Route 666 (2001) User Reviews

Take the road less traveled.

[michaelRokeefe · 4/10 · 4 January 2002]

Are you ready for some weird entertainment? What seems to be a decent cop show turns into a horror flick. Yes, there is plenty of action...but you find yourself wondering how much stranger can this thing get. Some pretty good actors assembled to do this thing for producer Terence M. O'Keefe. William Wesley directs no doubt with a grin. This is a toss up between being really bad and being just a below average B-movie.

Lou Diamond Phillips and Lori Petty are government agents that track down a Federally protected witness(Steven Williams)hiding in the desert along Route 66. After convincing him to return to LA for his appearance in court things get crazy. It is decided to take a shortcut on a piece of closed highway, Route 666, where the now small FBI caravan is attacked by four zombies. The undead are four prisoners/murderers that were slaughtered while working on a road crew several years earlier. One of the zombies happens to be Phillips' estranged father.

Phillips has starred in worst...check out BATS. Somehow he keeps his dignity without embarrassing his following too much. I found Miss Petty pretty much irritating throughout. Williams is outstanding and has most of the best dialogue. Dale Midkiff is notable as a pompous FBI agent. And kudos to the veteran actor L.Q. Jones playing the corrupt county sheriff. The road less traveled is finally rid of its phantoms. Worth your test drive.

ROUTE 666: MORE PLOT HOLES THAN POTHOLES ON THIS ROAD...

[Mitch-38 · 3/10 · 11 November 2001]

*Caution potential spoilers and road hazards ahead* ROUTE 666 is actually the kind of lightweight straight-to-video extravaganza that would make a good date flick. Whoever you're with, they'll get bored quickly and want something else to do. The premise had potential, that being federal agents stuck in the middle of nowhere with a prisoner, being pursued by homicidal ghouls. Unfortunately, the execution is as bland and bleak as the desert landscape that surrounds them.

Lou Diamond Phillips sleepwalks and occasionally "trips" through the film, and his is the best performance. Steven Williams does add some oomph to the proceedings, too. The rest are wrung from the "hey, memorize the script and recite the lines" academy.

Speaking of script, in ROUTE 666, a lot of talk replaces any modicum of action. Well, suspense for that matter, seems to have taken a holiday, also. What's left, is a talky, unexciting, predictable outing that has a couple of good moments. ROUTE 666? Don't go there, girlfriend.

Not recommended.

Mindless, humorous B-horror

[pogue-2 · 5/10 · 9 August 2001]

As Lou and Lori transport 'Rabbit' (Steven Williams), a Federally protected witness from the deserted Route 66 badlands to LA, they must evade mafiosos who want Rabbit dead. They take the cursed and closed 'Route 666' road as a short cut and find themselves tormented by the zombies of four murderer/prisoners who were the center of a violent debacle years earlier.

Entertaining B-horror can be enjoyed if you just sit back and take some meds. There are some humorous examples of bad acting, attempts at taking on a Pulp Fiction sort of dialogue and plot-holes bigger than the desert sky. But hey, that's what you came for. Apparently the FBI doesn't believe in helicopters in this world. I found it particularly humorous when the witness, while handcuffed to the car in the middle of the desert, not only survives a hit attempt, but also survives an attack by the worker-zombies all-the-while Lou is busy having a fist-fight in the desert with one of the other agents while Lori watches the fight, and two of the other agents are getting it on in the back of one of the transport vehicles...the bulletproof suburban as opposed to the convertible the 'protected' witness has been riding in. Awesome.

Not terrible.

[capn_crusty · 13 October 2002]

Good tension throughout, the living-dead guys are creepy enough (not easy to pull off in bright desert sunlight), and the Native American shaman looks more like a deli counterman than the time-worn cinema stereotype--all in all, worth a look-see. Personally, I could have lived without all the jiggling camera work during the action shots, and the ending was a little weak, but otherwise I'd give it a 6 out of 10.

One big problem--though out of fairness it's not something that is peculiar to this flick alone. In fact, this has been a pet peeve of mine for years, and I dearly wish it would be advised against by every teacher of cinema...

ACTION RULE # 1: If people shoot the "bad thing" fifty damn times, and with no effect, THEN DON'T HAVE THEM KEEP ON DOING IT!

Horrible horror.

[ChoiceCuts · 1/10 · 7 March 2004]

***SPOILERS***SPOILER***SPOILERS***

This is clearly one of the worst movies I've ever had the misfortune to watch. A couple of feds are taking a witness to court and travel along a closed down road called "Route 666". Of course there are some mean, ugly zombies here who wants to make asphalt (yes, you heard right, asphalt) out of everyone foolish enough to travel there, because the road is cursed you see, some prisoners were killed here for a long time ago. The hero is, of course, the chosen one who is the only one who can break this evil spell, he's the chosen one since his father were one of the prisoners. Now that's what I call a coincidence. Among thousands of feds, the chosen one just happens to have the mission to transport a witness across this particular road.

Wait, things just get dumber.

His companion gets mad when he finds out that he is a son of a murderer and prisoner so after one of the most tedious and hideously acted monologues ever, he starts a fight with the Jack (the hero).

I almost went to pieces. Why is he so stupid that he starts a fight over something that no-one can help? Jacks special lady, Steph is just watching this outrageously useless and unnecessary fight without a thought of helping Jack out.

Wait, things get even dumber than this.

After the feds have gotten some of they're men slaughtered by the zombies they call the local marshalls to help them out. The marshalls arrive, and what do they do? They're starting to kill off the feds!!!

And that's when it struck me: this is one of the worst movies I've seen. I mean why was this even written? Why did they make a film out of this inane script? Were they actually paid to write this?

You might think that I'm not telling you anything about the good things in this movie only because I'm mean cynic who loves to slog off movies but no. I tell you this because there are almost no good things in it. The actors are painfully useless, the characters are truly worthy of my hate and one-dimensional, and the camera-work... Oh the camerawork. Figure out what it would look like if a drunk man with spastic hands armed with nothing but a handcam was allowed to film a movie. This is like that but actually even worse. It's among the most atrocious things to date. Not even the gore can save this one, since there's very little of it and all the FX sucks, so even gore-hounds will be let down. The only thing that was the least bit redeeming was that at least the black guy survived it. It's almost a rule in movies like these to have coloured, funny sidekick which gets killed in the end of the movie, oddly enough it didn't occur here, which is good. But one right can't make up for the hundreds of errors, a plot with more holes than swiss cheese, laughable dialogue, awful camera work and editing and every other countless mistake which is to be found herein.

If you're still interested in watching it then may I recommend full-frontal lobotomy?

0/10

This movie is so stupid that it's fun

[AirFrog · 2/10 · 18 January 2002]

Take some zombies with a jackhammer, FBI agents, bounty hunters, an US marshal, county cops and a car thief. Throw it all into a pot, and stir. Then you get this movie.

So stupid and bad made that I had to laugh at times!

Only watch this movie if you have absolutely nothing else to do.

Who in the hell would take Route 666?

[lastliberal · 4/10 · 15 June 2008]

Come on, give me a break. You see Route 666 on the sign and you turn down that road? Nobody, even if they are trying to save time, would get on a road with that name. You are just asking for trouble, and the folks in this ghost story got what they asked for.

I like Lou Diamond Phillips, even if he'll always be Ritchie Valens to me. I also like Lori Petty and L.Q. Jones. They both keep popping up in movies and TV shows. In fact, the cast in this film has done a lot of work, so maybe you'll find someone you like.

I certainly don't have high expectations when I watch a "B" movie, but I hoped to be entertained. This film did that. Sure, you get the same tired clichés and some people tend to act like jerks (Dale Midkiff), but the ghost aspect was pretty cool, and added to the horrible deaths.

Give it a whirl if you have nothing else to watch.

Horrible! Horrible! Horrible!

[john_dani · 2/10 · 18 June 2002]

This has got to be one of the worst movies I've seen in quite a while. The plot is horrible. There are so many plot holes that it makes it hard to concentrate on the bad active, grade school haunted house makeup & special effects or the terrible sound effects. Stay away from this movie.

Not Worth the Effort...

[NIXFLIX-DOT-COM · 2/10 · 16 September 2003]

...to spend a paragraph talking about, that is. But what is curious about the movie, which is quite awful even by the widest margins of quality, is why the director insists on shooting the action sequences as if he was re-making Spielberg's SAVING PRIVATE RYAN. The effect doesn't make the movie any better, simply because its action scenes are just, well, terrible.

And then prisoners turned ghosts appears and more foolishness happens. Then there are the characters whose only reason to exist is to get in the hero's way.

Oy.

2 out of 10

(go to www.nixflix.com for a more detailed review of the film)

Not bad at all

[pumaye · 7/10 · 11 June 2003]

An horror road movie with an interesting twist, this flick about a part of Route 666 infested by ghosts is better than one may think before of seeing it. Good cast, several surprising twists. For a double features b-movie evening with popcorn and cola.

This movie was bad

[slayback666 · 1/10 · 4 May 2005]

OK, wait, bad isn't what I was looking for........awful, there we go. The shaky camera stuff was annoying and the acting was horrible. As soon as I saw Lou Diamond Phillips' name in the info, I knew it was going to be bad. He hasn't been in a good film since.....oh yeah, he hasn't been in a good film EVER. The whole plot line of "Route 666" was dumb and the supporting cast for the "greatest actor in the world"(<-sarcastic remark) was almost worse than any supporting cast I have ever seen. If I were to pick the top 5 bad movies ever, this would definitely be at the top of my list of candidates. Do NOT watch this movie, because it will be a waste of your money and your time.

A wonderful Film

[Edge424 · 9/10 · 30 May 2002]

This movie when i saw it kept me into it the whole way through. This movie had everything a true horror movie should a good story line, and great gore scenes. the ghosts in this movie were done up well and the way Lou diamond Phillips played his role as the ghosts son worked well throughout the movie. To anyone who hasn't seen this movie I would suggest watching it if you can find it. I give this movie a 8 out of 10

Surprisingly Good!

[BrandtSponseller · 7/10 · 31 January 2005]

Lou Diamond Phillips plays Jack La Roca, a U.S. Marshall and former Navy SEAL assigned to pick up "Rabbit" (Steven Williams), who is in the federal witness protection program but has been on the run. La Roca is to take Rabbit from Arizona to California to testify in court, but along the way they run into a variety of obstacles, mostly horrific, the most serious of which are the result of La Roca's decision to take a shortcut on Route 666.

Lou Diamond Phillips is a B and C-movie king. Route 666 nicely fits in with his oeuvre. The film is much better than it should be, perhaps, given the relatively small budget and a number of questionable decisions on technical aspects (life reflecting art, as the film hinges on a questionable decision). But although goofy at times, Route 666 is a fun-to-watch action/horror film. It actually ended up as a 7 out of 10 for me.

A number of things quickly drew me in, even though they do not directly have an impact on the quality of Route 666. The first two were the presence of Williams and character actor Dick Miller. I'm a big fan of Jason Goes To Hell: The Final Friday (1993). Williams plays Creighton Duke, one of the main characters, in that film. Miller is a genre veteran with over 100 titles to his name, and well loved by many genre fans, including me. The third immediate attraction for me is that Route 666 is set in a Joshua Tree-filled desert. I love deserts, and I especially love Joshua Trees. Director William Wesley actually acquired permission to shoot in Joshua Tree National Park, one of my favorites. This was the first film in about 10 years allowed to do so.

Wesley quickly builds an effective, sarcastic and usually witty rapport between La Roca, his partner Steph (Lori Petty) and Rabbit, although Petty can be a bit over-the-top at times. But Williams is particularly funny. There are other standout performances here, as well, especially L.Q. Jones as the Sheriff.

At the beginning, Route 666 seems like it will be an actioner. Although these aren't the most exciting shoot-out scenes ever filmed, they have a nice feel to them, partially due to the setting and lighting, and there is a pleasantly unusual tangent when Phillips has a bizarre "flashback" as he looks at a victim's blood spreading on the dirt.

There is an eerie atmosphere to the whole film, and especially when the horror material starts, it is very refreshing that Wesley chose to keep the proceedings in broad daylight. It also helps that there are two sets of villains, with the second, and possibly the most effective, not being very obvious until late in the film. The more traditional horror villains are very satisfying, with an interesting, unusual yet immediately recognizable look, and they are worked into the backstory of the characters extremely well. Their methods of dispatching victims are creative, although I wish Wesley would have gone into a gorier mode with the deaths. But one death, at least, near the end of the film, is particularly brutal in its abruptness. Even though this isn't Wesley's masterpiece, he shows that he has one in him.

Sure the film has flaws--Phillips plays much of the film with what looks like a large wad of raspberry gum stuck to his forehead, the shaky cam and other effects didn't work very well for me during the horror attack scenes, the score sounded fairly generic and repetitive (it reminded me of playing a video game), and there are some plot points that don't make a lot of sense if you think about them too much. But most horror fans probably will not expect a masterpiece when watching Route 666. With appropriately lowered expectations, you'll likely be pleasantly surprised at just how good this film is.

Stupid as hell.

[Finntroll · 1/10 · 15 July 2004]

Sometimes there are movies that just don't deserve to be called movies and sometimes there are cameramen who just deserve to be shot. By some weird twist "Route 666" isn't a movie and it's shot by a cameraman who should aim at something else with a tool that looks nothing like a camera. I guess you already know the what I mean so I will start the review here if it's OK with you. OK? Good.

"Route 666" is an abomination that suffers from being a bit more abnormal than it's low budget flick companions. Why? Well, I guess it can have something to do with the retarded storyline, horrible actors, useless FX and the cameraman who makes the "action"-sequences look like something that's been filmed from a washing-machine during an earthquake. I could start picking at every little fault that "Route 666" suffers from but I don't have the time. Just don't watch this movie okay?

i was not aware an entire script could be one liners

[titantrap2 · 2 November 2003]

don't let my tagline fool you, i like route 666. as far as straight to dvd flicks go it's above average. it actually reminds of drive in style scary movies of the 50's and sixties. Lou Diamond is a solid lead, Lori petty works, i hate to say it but i liked Dale Midkiff. The plot had some merit, it was an original take on a unoriginal concept. However, the script, is one liner, after one liner after one liner. i laughed through the movie, though i'm not sure it's intended to be funny. the lines are enough to make the movie worth while and the make-up effects are a nice refreshing change from the cgi laden horror flicks of late. watch route 666, it's a fun ride, no doubt.

"I may not be on the good side of the law but I do happen to be on the good side of...looking."

[utgard14 · 5/10 · 25 June 2014]

Two federal marshals (Lou Diamond Phillips, Lori Petty) find a federal witness (Steven Williams) hiding out in a bar in the Arizona desert. No sooner do they catch him than hit men show up to kill him. Some more marshals arrive and they escape with the witness down an abandoned stretch of highway that is haunted by the ghosts of a prison chain gang that died there.

Williams is the best part. Dale Midkiff is good. So is Phillips. Petty is irritating. I'm not sure why she was talking with that "street" accent but it was distracting. The rest of the cast is solid. Cheap-looking but often funny, intentionally and unintentionally. Love how William Wesley didn't really know when it was appropriate to use slow-mo so he was just using it at random times. There are some funny lines. Not sure how many are in the script because some of the actors seem to be ad-libbing throughout the movie. There are attempts at being Tarantinoesque, such as a forced exchange between some of the feds as to whether Farrah Fawcett is a supermodel or not. There's also an annoying blues riff that plays frequently.

Definitely an interesting premise for a movie. It has some pluses but more minuses. The direction sucks and Lori Petty is trying way too hard to be...well, whatever the hell she's trying to be. Give it a shot if you like B movies but keep expectations low.

Like looking at a car wreck, so bad yet you cant turn away...

[TerminalMadness · 5/10 · 13 October 2002]

THis is possibly one of the worst movies ever, yet it was hard to turn off the television. Sure, the directing is terrible, the acting is lame and full of has-beens and never beens, and there's enough plotholes to consider it swiss cheese. This takes you through a tired and easily forgettable opening with a contrived shoot-out, lame car chases, and endless, nonsensical ramblings from each character who sounds like their memorizing the scripts rather than acting. Within an hour, there's really no lead up and we get alot of subplots involving tension between the characters that is easily dull. Lou Diamond Phillips providas a bit of balance between the movie and we get to see some terrible make-up and gore effects as we see a ghoul/zombie/ghost chain gang of dead prisoners who spike and jack hammer their victims to death. The ending is contrived from Star Wars. Yup, Star wars... just see for yourself. Like I said, this is one of those movies that are so bad you just have to watch to witness it yourself. I did, two hours of my life I'll never get back.

I've never written a review for anything in my life...

[emabb4 · 2/10 · 1 November 2021]

I felt compelled to write a review of this film in the hope someone will read it and never suffer my 1 hour and 30 minutes of insanity.

I think this could be the worst film I've ever seen in any Genre and I'm saddened by that because well Lou Diamond Phillips and Lori Petty that's why !

What happened? Why why why was this made ?!

Zombie Ghosts I can deal with, but bad script, no plot , over the top acting and very odd fight scenes for no particular reason - please no Please this is my warning to you as a fellow human , let's never speak of this monstrosity again.

Should have stayed an action pic (spoilers)

[jerronspencer · 4/10 · 28 September 2004]

Route 666...highway of the beast. Here is a film that had some great desert locations and some decent gunplay. And that's about all.

****SPOILER****

In this ghostly action thriller, Jack (Phillips) is a--get this--Federal Marshall, who used to do under-cover work for the CIA, and before that was a Navy SEAL. How's that for background? Of course, he has an unspoken love for his partner, played by Petti. They're attempting to deliver a witness to trial along a closed and dangerous stretch of old Route 66. This highway is haunted by the souls of four convicts who were murdered by the guards set to watch them. In an amazing coincidence, one of the convicts was Jack's long-lost father.

This sluggish film was more entertaining in the beginning, as an action film, than later, when it became a poorly-executed tale of family redemption, ghosts and secrets from the past.

So Bad It's Good.

[Matt_Layden · 4/10 · 21 September 2009]

My second time catching this and loving it even more. Not in the ways one is suppose to I'm sure. The film is a B-Movie to the core, with cheesy acting, special effects and the whole lot.

Lou Diamond Phillips, or as the cool kids call him, LDP, has to find and escort a witness back to court. The only problem is the witness is hiding out in the middle of the desert. The film opens with LDP finding him and the Russian gangsters he is testifying against tracking him down to kill him. A shootout occurs, one that is so horribly done that it feels like a low grade action film from the 80's.

On their way to bring the witness back, LDP begins having these bizarre visions of a graveyard and prison workers dying. Is there a connection? Well, out of nowhere he claims his father is buried out here. Coincidence? I think not, some clever writers came up with some genius ideas in this script.

At some point in the film, it becomes some sort of horror flick. With these zombies coming back from the dead to kill those who are on route 666. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention they take an abandoned road to get to their destination quicker. Isn't that always the case? These zombies get their 'power' from the road. That is a quote from the film. They are attracted from blood spilled.

The acting is well done from LDP and Steven Williams, the witness. The rest are pretty bad. The effects, are cheesy. The film has some kind of weird choppy slow motion style when the zombies appear. The make-up on them is low rent. They look like gravel...like the road. Find any of this funny yet? I sure did.

The film is one of those, so bad it's good. I find it hilariously good. If you can't find the humour in bad cheesy horror films, then this will not be for you. The climax involves LDP connecting to his dead father and giving him his blood to save everyone. Weird? Sure is. The dead zombie father becomes good and saves his son. This film even falls under the good old 'drinking game' category. Give it a whirl if you find bad horror films hilarious.

A much underrated B-movie

[Leofwine_draca · 7/10 · 25 January 2018]

ROUTE 666 is an engaging little zombie B-movie from William Wesley, the director who brought us SCARECROWS back in the 1980s. This one's very similar and the story's quartet of zombies are even reminiscent of the straw-filled scaries in his debut feature. Although low budget, this film's a lot of fun thanks to some clever photography in the zombie scenes, an eeriely isolated desert setting, and a solid performance from Lou Diamond Phillips as the hero of the hour. TANK GIRL's Lori Petty adds sass in support, but the real ace in the deck is the great Steven Williams, who has been hugely entertaining in everything I've seen him in and who continues to be so here. The film isn't exactly scary but it feels fresh and engaging in a similar way to a film like RETROACTIVE, and the action scenes are a lot of fun.

Ghost-Zombies

[Uriah43 · 4/10 · 6 August 2013]

Two federal marshals named "Jack La Rocca" (Lou Diamond Phillips) and "Stephanie" (Lori Petty) are working for the witness protection agency and have orders to find and capture a fugitive witness named "Fred" (Steven Williams) and then to bring him to a Los Angeles court by 10 o'clock the next morning. They finally nab Fred on a part of old Route 66 and decide to take a shortcut by traveling on an abandoned road nicknamed "Route 666". It's nicknamed that because it is supposedly haunted by spirits. Accompanying Jack and Stephanie are 4 other federal marshals who were responsible for losing Fred in the first place. Not far behind are hired assassins with instructions to kill Fred. But awaiting them on Route 666 are "ghost-zombies" (for lack of a better word) whose only reason for existence is to kill those who travel on their road. Anyway, this was an interesting story and it featured some decent acting. I especially liked the performances of Steven Williams and Lori Petty. Likewise, Lou Diamond Phillips performed in a decent manner as well. What brought the film down in my estimation was the complete lack of suspense and the very weak ending. Perhaps if this had been a made-for-television movie I could understand the rather mild overtones. But for a film made for the big screen it just didn't impress me that much. Slightly below average.

A very cool and enjoyable zombie horror "danger on the road" winner

[Woodyanders · 8/10 · 19 August 2006]

In 1988 former cameraman, theater director and Army documentary filmmaker William Wesley made the superbly eerie and grisly living dead horror zinger variant "Scarecrows." Some thirteen years later Wesley finally resurfaced with this snazzy direct-to-video terror shocker which centers on a dry, dusty, desolate patch of remote desert backroads haunted by the lethal, murderous, unrestful eyeless, zombie-like, asphalt-encrusted, crumple-faced spirits of four extremely vicious and dangerous chaingang convicts who were all killed in a brutal roadside massacre back in 1967. Rugged Federal marshal Lou Diamond Phillips, feisty lady cop Lori Petty, antsy mob informant Steven Williams (the tough, determined bounty hunter out to bag Jason Vorhees in "Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday"), and several expendable fuzz who include Dale Midkiff (the dumbbell doctor dad in "Pet Semetery") and Alex McArthur (the chillingly emotionless serial killer in William Friedkin's "Rampage") encounter the fiendish undead felons when they make the unsound decision to use the titular condemned, closed-off highway as a shortcut. Meanwhile, a mob assassin pursues our beleaguered bickering bunch.

Ingeniously blending a tried'n'true fright film premise with elements lifted from your basic chase action yarn and rough, gritty, noir-leaning crime thrillers, "Route 666" provides loads of crisp, pacy, straight-up grue-slinging creeped-out monstermash fun. Wesley directs in the same taut, spare, stripped-down no-nonsense manner which distinguished "Scarecrows." Philip Lee's sharp, panoramic cinematography vividly evokes a quietly unnerving wide-open feeling of total isolation and vulnerability. Terry Plumieri's countryish shuddery score likewise hits the spooky spot. The cast all turn in sturdy performances: Philips is less stolid and more agreeable than usual, Petty has spunky charm to spare, and Williams delightfully supplies the hilariously whiny, craven and conniving comic relief. Better still, we've got nice cameos by venerable character actors L.Q. Jones as a folksy sheriff and Dick Miller as a gruff, gravel-voiced bartender. In short, "Route 666" is just the place to find plenty of good, gory, neatly streamlined and to the point horror pic kicks.

Get Your Kicks On Route 666

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 3 December 2008]

Lou Diamond Phillips stars as a US Marshal trying to get witness Steven Williams to Los Angeles to testify at a mob trial. At first he and his team which consist of Lori Petty and Dale Midkiff among others have to only worry about a gang of mob hit men who they tangle with outside a New Mexico diner. Then its redneck sheriff L.Q. Jones and his dim bulb sons. Seeing these two I've no doubt that L.Q. was blood relations with mom. He's on the mob payroll as well.

But when Phillips and his crew make a turn off on a closed road to save some time, that's when trouble really starts. Lou's got a connection to that road which he finds out. And Jones has an even stronger connection. The road holds a terrible secret, there's a reason it's been closed off for years.

Route 666 was a made for television film for the Science Fiction Channel and it's pretty good considering some of what usually comes out of there. Lou and the rest of the cast deliver good performances in a film that glides effortlessly from an action/adventure to a horror flick. For those who like both genres and Lou Diamond Phillips, Route 666 will keep you on the edge of the seat at the end.

Note to future filmmakers: Shakycam is ANNOYING.

[capkronos · 5/10 · 27 May 2007]

Federal agents Jack La Roca (Lou Diamond Phillips) and Stephanie (Lori Petty) track fugitive Fred Smith (Steven Williams, from JASON GOES TO HELL) along the desolate desert highways of the American southwest. Fred (who likes to be called Rabbit) is an Ivy league-educated former mob accountant who was put into the witness protection program and set to testify in court against his employers, but fled before the trial could begin. After he's apprehended, some mob goons show up for a brief shoot out and the trio are bailed out by four U.S. Marshall's (David Keith as the obligatory macho jerk of the group, a wasted Alex McArthur, Mercedes Colon as his girlfriend and some other guy who looks familiar from TV commercials). The seven then hit the road and need to get back to California in a hurry, so they take a shortcut off Route 66, despite the fact that it's blocked off and has a "cursed" reputation.

Route 666 turns out to be quite cursed indeed, as they make a stop at a peculiar graveyard containing four graves that read like a Who's Who of the most infamous murderers and criminals of the 1960s. Soon, after, a quarter of supernatural, eyeless, blood-drinking zombies pop out of the road to kill. One is a former serial killer who cut out eyes and tongues, another happens to be Jack's bank robber father and each even has their own special weapon (a sledge hammer, chain, pick axe and jackhammer) to use against victims. If things couldn't get any worse, one of the mobsters follows them and some local corrupt police officers want to cover their tracks. Jack has visions that explain why the dead chain gang member's souls were unable to rest in peace and ends up separated from the group, where in a completely pointless subplot, he drinks peyote tea with a pipe-smoking Indian (Gary Farmer).

Veteran character actor L.Q. Jones turns up in a supporting role as the evil/elderly town Sheriff, who is first seen sitting behind a desk reading The Tell-Tale Heart and also turns out to be the one responsible for shooting and then running over the four chain gang members with a steam roller in 1965! He blows a hole in one woman with a shotgun, pistol whips Keith and threatens to blow Petty's tit off before poetic justice comes, uh, rolling over him. Dick Miller is also here, but wasted in a nothing cameo. He's in the very first scene as a bartender and has only two lines. The acting (particularly Phillips and Williams) is pretty good, the story is acceptable (even though the subplot between Jack and his dead father doesn't come off at all and helps turn the end a bit silly), the desert and run-down drive-in theater locations are used fairly well and there's a good sense of humor and some witty dialogue.

It's not a bad movie, but I had to deduct a couple of points for several reasons. The most irritating aspect of the story is that you can only be killed by the ghouls when you are standing directly ON the road. Everyone finds this out about midway through and the characters still continue to go on it, as if they're asking to die. One guy even dies because he goes to get his friggin' cigarettes! Much worse than that is the overuse of irritating "shakycam" camera-work (just as it sounds, the camera just jiggles around all over the place for no apparent reason), which helps to ruin most of the action/horror scenes.