Road to Hell

Let me start by saying what I saw at the Austin Fantastic Fest was very much still unfinished and a work in progress, as it proclaims at the outset. So what was screened was extremely rough. The projected image was dim and washed out because it was a video projector instead of a film projector and a friend said it was played from a laptop. The image did freeze a few times.

Okay, that stuff aside, how was the film itself? The words raw, shocking, disturbing and, like Ken Russell's or some of Oshima's films. Thought provoking and a film you watch from a distance because EVERYTHING is symbolic and stuffed with subtext and is as sexually violent as it gets. This might get an X rating I would think.

The film doesn't exist in a civilized reality but in Cody's (Pare) twisted mind, in his darkest feelings for the world. It really is like we are experiencing his stream of consciousness and its so distorted and angry. I will have to admit that Road to Hell screening immediately after Streets of Fire really does create a vivid contrast in how life doesn't always turn out well for the hero. And, like in Taxi Driver, this creates an almost pure force of rage against society. The violence and brutality is really window dressing in a sense as the film's true intent is the study of disillusionment and alienation.

It will be interesting to see the finished product because it is clearly ambitious in it's look and design. It's day-glo noir. What we saw was very unfinished and still needed work. Some shots were just against a green screen still with no background.

Pare gives the best performance I've ever seen from him. He's sexy, dangerous and evokes deep tragedy and a real sense of loss. We feel his disappointment in humankind and in life. In his view, there's nothing worth saving anymore. The only salvation before he becomes an utter monster is to find his long lost love Ellen. His great love from a time when the world still held some hope for him. You get a sense that the film was somehow cathartic for Pare as he goes full out in giving this searing performance.

As the she devil incarnate is Clare Kramer. What a performance. One moment she's the vilest creature ever to walk the earth and in the next you are rooting for her to achieve her dreams. Its an incredibly fine and brave performance by an actress I liked but now love. I won't give anything away but she becomes endearing by the end of the film. No easy task considering how vile she is throughout much of the film. She is raw and discomforting with brazen nudity included.

Everything about the film is stylized. It has an odd cadence to the speech patterns and has a noir feel to the language. Hardboiled and coarse and feeling like its drama is rooted in a experimental stage drama. It culminates in theatrical and surreal horror and madness.

How will people like it? I can't say until I see the film finished. But I would recommend watching Streets of Fire before watching Road to Hell to get the full view. This film may not be everyone's cup of java but it certainly not like any other film I've ever seen or felt. I might still give it a ten once I see the finished film.

I have seen a lot of terrible movies, but this movie is a close contender for the worst movie of all time. It's even worse than Batman and Robin, and I don't say that lightly. This movie literally made me want to rip out my own eyes. We were screaming at the screen: "End! Please roll credits! For the love of God, please end!" And it kept going and going. It is entirely shot in front of a green screen, and no attempts were made to find a real desert (like some sand and some rocks are hard to find!). No attempts were also made to make anything look convincing, such as turning on a fan so the hair of the actors is at least moving while they are driving in an open car. It drags on and on, with very little story to speak of, and yet endless exposition delivered in the worst way possible. It's all carried by awful mellow rock songs, and keeps going and going. And just when you think the movie is over, it gives you yet more terrible songs you have to sit through. Roll those credits already! How is this movie getting such great reviews? Am I even on the right planet here? This movie is horrendous!

Horrible acting, non existent plot. What was the significance of the ring? Blowing off of the head? Did they get a kid's art class to make the prop? Do not waste your time. There are no spoilers. Just questions why?

The first thing that should be said is that "Road to Hell" is not a film. It's not a movie. In truth, I don't know what it is. Youtube videos of mentos and diet coke are more cinematic than anything this attempts. It isn't just bad, it's Sega CD Full Motion Video Game circa 1992 bad. It makes "Night Trap" look like "The Godfather." It's the "2 Girls 1 cup" of sequels. Most importantly, it's an insult to "Streets of Fire" and everyone who has ever watched even five minutes of it.

Before the 60 + minute "dream project" proceeded to assault those not smart enough to walk out, Albert Pyun, his wife Cynthia Curnan, and a handful of others came up and explained what we would be seeing. Cynthia mentioned that it was the result of an argument that she and Albert had had about the ending of Streets of Fire. Albert had thought it was one of the most romantic endings of all time. Cynthia thought it was deeply tragic and showed that Tom Cody was doomed. She wrote "Road to Hell" to show what she thought would have happened to him.

If the near-finished product is any indication, Albert handily won that argument and by default has now won all subsequent arguments for the rest of their lives.

Put simply, "Road to Hell" is garbage -- cinematic fan-fiction that is essentially a pointless 60+ minutes of atrocious dialog in front of a green screen, mixed in with some black and white footage of Deborah Van Valkenburgh being interrogated and flashbacks of a poor double for Diane Lane lip-syncing and dancing along with two songs lifted from "Streets of Fire."

I'm not entirely sure why everything was filmed in front of a green screen, probably to give it that "filmed in one day" look. It definitely does no favors to the performances, and the computer animated backdrops used look like screen savers circa 1994. I kept half-expecting a flying toaster to glide across the screen. Sadly, like any hope that "Road to Hell" would be redeemed, it failed to materialize.

The muddled excuse for a plot centers around the idea that Tom Cody is now a deranged serial killer, waiting in the middle of nowhere in case Ellen Aim's tour bus happens to drive by.

Meanwhile the two least interesting former strippers turned murderers in the world come across him.

They yell and swear and swear and yell. They talk in circles. There's some blood and some kissing. It goes absolutely nowhere and just drags and drags and drags. It could have been whittled down into a five minute short, told the same "story," and it STILL would have been painful.

I guess the filmmakers deluded themselves into thinking they were making something artistic and the characters we see might be in purgatory, or some other metaphysical realm. Unless the filmmakers' intent was to make the viewer feel like they were literally in hell, they failed.

The only elements that are even remotely interesting at all are ripped from "Streets of Fire." It is fascinating watching Paré and Van Valkenburgh reprising their respective roles, or at least it would be if the dialog wasn't so mind numbingly awful that the characters as portrayed resemble those in "Streets of Fire" about as much as David Koresh resembled Jesus.

Pyun, particularly in his Cannon years, has made some legitimately entertaining no-budget films. There is nothing entertaining here. It captures none of the spirit, energy, character, or fun of "Steets of Fire." It's an ugly, draining, pointless trifle.

Do yourself a favor and stop caring about this now. It will only end in heartbreak.

I was going to wait until I saw the finished film to comment but people from the Fantastic Fest screening are giving their early views so here's mine. I agree with everything all three say about it. It is a very bent vision that is at turns intoxicating, offensive, moving and repulsive. It isn't the kind of movie where you just sit back and turn off your brain because I think the filmmaker intend for you to think about what you are hearing and what you are seeing. It's ambitious in how dense with nuance the plot, if you can call it that, is with all sorts of contradiction. The fact that the film was so unfinished made it hard to watch at times so I have to withhold any final judgements. Same for no giving a proper synopsis because I am sure they will need to work on that. I am very curious to see it. It's really a throwback to acid trip movies of the 60's and 70's where the audience had to bring their own head trips to mingle with the film's. Michael Pare and Clare Kramer are riveting. The movie leans heavily on their charisma and ability to keep the audience sympathetic with their characters even as they perform the most heinous and repellant acts on other characters and yes, jeeps. I think they should have waited before screening the film is such a rough form but I hope they got useful feedback they can incorporate as the shape the final film. This film could be a ten if they pull it all together or it could end up a 1. It's got the potential to do both. Heaven or Hell.