Toad Road

I'm a big fan of drug-related films; they can be fun or poignant (or both) when done right. Toad Road, on the other hand, is flat out boring. Even a few hits of acid wouldn't have made this slow, hard to swallow story any more appealing, nor the mediocre script any more convincing. The characters lack any kind of depth, and even when they're high, they have nothing interesting to say. The urban legend subplot isn't developed enough; going further into it may have amped up the horror aspect a bit, which was sorely lacking (especially as this is billed as a horror movie).

Steer clear of this one, and stick to classics like Altered States, Fear and Loathing, Human Traffic, Trainspotting, or even lower-budget stuff like Pop Skull and Reindeerspotting.

Chompcrc here. This is hardly art, but I think they were going for some sort of real to life, gritty college kids thing. Why that involves male genitalia is beyond me. Oh, and lighting a guys butt hair on fire. It's no surprise that one of the actresses actually died of a drug overdose. Just because you can make a movie, doesn't mean you should.

Where did this movie get it's 5 star rating? It is just awful! Bunch of kids do magic mushrooms in a cave, wander down path that is 9 gates of hell and wonder why they come to grief? Were the filmmakers on magic mushrooms too? Most of the film is just kids getting smashed, throwing up and putting cigarette buts in their puke! I wanted to like this film as I like to give low-budget first attempts a chance, but this was just rubbish! The movie title Toad Road about an urban myth trail sounded promising, but there is no horror to be had at all. Even it's modest 75 minute running time could not save it from becoming boring and I fully advise to give this one a miss.

This is a perfectly dull muddle of nonsense for almost an hour, then from out of nowhere a weak attempt at a plot shows up! Seriously though, Toad Road is a mess of a movie saved only bybsolid performances. We get just short of an hour of aimless drug abuse and dialogue before our "filmmaker" seems to have remembered that a plot is a requirement in a movie ansd, oh yeah, this is a horror movie. Our leads then wander off looking for the seven gates of hell, when all along the very movie they are stuck in is hell enough. In short, some talented young actors working with a minimal script and a pretentious director equals a bad movie.

Possible Spoilers *but don't worry, the director spoiled this long before"

This show was a God-awful waste of time. I can go watch unproductive losers perpetuate their downward spiral in any college town. That's not interesting. I was led to believe this was a supernatural thriller. Why? Well, you see, the movie description clearly implies that there is a supernatural element to this movie. There are about 47 seconds of the usual obscure filming with ominous music.

Some people love the non-traditional indie film style. I do, if it's done well. This one was not done well. The majority of the movie was a collage of kids with no ambition, no direction and no common sense doing drugs that they can inexplicably afford without jobs. You don't care about any of the characters. You don't even feel sorry for them. You pretty much just assume that Darwinism will sort out most of these kids eventually.

Supernatural you ask? There is a hint of a local urban legend. It takes forever for any characters to get around to encountering it. Again, it lasts a few seconds. That's it. No explanations of any kind whatsoever. Where did the legend originate? Nobody makes it past the 5th gate? How do you know? Someone said? What happened on the trail? How does it end?

Well... do not expect any answers whatsoever. It's almost like someone said, "I have hours of footage of losers doing drugs... we could probably con people into watching it if we hint at the supernatural!" I mean, did NOBODY on the crew ask, "But... what HAPPENED?" The director must have said, "Eh, it's not important. We're going to end the movie right about there anyways. Just use your imagination." What truly boggles my mind is that people who had a vested interest in the success of this film looked at the first production version and said, "Yeah, that's perfect. People are gonna LOVE this!"

If you decide to watch this film, don't say you haven't been warned.

CWB