User Reviews

Let me just preface this by saying I've seen worse. A LOT worse- see "Death Tunnel", for one. And I'm sure the director of this one simply wanted to make a popcorn flick.

BUT:

1.) A.) Okay so lets open up with some "hot lesbian action". I've actually driven cross country across the desert, and I can say, without a doubt, wearing shorts that small and tight would definitely give you some problems down the road. Women will know what I'm talking about.

B.) So she sees the gigantic insano guy coming towards her, and continues to stand there?

C.) Why did the other feel it wise to get OUT of the car? And how come she got so far ahead when running?

2.) The cowboy at the rave looked like Depeche Mode's "Personal Jesus" video.

3.) So lets see, the B-horror checklist: the "wild" girl, the straight girl, townie that warns them, artsy boy, goth girl, the PDA couple and of course, "Spcecial-K" who looks like Billy Zane in Demon Knight. Who respectively look like rent-a-center versions of Paris Hilton, Eva Mendes, Jason London, C. Thomas Howell as Hugh Laurie as Rumsfeld as Pete, Ali Larter, Dan Cortes and Tori Spelling.

4.) A.) Don't RV's have bathrooms? If so, why didn't he go to the bathroom in there? He did later on!

B.) Longest pee ever.

C.) He didn't notice the dripping appendage before?

5.) Whne the RV crashes, I didn't see a little girl- actually thought it was a fully cooked headless turkey.

6.) When LOST in the desert, it IS customary to ask the following very important questions? Does that affect my thighs?...hotpants?...bikini top?....short shorts? The girls changed outfits like 30 times.

7.) Nice of the Cannibals to make a warning sign. 8.) Neil still tried to flag down the "Human Head bumper mobile"? 9.) They had to tell the guy to lock the door? Also, when trying to raid the enemy cave, lets shout at each other as loud as we can, throw our heavy flashlight and also let them know we have almost no ammunition left.

I could say a lot more, but I don't want to.

4.) Yes how very mature for college kids- tell us your gay!!!!

*SPOILER ALERT* *SPOILER ALERT*

"Detour" is a B-movie version of "Wrong Turn". It does not stray from the well worn B-movie path. Teens + killers = Good times. If that description excites you, you'll probably like this flick. A bunch of teens decide to take a DETOUR off the desert highway to look for some drugs. They find death and disaster. Let us learn from their plight. So please, don't take dad's camper into the desert to scrounge for drugs among the psycho cannibals. It's just common sense.

I enjoyed this one. "Detour" has a couple of scenes of blood and guts to keep you interested. There are Chicks, a Camper, some Cannibals, and Carnage. "Detour" has all the right C-words for a decent B-movie.

One last thing, watch out for the one guy in the camper who tries to talk like a gangsta rapper. This Vanilla Ice reject had me cringing. Keep a pillow handy so you can bury your head in it when he pops up on screen.

"Detour" is a D-movie desperately trying to be a B-movie.

Predictable thrills and chills follow a group of buxom and/or handsome teens as they oh-so-smartly head off into the desert in search of peyote. What could possible go wrong with that, right? Of course, their RV breaks down in the boonies and all sorts of hilarity - and by hilarity, I mean horror movie slashing - ensues.

The dialog is weak...the acting is weaker...and the special effects are weakest, or weakester...whatever.

Anyway, there are a few good death scenes. And I think the annoying Vanilla Ice-like guy did a decent job, since I think his character was supposed to be annoying. He was supposed to be annoying, right? But here's a suggestion to would-be producers of low-budget horror flicks: I know you're trying to create distinct characters, with attitude or personalities that stand out for the viewer. But in "Detour," I really wondered "Why the hell would any of these people be friends in the first place?" Caricatures are not characters. Make the characters seem like real people, who would really be friends, and the movie might actually generate a few more chills because the viewer might start to care what happens to these people.

Best unintentional moment of comedy? Watch as one of the lead female characters goes from "Buffy" tough to screaming-like-a-fool marathon runner in the course of about 30 seconds. Hilarious.

And here's a big spoiler! I thought the RV broke down. How come they were able to drive it away at the end of the flick?

I had the fortune (..) of borrowing the DVD from a friend. Normally I like B-type horrors / slashers. But this one really worked on my nerves. Especially the character 'Loopz': some white kid that was really trying to be some great black 'dude'. Annoying!! And the story... If I would be scared, with a broken bus in the middle of a strange desert, looking for a signal for my mobile, believing there are people near, the LAST thing I would do is having sex with a really annoying girl.. And for the rest of the storyline: Standard: guys to to bad place, get warned by local dude, don't listen, die.... Boooooring ! 1/10 (can not give less....)

Detour starts at a rave held in the middle of the Californian desert, all the ravers present party the night away... The next morning & it's time to get home, friends Neil (Brent Taylor), Tara (Ashley Elizabeth), Harmony (Jill Jacobs), Cashie (Kelsey Wedeen), Lawrence (Aaron Buer), Michelle (Jessica Osfar) & Lee (Ryan De'Rouen) all board their motor home & set off on the long lonely journey back to Los Angeles. On the way Neil persuades them to take a detour & look for a secret plantation of drugs (!). While distracted in the middle of nowhere Neil loses control of the motor home & crashes when he thinks he sees a little girl in the road. Much arguing ensues about whose fault it is & what they're going to do, Neil sets off on his own back to a gas station while Lee & Michelle head for higher ground to see if they get their mobile phones to work. It's not long before a pack of deranged cannibals have killed Lee & Neil & are intent on killing everyone else...

Co-written & directed by Steve Taylor I really didn't think much of Detour. The script by Taylor & Steve Grabowsky is painfully slow to get going, after a confusing montage of someone getting their guts ripped out during the opening sequence set to the rhythm of the rave music not one single person is killed for over 40 minutes, why is this a problem you might ask. Well I'll tell you, it's a problem because you have these highly annoying teenage character's that do virtually nothing on screen constantly & it becomes boring very quickly. You know the sort of thing, taking the mick out of each other, the silly bits of unnecessary character development to pad the run time out that in the end mean nothing & are irrelevant to the overall story, the stupid decision making like splitting up, going off on your own across miles of hostile desert & the fact that no-one tries to or even suggests that they try & free the van from sand it's stuck in & what about that little girl? Where did she go? She was obviously there as she dropped the doll but I'm not having it, there is no way on Earth she could just disappear so quickly & not be noticed, I mean it's open desert for miles around! There's hardly a wealth of places to hide is there? So you've made it past the mind-numbingly dull & boring opening 40 plus minutes yes? You really shouldn't have bothered as the film doesn't get much better (although it could hardly get worse), there's a serious lack of exploitation & there's some attempt at explaining the cannibals origins with some sort of drug from a plant!? Generally speaking Detour is a pretty rotten film. On a positive note the second half of Detour is much better than the first, but this still doesn't make up for it being crap.

Director Taylor does what he can with nothing but a desert to shoot in, which turns out not to be much. Since the majority of it is shot in broad daylight it lacks suspense or tension that the darkness of night might have brought. I was disappointed with the gore in Detour, the films as dry as a bone for the first 40 minutes & then we get some impaling, a few gunshot wounds, a severed arm & limbless body plus a couple of spikes through someones foot.

Obviously shot on a low budget & made-for-video Detour doesn't look too bad & is made with a certain degree of competence. The acting is pretty bad especially the track suit wearing all singing retard Buer who becomes highly annoying. The girls in Detour are nice however, a few babes never go amiss do they?

I was disappointed by Detour, it's like an extremely boring poor mans The Hills Have Eyes (1977), the stranded motor home, the cannibals, the isolated desert setting, the gas station owner who knows more than he's letting on & warns them about the desert etc. Do yourself a favour & don't bother with Detour, there are much better films out there.

*Review contains spoilers*

Hell's Highway is a low budget thriller typical of the genre, but for some reason I wanted to cut it some slack.

Sure, it has the usual stereotyped characters, predictable plot, mediocre acting, poor sound and gratuitous sex scene typical to this genre. However, the visual quality of the film is quite good, especially the scenes filmed in the open desert (although the night scenes suffer from some poor lighting choices).

On the down side, the endless stream of killers lack menace and presence. Despite allegedly being cannibal drug addicts who live in the desert, many of the killers appear relatively well dressed and clean cut - which makes them even less convincing.

Ultimately, overlooking the films flaws the overall effort was mildly entertaining and even the annoying Loop character grew on me by the end. I'd rate this film as a contemporary equivalent to the Full Moon Z grade horror flicks of the '90's. Clearly they are a somewhat cynical attempt to attract DVD renters at the local Blockbuster. It remains to be seen if director Steve Taylor (who appeared to fill multiple roles in this film under different names) is inspired to rise to anything greater.

4/10

A bunch of obnoxious party-hearty kids in an RV attend a rowdy rave bash held deep in the desert. After the rave ends the kids decide to venture off the main highway onto a somewhere on the beaten path uncharted road in order to score some primo peyote. Instead the kids run smack dab into a bunch of ferocious hillbilly cannibal lunatics with a serious case of the uglies and a jarring lack of civility who are hungry for fresh young meat. Naturally, the kids have to get in touch with their savage killer animal side pronto or otherwise they're all going to buy it. This indie horror item has a lot going for it: crisp and muscular direction by S. Lee Taylor, a central premise with pleasing echoes of "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" and especially "The Hills Have Eyes," copious violence that's every bit as gory and brutal as it ought to be, acceptable acting from an attractive cast of youthful unknowns, ample shocks which are appropriately grisly, sudden and visceral, slick and accomplished production values, a rousing pre-credits cameo by Tiffany Shepis, and a really cool thrashin' ending credits garage rock theme song. The only drawbacks are the rather poky opening third and the fact that the teens are insufferably idiotic and unappealing to the point where you don't care whether they live or die (the white homie dude is particularly annoying and unbearable). Those criticisms aside, this fright feature nonetheless rates as an above average little shocker.

First of, I'm a huge Horror genre buff. Very few horror movies that I consider really bad. This fortunately is one that I liked.

This movie is pure Horror candy. You got cannibals, Rave, Hot chicks, Blood and Even a white wanna be rapper, who although seems very annoying at first, but grows on you as the movie continues.

The story is basic slasher flick , Kids go to dessert for an all-night party and wind up being hunted down and eaten by a family of drug crazed peyote fiends. These so called cannibals look more like the folk in 2001 Maniacs. The folks from Hills Have Eyes would make mince meat out of them.

I guess the most interesting part of this movie is how the characters die. Not in the manner, but rather in the order. if you have not seen the movie stop reading at once ,cause here goes-

The ones you think would live die and the ones you really want dead, well let's just say they keep annoying till the end. I will say one thing , the majority of the cast does actually look like teenagers this time around. Tara. Harmony, Cashie,Niel and Loops all look like around 16-18(I guess that is why the girls all look so great in short shorts) Especially Tara. Pure eye candy . Also the stereo type silliness of each character gives them enough depth for one actually to care about them. Which is more than I can say about half of Jason's victims in Friday 13th series.

There are a lot scenes that don't make sense and are not consistent, but they seem to be there intentionally to make it more b-Movie fun. In the end you get a great stand off between the girls and the freaks really reminding me of movies like "Mother's Day".

Compared to Hills Have Eyes and Wrong Turn, the movie lacks the scare factor, but it does contain one scene that's really chilly. where one of the freaks puts on a dead girl's face and pretends to be her as our heroes let him inside the RV. SWEET..