Rest Stop is a gritty little horror thriller that tries to do a little too much with too little. It is an interesting exercise, dabbling in the current trend of torture films, tossed with a little old school slasher style, and just a touch of the psychological. Unfortunately, the final concoction was taken out of the oven too soon, leaving it undercooked and deflated. Still, there is something about it that I did enjoy, just not enough to recommend.
The story proper kicks off with Nicole sneaking out of her parents house and running off with her boyfriend, Jesse. The lovestruck couple set off on a trip to California, chasing the stars in their eyes, and escaping their home of Texas. Before long, the couple have a run in with the driver of an old yellow pickup truck, setting up the horror of what is to come. Nicole needs to make a pit stop, so Jesse pulls over at one of the dirtiest, most disgusting rest stops you're likely to see, I would have braved it out on the dirt rather than use this thing. She comes out to find Jesse and their car missing, and herself being stalked by the man in the pickup.
Rest Stop is one of those movies that has more going on than would be expected, but the script does not dive deep enough into those things. Writer/director John Shiban tosses out some interesting nuggets of psychological horror, but they are so poorly executed that it comes off as confusing nonsense. I can understand the need to dance around some of these things so as not to just spell it all out, leaving some ambiguity, but come on. Things happen, people appear, people disappear, people die, and other things that will leave you scratching your head as to whether or not they really happened. It is like Shiban had a lot of things getting jumbled in his head during the writing process, but the connective tissue was lost in the translation from his brain to the keyboard, leaving out all the elements that would have brought them together. Kind of like making an omelette and forgetting the eggs, then swearing a lot, hooping that would make up for the missing ingredient.
I also would have liked a few more locations, the vast majority of the action takes place at the rest stop. We get a brief glimpse of the killers workshop on an old schoolbus, complete with a full supply of torture implements. We even get to see a bit of his handiwork, if only we could have gotten some more.
The biggest problem are some of the psychological elements, and the true nature of our killer. The impression is given that Nicole is losing her mind, with some of the people she encounters, and the events around them. It is also implied that our killer is something more than human, as evidenced by the messages on the bathroom walls. The more I think about it, the more maddening I find it to be. Is there a connection between the killer and family on the RV? There has to be something, or else those crazies do not serve any real purpose here.
Audio/Video. The audio is presented in a Dolby Digital 5.1, and it sounds pretty good. Dialogue is nice and clear, and the soundtrack, which I really liked, is well represented. The video is widescreen anamorphic, with a ratio of 1.85:1. It has a nice, gritty look highlighted by a washed out color palette. It well represents the source material.
Extras. Sadly, no commentary or in depth featurettes to be found.
- 3 Alternate Endings. There are three different takes on the ending, all very similar to each other, but also quite different from how the movie actually ended. I happen to think the ending used was probably the best choice, even if it continued the theme of logic lacking exhibited throughout the film.
- Crime Scene Photos. This is a series of photos taken on the killer's bus, images of his victims, and the unspeakable things that he did to them.
- Scotty's Video Expose. Scotty was one of the kids on the RV, a deformed little person who liked to use a video camera. This runs for a few minutes and gives a glimpse into his tortured life, and their encounter with the Killer.
- Trailer. The trailer isn't half bad, but I did find it funny how they claim the film was too disturbing for the big screen.
Bottomline. Raw Feed makes a decent debut with this highly flawed, but watchable horror flick. If you shut down when you watch it, you may actually like it. Whatever you do, do not try to make too much sense of what happens, you will only end up with a headache.
Mildly Recommended.
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