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.
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