Monday, October 29, 2012

RoadKill


So as I was watching this movie, I mused to myself that it should have been named "Road Train" instead of "Road Kill," since "Road Train" is the term the main characters use for the huge semi trucks that take up most of the road and pull two or three trailers behind them.  After searching for posters for the movie, lo and behold, it appears that the movie's original title was indeed "Road Train" but they seem to have changed it for the Fangoria Fright fest release, probably because they think USians are stupid and won't understand a movie entitled "Road Train" if they've never heard the term before.  They're probably right, but I like this title and this picture better, so that's what I went with to introduce this movie to you.

The movie is about four twentysomethings on  road trip through the Australian outback together, camping out and enjoying each other's company, except it seems that they don't exactly all get along, and there's a lot of tension and some hidden secrets that I'm sure will be addressed as the movie progresses.  After a harrowing encounter with the titular road train, they get into an accident and total their vehicle and one of them is seriously injured, and the huge truck stops ahead of them on the road and the driver has mysteriously disappeared, so they decide to try and drive the massive vehicle to safety, which of course is a bad idea, but they don't have much of a choice at this point, so I felt for them.  What follows is a flood of unpleasantness and stupidity and gore that is hit-and-miss but ultimately satisfying.

I ended up liking this movie in the end, though for awhile there it does go off the rails a bit with its weird ass plot.  I should be grateful that the filmmakers tried something original here, and it mostly works.  The actors are good, even though the characters they portray are mostly unlikable dicks who are ready to stab each other in the back (sometimes literally) at a moment's notice.  The gore is pretty plentiful and the truck is hulking and menacing, so the movie mostly works for me, and I'm glad I checked it out.

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