Rest Stop (2006 Video) User Reviews

Could have been a minor masterpiece...

[lupis_noctum · 5/10 · 8 January 2007]

This film made me quite sad after I finally comprehended it. This story of a supernatural venus fly-trap could have been a excellent with a little tweaking to the script.

My take on the story: A serial killer snagging people from the area around a rest stop is killed by a family of even-more-than-usually freakish Jesus freaks. The family, the killer, and all of the killer's victims are caused to haunt the area, drawing in anyone who passes by the area, especially if they stop at the rest stop.

My overall view of the plot is taken only from elements presented in the actual film, but is supported by the "family album" by Scotty presented on the DVD. The killer DID kill the family, except for the father and Scotty, we simply aren't shown how the father manages to kill him.

Here are my suggestions for plugging the holes in the story and making it a tad more cohesive: 1) Make the heroine appear to be less appallingly stupid by showing that she's caught in a loop and can't leave the area. The fact that she didn't simply start walking parallel to the road but far enough away not to be seen from it was a constant thorn in my side while watching. Having her try this, but always winding up back at the rest stop would have alleviated this.

2) Work the bit of film Scotty shot of his father burying the killer into the fabric of the film once it's been established that we're not dealing with just a whackjob and that we're in the middle of a supernatural event. More of the family in any case would have been great, should have given more screen time to them and less to rather silly things like the scene in which sweetcheeks the heroine whiles away her time in the ranger's shack...

3) Rethink the role fire plays in the story. A puddle of gasoline on a cement floor do not cause a building constructed of cement to explode. Covering the hood of a truck with burning gasoline does not cause the truck to explode. Sure, these are minor points I suppose, especially in an industry where vehicles explode at the slightest provocation...

Handled differently, this movie might have been a great little ghost story. Sadly, it was not. All the elements were there, they just never came together.

Not a good movie, but misunderstood by many here...

[michaeljharvey · 5/10 · 21 August 2008]

This is certainly not a classic film, but many reviews here show that people completely failed to understand what was happening with the plot.

Spoilers ahead:

Rest Stop is really a ghost story, not a slasher movie. The rest stop is haunted and everyone that Nicole meets there is a ghost. The strange family in the RV, the girl locked in the closet, the policeman and even the serial killer in the truck are all supernatural. This is why the policeman and girl in the closet simply vanish. The killer's truck can't be damaged and we even see it in perfect condition right after it just completely burned. It's a ghost story! You can't evaluate the plot in terms of hard logic. In one of the final scenes we see that Nicole has been killed by the serial killer's ghost and her spirit is now trapped at the rest stop as well. The whole thing is pretty clearly spelled out.

I'm not defending this as a good movie. It's very tedious in a lot of areas and it never really comes together. However, most of the people who thought it was the "worst movie ever" didn't even take the time to figure out what was happening. I guess if a movie isn't completely obvious, some people get confused.

...*still* not the worst horror movie I've rented lately.

[MeanLadyJosie · 5/10 · 29 October 2006]

Yes, as per previous comments, this movie was somewhat disjointed and definitely some of the things the silly girl did, did not make sense (but since when do the victims/heroines of a horror movie ever do the SMART thing anyway?) - but it wasn't as bad as all that.

*Spoilers Ensue*

Alright, the writer establishes from the get-go that this is a seriously sheltered young woman from a small town in Nowhere, TX. She has probably never worked a day in her life and even when she runs off with her boyfriend in a bid to be 'free' and 'live dangerously' - she has some seriously unrealistic expectations. So, that she is too lazy to walk the 60 miles to the next services, is to be expected. Naturally, she thinks, Jess (or somebody) will show up to rescue her.

I think the 'little princess' background more than makes up for a lot of the stupid things she does in the movie (or, more specifically - does not do). A brief & incomplete list : not defending herself, waiting for help instead of actively seeking it, giving up after one 'distress call' on the ranger's radio, not taking the cop's gun immediately, not bashing her way into the camper... the list goes on.

The actress bugged me as much as she did some other posters, but I don't think she was terrible at what she did. I would prefer to imagine that the writer intended Nicole to be hard to feel empathy for, and that maybe we weren't supposed to really like or root for her. I could be wrong, but I know that from the beginning, I didn't like the character.

I think the writer gave his audience a little bit of credit (maybe too much, if the other comments are any indication) for drawing our own conclusions about certain things. The girl in the janitor's closet (Tracy), the cop (Deacon?) and then Nicole herself in the closet - were not actually there. They were ghosts, or reflections of the past, or at the very least something lending a supernatural tone to the movie. I felt that this was pretty obvious and didn't question for an instant that the filmmakers were just that dumb and 'forgot' about it. Especially given Nicole's dialog after each appearance/disappearance (not to mention the missing poster for Tracy was dated 1971).

What I found much more frustrating was the complete lack of development of the villain. Tracy says he's not human, and certainly he is one sick puppy - but aside from the miraculous regeneration of his truck, what evidence is there that he isn't just a perverted killer from the backwoods near the Cali-Nevada line?

What I found even more frustrating was the bizarro family in the camper and how they had (apparently) no actual influence on events. Either they were involved (which might explain why they failed to help Nicole at the start) or they weren't (suggested by the brutal murders in the DVD bonus material). The movie never really gives us any clues on them, except that they're strange, transient and super-religious (or cultists or something). Why didn't they open the door for her when she pounded the first (or second) time? Why did they take her in eventually? Why did they manage to drop her off back at the very same Rest Stop after driving around for awhile?

Still, despite all the faults - and there are many - this movie was better than an enormous slew of D-rated horror flicks I've had the misfortune to watch. The Zodiac Killer, Camp Slaughter, Bone Sickness, Blood Ranch, Aunt Rose... I could go on. All were terrible, all had horrifically bad production values. This one had a decent soundtrack, some pretty good gore, a couple cheap scares and several Hostel-style shocks.

Given the pure volume of utter trash that is out there these days, I can't see failing acknowledge the commendable qualities of Rest Stop and I definitely can't see giving it the low scores I've seen above - which probably should be reserved for the truly pathetic garbage out there... My 2 cents, at any rate.

What a shame, this could've been good.

[bernie-122 · 3/10 · 16 October 2006]

If only he hadn't bowed to cliché, Mr Shiban could have actually made a good film from this story. It was just different enough to keep you interested, so for the same amount of time, energy and money as was spent on this stinker, we might have had something good instead of eye-rolling.

Production-wise, it is as good as one could really expect from a hand-held camcorder, so he gets good marks there. It's really the script that's at fault, as the acting wasn't all that bad, either, considering what the actors had to work with.

I thought the days were long gone when we would see someone, finding a radio transceiver they desperately wish to operate, first turn every knob on the thing from end to end, bash it on top 6 or 7 times, and then expect it to work. This story is ruined by a continuous string of stupid moves by all the characters except the bad guy. It's as though we are thought to be too shallow to grasp all the plot devices, so they are all spoon-fed to us to make sure we get them.

I don't know about you, but that doesn't work on me. My attention ends up being occupied by the plot holes and over-dramatizations, not the story.

So, since I found this to be not so bad in the technical sense, I think Mr. Shiban should try again, only with a proper script next time; then he might give us something worth watching.

What happened to the plot? They flushed it down the potty!

[Coventry · 3/10 · 10 May 2007]

Young couple on the road, minding their own business and having casual sex in their car during broad daylight. Yet, suddenly, they're being menaced and terrorized by a deranged psychopath in an old and rusty pick-up truck. Hmm, where have I seen this premise before? Oh yeah, now I remember, we've seen this a THOUSAND times before already, and approximately nine hundred and ninety-nine of the other cases were much better than "Rest Stop"! This weak and pitiable new movie is insulting even to the intellect of the most undemanding horror fans, as it doesn't feature a single original twist or memorable gimmick. It's very sadistic and nasty, but every teenkill-slasher flick is sadistic and nasty nowadays, so that's no real surprise anymore, neither. The absolute main problem with this production is the incredibly large amount of dumb plot holes and meaningless sub plots. Writer/director John Shiban damn well realized that the ultra-thin basic storyline nearly wasn't enough to fill a whole movie with, and thus he stuffs up his film like a Thanksgiving turkey with imbecile and nonsensical padding material. Nicole's boyfriend vanishes at an abandoned and filthy rest stop in California. Killing off her character right away wouldn't result in a very long movie and thus she subsequently encounters a motor home family of freaks, suffers from visions (?) in which she talks to the deranged killer's previous victims and she has deeply emotional (and boring) conversations with a police officer who just won't die even though a truck ran over him...twice! The dumb sub plots never lead anywhere and they're definitely the most pathetic and desperate attempts to stretch a movie's length I've ever seen. Instead of all the pointless padding, Shiban should have paid more attention to building up tension and make his lead characters a little more likable. Jaimie Alexander's character Nicole is an annoying and brainless girl, and you won't really care whether she'll survive the ordeal or not. Her boyfriend Jesse as well as the cop are both whining losers and their brutal deaths still weren't painful enough, if you ask me. I counted exactly three sequences, all including torture and gratuitous mutilation, that were gory and exciting enough to bring a sadist smile on my face. That's still way too few for a nowadays horror movie. Basically, "Rest Stop" is simply a miserable attempt to cash in on the success of such films like "Wolf Creek" and "Hostel", but you're better off watching the originals. This was the first film of the new production company called 'Raw Feed'. They're promoting themselves as the new name in great horror, but they'll have to come up with something much better than "Rest Stop" if they want us to believe that.

Terrible Movie

[perry147 · 1/10 · 10 November 2006]

I do not write reviews here often but I can not stand by and let other people suffer through this movie without a least trying to warn them. This movie is horrible and it is not because "I do not know what the director was trying to convey" or "I am too stupid to understand the plot"; this movie is horrible because of poor direction, screen writing and acting. This is the "trifecta" of bad move making and the reason the film was direct to video. It tries to be something like "High Tension", "Hostel" and "TCSM" with the lifting of some of those ideas but it just does not work. I did not have high expectations or even medium ones going into the film but was still very disappointed. It had potential to be very good with a nice setting and good idea for a film but it was wasted.

Yet another "hurt-merchant in the middle of nowhere" offering.

[EyeAskance · 20 April 2007]

*minor spoilage*

It's sad to see the current state of horror movies...so many of them are unimaginitive, formulaic scribbles built around graphic images of people being cruelly tortured to death. Once upon a time, films like BLOOD FEAST and BLOODSUCKING FREAKS were at least groundbreaking and shocking, but today this stuff is all just business as usual(a troubling thought, really, but save that rant for another time).

Enter REST STOP...an ambitious indie movie in the above-mentioned category, though not an especially GOOD one, wherein a young runaway and her lover meet their grisly fate at a filthy roadside toilet. Along the way, we are introduced to characters who appear and disappear mysteriously, lending this film a presumably supernatural slant(the only element which distinguishes it slightly from most other titles of its particular feather)

Amidst the ho-hummery of "fight for your life" action, be ready for an atrocity exhibition of tongue-cutting, flesh-drilling, bone-crunching torture...graphic scenes served up as "highlights" in films of this type. Admittedly, they are fairly potent. Sadly, REST STOP succeeds only in the gross-out department(though the performance of the leading lady, while strained at points, is distressingly believable despite her character being poorly written)

The worst part of it all is the vague, frustratingly non-resolute finale, and any bit of intrigue this film manages to generate becomes nullified by it. I generally have no problem with oblique endings in movies, but when so many key queries are met head-on with a shrug, the overall feeling one gets is that there was never a solidly devised basis to build upon in the first place.

A mean-spirited amateur undertaking at best, recommended only to preponderant gorehounds who toss off with back-issues of FANGORIA. 3.5/10

Beyond Awful

[ladywolf9653 · 1/10 · 30 April 2007]

This movie has got to be the biggest disappointment I've ever experienced with a film. The acting is horrific, the suspense build up minimal, and the plot overall is ridiculous. I found myself rooting for the victim to just hurry up and become a victim, because she obviously needed to be put out of her misery. Anyone with rudimentary knowledge of how the world works will immediately be disgusted at the leaps we're asked to make in logic, and the so-called suspenseful buildup would be lucky to get a 3 year old to be mildly worried. I'm dismayed that a sequel is planned, because it means they'll be asking us to once again swallow a sub par plot line. If this is an example of Raw Feed's work, I think I'll be avoiding any and all future films by them.

A Big Disappointment

[theenoid · 1/10 · 19 October 2006]

I won't spoil it for you. Although you probably could care less if it was spoiled (you'll know what I mean after you watch it) Poor story. B-rated movie quality. Typical horror -stupid situations- rare timing. I should of known, when they try to push a lot of hype in their advertising or even add "quotes". Just tells me that the movie bombed big time. And they are trying to pull in everyone just so they can break even with to cost of making this bomb. I wish I could take back the time I spent watching this. I was stupid and thought that there just had to be something great around the corner. But I kept getting let down. I don't usually waste my time adding comments to any movie. In fact, this is my second post. I just felt maybe I could spare a few of you from wasting money on something that had a bunch of hype on it.

no rest at that stop

[wrlang · 7/10 · 7 October 2006]

Rest Stop hits home for me. I've made many trips through the country and used rest stops frequently, even sleeping in them. Always felt a little creepy when everyone else left and you're the only one there. This film was about a young couple traveling from Texas to California who take a wrong turn (of course) and are attacked by a weirdo driving a pickup. They go to a small remote rest stop so the girl can pee and the boyfriend along with the car disappear leaving the girl to fend for herself. As the story progresses you learn that the pickup driver is a killer that taunts and tortures people for fun. It moves along at a pretty good pace and there's lots of suspense as the lone girl tries to outwit the killer. Some of the clues are just too convenient and it leaves you wondering of it is all some kind of surreal dream or flashback. There are some ghosts and other strange characters that show up, but the film is relatively well made.

So Bad I Had To Comment

[weirdozmedia · 2/10 · 30 October 2006]

I've never made one of these before, but this movie was literally so bad I had to say something about it.

I'm all for independent film-making as the past year has seen of the worst (in my opinion) of Hollywood's showings, the mainstream just seems to have lost touch with what making good films is all about. That being said movies like this really give independent film a bad reputation.

The characters are boring and too stupid to empathize with. The direction is horrible, the plotting is horrible, the plot itself is horrible, stay away, far away. Only one brief scene featuring a female's nude breasts, and even that wasn't worth a second look.

The scariest thing about this movie is the idea of ever having to watch it again. I gave it a 2 and not a 1 simply because the actors were visible and the sound was audible - it earns one point for each of those traits.

Note for the reviewers: Severe Ghost Alert Ahead

[MubukuGrappa · 8/10 · 1 January 2007]

This movie surely does not deserve 8, but I give it an 8, because it does not deserve the 1 that most people gave it either.

The movie lacks basic logic at many points, the acting is not that good, and the whole setting is pretty unreal. However, most people seem to fail to get the happenings in the movie completely. Perhaps the reviewers should read the review by Sixforthehoney to understand what is happening. I quote below the major points he mentioned, with added notes.

1) The religious family killed "The Driver".

2) "The Driver" came back as a ghost and killed the religious family. Note: He does not die even when his truck burns into flames, but rather comes and attacks the girl. (Later, the struck was shown to be fully intact.)

3) "The Driver" then killed people who came to the rest stop.

4) Some of those people (including the girl in the closet) came back as ghosts. Note: The girl disappears along with the blood she vomited, within seconds after talking to the protagonist.

5) The religious family still exists as ghosts to preach their judgment of sinners. Note: they drive the van with the girl in it for a long time, and yet finally the girl is dropped just in front of the notice board, a point where she had started her journey. It's they who take pictures of the future victims.

6) When Nicole is killed, she came back as a ghost at the end. Note: That is the reason the ranger does not see her, but the future victim hears her voice and sees her.

**Note:** The policeman is also ghost. There's no human being on earth (including Arnold and Chuck Norris), who would be able to say, "You missed me" after about 40% of his skull and brains are blown out by a point blank shot. That is the same reason the girl does not see his remains when she climbs the roof.

Surprisingly good movie on a well exhausted theme

[paul-ayres · 7/10 · 10 January 2007]

I didn't expect to enjoy this movie but was pleasantly surprised. I've seen several movies with the same theme (the names of which escape me) but this one is the best of the bunch.

The opening scenes build up a picture of the relationship between boyfriend and girlfriend and it leaves you with the impression that they are both going to be the main characters throughout the film. Their relationship is filled with passion but it is obvious that they kind of get on each others nerves.

When they stop off at the "rest stop" (10 minutes or so into the film) he mysteriously disappears leaving her stranded 60 miles away from the next town. Then the horror begins.

A psychotic murderer is toying with her fear and it becomes apparent that he has been torturing and murdering visitors to the rest stop for the past 30 years or so. The villain in the film is somehow supernatural as inexplicable things happen, for example; when he smashes his pickup truck into the couples car the pickup truck miraculously escapes without a scratch.

The thing that separates this movie from others in the same genre is the superb acting. I ws totally drawn int the movie from start to finish. As you might expect, it ends with a supernatural twist.

Rest Stop

[Scarecrow-88 · 4/10 · 11 November 2006]

There's something going on in this film directed by X-Files scribe John Shiban that has eluded me. You get that feeling as the film moves that everything is not what it seems, yet I feel the movie fails at giving you enough to go on to truly care afterward. It's about perception. There are characters the heroine Nicole(Jaimie Alexander)meets in the film that she talks to that up and vanish. This might seem like a spoiler, but it's something that really only inherits a wee bit of focus on the filmmakers' part. They seem to be poking fun at us as we watch curious at whether we should trust what Nicole is seeing or not. It never gets a proper answer and I for one was a bit clueless at the point. There comes a time in a film when ambiguity can just be frustrating because the viewer is led on a wild goose chase that ends at a dead end with little explanation at what we just saw..it ultimately feels like an exhausting exercise instead of a thrilling psycho-drama. Now there's nothing wrong with ambiguity itself, but give us something to latch onto or you will evade us. That's how I felt as I watched "Rest Stop." This film is supposedly about a young woman named Nicole who decides to run off to California with lover Jesse(Joey Mendicino)to make it big in Hollywood. They make what is supposed to be a slight detour at a rest stop so that Nicole can pee, but it descends into terror for her when she finds that her Jesse is completely missing. Someone in a crusty, dusty yellow truck is a nut job who seems to be causing a lot of trouble to Nicole and we soon realize that he is behind Jesse's disappearance when things start to occur, signs provided to her if you will, she will have to find a way out of a very difficult situation. Nicole is far from any existing town and with limited resources to defend herself against a maniac who provides her with some strong evidence of how evil he can be.

That's the easy part. When a female character comes into play, the film makes a really bizarre leap from logic as we are not sure where she ever came from, how she got there, and more importantly where she goes once Nicole tries to break her free from her supposed prison in the restroom's utilities' cabinet. She meets another, a Police officer in the area(Joey Lawrence), who might seem like her savior, but when he too is a victim of the truck driver startling things occur again that questions if he was ever actually even there to begin with. The truck driver commits torturous acts to Nicole(like holing her up in the restroom and as she tries to untie a wire that the killer has wrapped around the door lock, she receives a nasty bite from him). He then sets fire to the restroom leaving her without a lasting place of refuge from the beast.

It's the timing of the truck driver's attacks that has me listless. Perhaps he just likes tormenting her, but he appropriately appears in certain situations where Nicole has time to flee or prepare. It doesn't make much sense, his motives, which propel the film into an illogical idea. Why does he make himself so obvious? Why does he allow her to prepare? It seems, I'm going out on a limb here, that he likes having his quarry believe they can find a way of escape only to stomp that hope out when he comes up with his next grisly attack. Yet, why does Shiban decide to play with the viewer by having Nicole experience odd meetings with people that don't exist? What is Shiban and the writing team trying to say? And, to cap off the film's unhinged weirdness is a family in a RV. They play a small part in the scheme of things as religious bigots themselves, but the film doesn't do enough for the viewer to explain why they should be in this film at all.

Could have been good

[polyhigh2000 · 1/10 · 1 November 2006]

But it's not. The plot isn't all that bad, the actors aren't all terrible so it should be decent. Instead though despite a good starting point the plot just drags on and suffers from a lot of those "I can't believe he/she is so dumb" moments so often used in horror movies to keep things going. It frustrated me at times watching some of the decision made by the lead character. Also it took way too long to get to the good part of the movie. Anticipation is great but you can't spend over half the movie building it up. A shame too since it got decent exposure upon release and hit right before the big Halloween season. Even so I have a feeling this is going to get at least one sequel, if not more so maybe they'll be able to build on the strong general plot to eventually release something decent.

Don't rest. Don't stop. Keep looking for a better film

[gregsrants · 3/10 · 18 March 2010]

About a year ago, Gregg Dumont wrote a review pleading, "I beg you to take a pass" for Rest Stop, the first feature film from Raw Feed. Gregg ended up giving the film a 2.5 but really didn't state in the review anything that would lead you to understand why it got to the 50% mark. Gavin Schmitt, another featured contributor to the killerreviews site wrote a review for the same film giving it a 4 out of 5.

It was time for me to find out which of the two I most resembled in taste. Would I hate the film for its generalities and ridiculous situations that the lead character puts themselves in, or would I resemble more the optimist Schmitt who wrote about it being a "Great movie for those who love bad movies".

Rest Stop stars Jaimie Alexander as Nicole, an aspiring actress that leaves her family behind and runs off with her boyfriend Jesse on a road trip to Hollywood. Their terror begins when a mysterious pick-up truck runs them off the road. A confrontation between Jesse and the driver is avoided when the pick-up drives away before Jesse could open a can of road rage whoop ass.

Soon after, Jesse and Nicole stop at a Rest Stop for a bathroom break. While Nicole is using the facilities, Jesse and the car disappear, leaving Nicole stranded in the middle of nowhere.

It is here where the movie really falls off the rails for a few chapters (like the rest of them). We watch as Nicole talks to herself in an effort to figure out what has happened and what action she might take to better her situation. Her conversations with herself come across as lazy storytelling. I know the audience for these types of films might not have Master's degrees, but for Christsake! Nicole's first mistake is taking a ride in a RV with a family of misfits. It was as if director John Shiban attempted to cross elements of The Vanishing, Joy Ride and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre into his film rather than just developing his own story.

Nicole then finds herself back at the Rest Stop where she finds a naked and bloodied Tracy hiding in a supply closet. Tracy talks about how the man in the pick-up truck took her years ago and tortured her endlessly leaving her bloodied and deformed.

But then Tracy disappears, literally, and we are left trying to figure whether Nicole dreamt up the entire thing. Thing is, by this point, we don't give a crap. Then it just gets stupid.

When a police officer stops by, instead of ending it and getting everyone to safety, he puts himself in peril and eventually ends up being run over. Twice. Sorry, but he deserved to die.

By this point, we were only 51 minutes into the 85 minute Unrated running time, and I couldn't wait to get on with my day. The dying officer goes on and on and if I could have reached into the television and help his nose and mouth closed to smother him, I would have. And when Nicole gets her finger bit off, I thought she deserved that too.

Luckily, the killer provides Nicole with a video camera that shows him torturing her soon to be ex-boyfriend. A box cutter here, a cut-off of the tongue there, did provide the only thing worth watching outside of the one scene of brief nudity at the onset of the film.

But then when the cop asks Nicole to use the last of his bullets on him rather than saving them to protect herself, I completely lost it.

Mr. Dumont wrote how the production values of the film were above average. For that, I give the film credit. There was even a slow motion explosion scene that kind of caught me off guard (I also have no idea why or how a bathroom can explode, but no matter). But that's where the praise stops. Everyone in this film does exactly what they shouldn't, and for that I want to slap them. And just when Nicole has a chance to get away, she sits by a tree and we have to endure a flashback. Dear God! I didn't buy into the situation, the mood, the characters and certainly not the McGyver Nicole we get at the end of the film that has problems lighting a match. And the ending. WTF! This puts me more in line with Gregg Dumont's review. I was incredibly confused in a simple film and I still can't tell you if it was all a dream or if it really happened. What I do know is that it was crap.

www.killerreviews.com www.robertsreviews.com

Weirdos on the road

[jotix100 · 4/10 · 28 December 2007]

As horror films go, "Rest Stop", could have been better in many levels. Director/writer John Shiban shows he probably had the best intentions when he started it. Unfortunately, either he was not sure as to what to do with the material, or maybe, he was under pressure to deliver a different movie from what he intended, either by the studio, or the backers. Several endings have been included in the DVD, but unfortunately, the one chosen for the finished product is probably not the best.

The idea of a psycho roaming the back roads of a remote part of California presents many possibilities at first. After the disappearance of Jess in the spooky rest stop, things get out of hand. Poor Nicole is left alone to fend for herself all the weirdos she finds along the way.

It was clear when one started to hear "Amazing Grace" in the background that there were forces trying to avenge the ways in which Nicole an Jess desecrate their neck of the woods by engaging in careless sex that is not well appreciated by the natives.

Watch it at your own risk. There's a lot of gore for the aficionados of the genre.

Give it a rest! Stop! What the hell's going on?

[BA_Harrison · 4/10 · 27 May 2007]

A young woman, Nicole Carrow (Jaimie Alexander), and her boyfriend, Jess (Joey Mendicino) become targets for a deranged serial killer after stopping for a 'comfort break' at a remote road-side rest-stop.

What might have been an effectively scary chiller in more competent hands, turns out to be a confusing, ill-considered mess under the sloppy direction of John Shiban (who also wrote the screenplay). There is a good deal of juicy violence, a brief smattering of nudity, and confident performances from the cast, but the silly script leaves the viewer with so many unanswered questions one cannot help but feel disappointed.

On the surface, the film plays out like a standard cliché-ridden 'killer-on-the-loose' movie, but Shiban (an ex-writer for the X-files) throws in some subtle supernatural elements which suggest that his aim was something else entirely: a ghost story, with the rest stop acting as home to a vengeful spectre out to punish sinners.

By reading up on the film, checking out viewers' theories here on IMDb, and watching the extras on the DVD, certain plot elements begin to make a little more sense (although, even with the advantage of extra information, there are still many questions left unanswered). In my opinion, any film that requires this much investigation to make itself (only partially) understood is not particularly a good one.

One helluva weird film but kept the attention. The sequel explains....

[Fella_shibby · 5/10 · 2 June 2019]

I first saw this on a dvd which I own in 2007. Revisited it today n will be rewatching its sequel too. I fast forwarded some scenes. The movie did not make any sense at all then n will never if one doesnt watch its sequel. The film is about a young girl who runs away from home with her boyfriend. Both of em r aspiring actors n r headed to L.A. On the journey they park in some secluded spot n have sex. Dont get ur hopes high. It's a lousy sex scene n most probably Jaimie Alexander's body double. We get to c a truck passing by during this lousy sex scene. Later they escape an accident attempt by the same truck. The boyfriend gets down but the truck driver runs away. Later they stop at an isolated rest stop cos the girl doesn't want to urinate in the fields but she is ready to pee in a dirty toilet n when she comes outta d toilet, the boyfriend n the car r vanished. Now v come to kno where the movie is heading... But it doesnt make any sense. It has a killer, some religious fanatics, torture n some supernatural stuff. This was Jaimie Alexander's first film n had zero idea about her when i first saw this film. M generous with 5 cos the film started well n managed to hold the attention but one gotta c its sequel to dig it.

Not a bad movie if you've ever had the pleasure of sleeping in a car at a rest stop.

[canabianman · 20 November 2009]

I have come to suspect most people sit in they're living rooms watching movies and have no other experiences. Movies often go from good, to great simply because you can relate to the situation. People giving this 1 out of 10 stars have obviously never spent the night sleeping in they're car at a rest stop. I watched this movie with my son about 4 months after we had done just that, so we could relate to being in the middle of nowhere at some rest stop on the side of the highway sleeping in our car and it made the movie much more intense for us.

Remember when Nightmare on Elm Street came out? EVERYONE could relate to nightmares and that's what made those movies legendary at the time. So go outside and get some experience in real life, maybe you'll appreciate your movies more :P

This movie definitely does not deserve the 9 I gave it, but its definitely better then a 1 as a lot of others gave it.

rent, don't buy

[zahana · 6/10 · 2 October 2006]

I got a chance to see a screening of the unrated version of this film, and was mildly impressed. The story is centered around a young woman who is traveling to California with her wanna be actor boyfriend. Along the way they encounter a psycho killer who stalks the area around a nearly abandoned rest stop.

The film is being released in both a R rated version and an unrated version. I can only speculate as to what is going to be cut to get the R rating. I don't see cutting the gore or violence taking much away from the film. Cutting the nudity could lessen the effectiveness of the set up.

Unfortunately, what won't be cut is Joey Lawrences performance. I don't think I'm giving away too much say that his death scene is too long, since the director seems to freely mention that it is a ten page death scene. Mr Lawrence's performance is less than believable, and quite frankly his time on screen does not justify having to sit through his life story told from his deathbed.

I wouldn't recommend purchasing the DVD, but it might not be a bad rental.

Complete waste of time.

[nemesiscw2 · 1/10 · 8 October 2006]

If you just want gore, and nothing but gore and torture, you've come to the right movie. If you want a at least a sliver of good acting, logic, story, consistencies, or even a good guy ending, go elsewhere.

I couldn't help but to think to myself, "Jeeeez, are those people mentally challenged?" Example, after being chased around and seeing other people mutilated, the main actress meets a police officer and spills out her story to the cop with tears and everything and told him about the psychopath that drives in a yellow truck. THe yellow truck pulls up and the officer just walks to it, talks to the guy and the truck drives off without any trouble. The actress comes out and says why didn't you arrest him? And then the truck runs over the police officer... after being rammed the truck stops on the road about 20 feet way just standing there while the actress tries to drag the cop away but he's too heavy. (At the time) At that time the truck backs up and runs over the cops leg twice. The truck then drives off. Why didn't the actress get the gun is beyond me. (WHich later she shoots the cop in the head twice because the psychopath was about to burn him alive) Once through the mouth, which didn't kill him (Duuuumb) and twice to finish the job. *Roll eyes* Right after that, she turns away to escape the bathroom which was going to explode and when she climbs near the roof, she turns around and the cop isn't there anymore... OK...

Another example, The main actress meets a trapped woman in the bathroom, she spits out like a gallon of blood on the floor, covering about 1/3s of the room. (Probably more) After the main actress goes outside to grab a towel, she comes back in and everything is gone. :/ They don't explain why everyone keeps disappearing either. Dumb dumb dumb.

I like horror/thriller/gore movies, but this one was just way too dumb. I lost brain cells watching this dribble and you shouldn't too.

Great movie that sadly a lot of people don't seem to get

[Indifferent_Observer · 8/10 · 14 October 2011]

This is really a great genre film that has the best of both worlds in Horror: Slasher and Supernatural. I think it is because it was televised on sci-fi that people are giving it such a bad wrap, but the raw uncut version of this film is truly nothing short of a great horror film.

Not a cookie cutter movie at all, I highly recommend this to genre lovers who like a good story and a decent mystery. It took me a few viewings to fully grasp all the angles and clues given and I think those are the best kinds of horror movies. The characters are solid and acting top notch. Jaime Alexander is sexy as always as the victim of a macabre supernatural horror fest.

I, like another reviewer gave it 8 stars not because I think this movie is fully worthy of 8 stars, but much more worthy then the 1 star votes so many, I can only say sorry individuals left. This movie is far from a 1 and there is nothing left unanswered. There is not one plot whole if you take the time and pay attention. This isn't your loud explosion, kill a minute horror fare, but it has its share and some decent gore for the gorehounds. Most of all it has suspense which is lacking in a lot of today's Horror fares. There is some decent character development which is always welcome to me. I'm a little older so the explosion a minute thing is just not enough for me anymore. I am a die-hard Horror fan who loves a decent back story.This movie doesn't disappoint in that way either.

Not too shabby

[calebquinto · 7/10 · 18 September 2021]

I think this is a very underrated movie. I don't get me wrong, I'm not saying these things going to win any awards or anything like that. But it's perfect for the Friday night hanging out when you want to watch something that's going to give you some startles and little bit of mystery too. Like I said, it's not going down in history, but for what it is, and what it's supposed to be, it doesn't great job at that. And as we know these days it seems like that's a tough thing to do in the horror genre with all the garbage out there nowadays.

Lousy Cliché Horror Movie

[JimRaynor55 · 2/10 · 8 October 2006]

This movie is about a young couple running away to start a new life in LA, who end up being stalked by a psycho at a deserted rest stop. Actually, it's really just about the girl (Nicole), since her boyfriend literally disappears within a few minutes. The movie gets going extremely fast, and early on you wonder how it could possibly stretch its story out to feature length. It isn't long before you realize that the movie does this by simply wasting time with unnecessary scenes that go nowhere.

The story is not only paper-thin, but unstructured, stupid, and incoherent. Minutes after the disappearance of her boyfriend and car, Nicole finds a mobile home at the rest stop. She sees the flashing of a camera, and KNOWS that people are inside, but she easily gives up on trying to get their help when no one answers her door knocks. After she is informed by the killer that her boyfriend is in danger, she walks around the rest stop, doing all sorts of stupid and unnecessary things. This includes turning on a TV (and even looking amused when she thinks she's stumbled onto a porno movie, even in this dire situation), sitting around, wandering, and drinking from a bottle of liquor for hours on end. She does all this KNOWING that her boyfriend has been abducted, that the killer is still on the loose and stalking her, and without taking any actions to ensure her immediate safety (she doesn't bother to lock the doors or remain alert). Oh yeah, she tries using a radio to call for help, but why even bother when there's a mobile home with people inside RIGHT THERE at the rest stop? It really seems like the script writer forgot about this important fact while writing this part of the story.

There's no sense of entrapment or ever-present danger in this story. The heroine freely wanders in and around the various buildings at the rest stop, and the killer only drives in occasionally to scare her, before driving off again. There's NOTHING stopping Nicole from simply taking off (even if the rest stop is a long way from anywhere else, that's better than sitting around), but she chooses to stay anyway. At one point in the movie, the main character even ACKNOWLEDGES that she can run off, but doesn't.

The story doesn't go anywhere, and instead just jumps from pointless segment to pointless segment. Nicole finally gets inside the mobile home, and it turns out that the inhabitants are a family of sheltered, presumably inbred or psychotic religious fanatics. They seem willfully ignorant or uncaring about the killer's actions (but there's no indication that they're connected to him in any way), and then kick Nicole out after several minutes.

In the next irrelevant segment, the main character wanders into the bathroom building. She discovers one of the killer's previous victims (a young woman named Tracy), who is still alive and locked in a closet. For some strange reason, Tracy starts vomiting ridiculous amounts of blood. Nicole goes off to fetch a crowbar to pry open the closet door, and when she returns a minute later, both Tracy and her pool of blood have disappeared without any explanation. What was the point? Nicole finds a bulletin board showing many missing persons, and sees that Tracy had disappeared in 1971. So, was Tracy a ghost or something? The writer never bothers explaining.

Next, a cop shows up in the middle of the night to man the police office at the rest stop, which had been conveniently left unattended for the entire day so far. Nicole tells him all about what's been going on, and when the killer drives up in his truck outside the office, the cop goes outside to confront him. What does the police officer do, knowing that something is seriously wrong? He goes up and calmly talks to the killer (who Nicole had even pointed out to be the guy who was stalking her), and buys into the killer's lie that he was simply driving through and needed directions. Seriously. The cop then talks to Nicole outside, totally unaware as the pickup truck turns around and runs him over.

The cop quickly starts telling Nicole that he's a goner who's "lucky to be breathing" still, yet he strangely doesn't die for quite a while. The two of them do some more pointless talking, and the all-important fact that he has a gun is annoyingly not even mentioned for too long a time. When the two of them finally try to use the gun, Nicole stupidly wastes most of her bullets blindly shooting at a door when the killer was possibly behind it. With two bullets left, the policeman tells Nicole to use one to euthanize him. She fires one into his mouth, and he lays still for a few moments, with a chunk blown out of his head. Then, he suddenly and inexplicably yells out "You missed!" and she has to shoot him again. Completely cheap attempt at shock.

Nicole finally confronts the killer…and fails. The movie ends with a scene taking place not long from then, with a woman arriving at the now strangely much more active rest stop. In the bathroom building, she hears Nicole crying for help in the closet (locked in like Tracy was). She gets a policeman to go inside and check it, but he finds an apparently normal and clean closet. The cop leaves, thinking he's been tricked. A battered Nicole is seen coming out from behind some boxes in the closet (she would have been easily spotted if the cop had spent all of 10 seconds looking), apparently too stupid to have said or done anything when the policeman was there. WOW.

This movie is apparently the first in a new line of "quality" direct-to-DVD movies, marketed as being too extreme for theaters. In reality, it's just more cliché, B-Movie garbage.