its cast of characters. Sarah and Michael seem to be in a permanent loop of being chased and stopping at the diner.

The premise is a little interesting and Kafkaesque. I like the general idea of it in theory. Sarah and Michael need to be more in depth. They do need some more car action. The diner could do more. The movie could do more. It's all rather thin. The writing needs to be more to fill out the movie.

My problem with "Fearway" is not the fact that it is super-low budget, which affects the sub-par casting, sound effects and camera work; it is the lack of attention to details in the story. Couple of examples: unmatching license plates on the front and back of the car. Car being brand new (probably a rental, still have "no smoking" stickers on it) yet the boyfriend refers to it as "it took me a long time to pay for it", the police tells the girl "you and your boyfriend" although she never mentions she has a boyfriend and that doesn't seem weird to her, etc, etc. With all these add up it is very hard to get engaged in the story. Another goof is when they stopped at the side of the road he says "we should call your dad tel him we'll be late" but they have not even decided to even take a break at that point. It basically looks like it was filmed over a weekend with no second takes, whatever made it in the edits - stayed.

The movie keeps dragging along to the point where the big reveal at the end should be completely shocking in order to make it worthwhile, but alas- it is not. It is not scary at all and the overall scenes are disappointing in the sense that they are all flat, somewhat even laughable. The acting is mediocre at best all-around and the casting of the main actors is completely off, they don't look and act the part. If you are expecting a "Jeepers Creepers" vibe movie you will be highly disappointed. It is a big bore-fest.

It will be hard for me to recommend this movie to anyone. Not even good enough to show students, since it cannot even give pointers to new actors or directors, that's the level of badness this firms at. I give 2 stars for the story, since it is a nice idea, which could be made a lot better under the hands of a better crew. There are not many redeeming qualities on this one. I rarely give anything less than 4 stars but in this case it is really does not worth anybody's time. For the writer/director - please give more attention to details next time so people at least see that you cared, otherwise it is just insulting to both you and the audience.

I couldn't shake the feeling that I saw few movies already with this same premise, but I kind of like it overall, so I didn't consider it to be a drawback.

I liked the secondary characters a lot, this might sound strange, but they were actually quite believable and likeable, they really made up a better part of this movie. While main charactres - not so much, I think the biggest miss was with the main actress. And the clothes that the main guy was wearing - felt like a big miss. And finally the biggest miss - their car, haha, big bummer. Probably sponsored by the manufacturer, that why...

The main antagonist as well, was not ideal I think, first of all, I think he should've been made more subtle, they showed him off too much and most of the time he was just following or watching them, it didn't feel like a haunting and he didn't feel scary or terrifying enough. I think they surely could've done a better job with the makeup for him and maybe something more for the eyes to make him look really sinister. And his car as well - although the car selection might be fine this time, it was still too clean and shiny for the purpose... There were some scenes where you could tell its not a bad movie, because characters were acting more realistic then in the most horror movies I've seen, so that's a plus.

I wish they've spent some time to expose the story behind secondary characters, at least just a big, with some subtle message, instead of all these superficial boring talks that main characters had about their past and planned future.

Overall, it's a so-so movie, if you don't come in with high expectations, you might find it enjoyable eventually. I did.