Review of Hell's Highway

This nifty little NO BUDGET shocker was a surprise to me. It was made by talented kids but still they're kids and it shows. There's a lot of stuff that's either lifted from other films, or supposed to be in homage to other films. You'll know it when you see it, and this is typical of kids just starting out making films. They have this whole sensibility that it's funny and hip to reference other films in their work, little "in jokes" that their social circle all get. The interviews with cast and crew at the end show this level of immaturity. Still, there's enough original stuff here to make it worth seeing. I got this because of the nice box art and well written synopsis, but when I saw it was shot on video, and not even very good video, I thought it was a mistake to watch. But I gave it a chance and was surprised at the many good points, and of course it is uneven yet there's enough good in it to give congrats to the writer/director for coming up with a literate and interesting script with a nice plot twist that's totally unexpected. Good acting by Ms. Dollar as the evil "entity", and some good grisly effects, though I wish she had handled the chainsaw a little better. Plus there's not really any slow or tedious points. It would be interesting to see the director do this again but in about 15-20 years when he's grown up and got more experience and a bigger budget to shoot it on film or HD. The basic story is literate enough to do it again and make the weak parts stronger, cut out the silliness and kid stuff, give it an overall sense of maturity and really develop the twist ending more. It's actually a good enough weirdo story to rank with the film stories of DePalma and Stephen King. Anyway, you won't be bored.