ROAD KILL 2010
Bob Morley (Craig), Sophie Lowe (Nina), Georgina Haig (Liz), Xavier Samuel (Marcus)
Directed by Dean Francis
Four young vacationers are terrorized by a maniacal trucker. Things take a supernatural turn when it's discovered that no one is driving the ominous 18 wheeler.
The Short Version: This overpriced lemon needs new tires, a new motor, new gaskets and a full on lube job. Buyer beware.
Incredibly awful Aussie low budget clunker would appear to be a rip off of Spielberg's seminal thriller, DUEL (1971). It soon becomes apparent that the film is a note for note clone of a movie almost as bad, DEATH SHIP from 1980. That film was about a group of stranded cruise ship passengers finding a derelict vessel out in the middle of the ocean. One of them is possessed by a demonic spirit and goes about killing the other survivors. It's discovered that it was previously a German Nazi vessel and now commandeered by supernatural forces; the ship itself not running on oil, but the blood of its victims(!)
ROAD KILL follows this same template, only it substitutes the dusty and isolated Australian outback for the vast expanse of the ocean. This time, the four campers are run off the road (within the first ten minutes) by the mysterious trucker. Not long after, it's discovered that no one is driving the 18 wheeler. After much tedium, we, the viewers come to realize that a demonic force is driving the big rig (shades of another awful movie, THE CAR from 1977) and requires blood to keep on truckin'. A couple of nice photographic touches aren't enough to make this clunker worth investing time and money into it.
Ponderously repetitive, this low mileage horror runs out of gas really fast. There's minimal gore and absolutely zero characterization outside of a torrid sex scene that opens the picture. One couple likes getting it on, and the other girls boyfriend seems disinterested when she becomes amorous. That's as deep as it is gets if you'll pardon the innuendo. For me, the best example of a devil possessed vehicle is still a segment from the anthology horror film NIGHTMARES (1983). See that instead. In dire need of an oil change, viewers of ROAD KILL should just leave this at the junk yard and seek out a new model.This review is representative of the Lightning Media DVD
