End of the Road

This film was a rather pleasant surprise. I watched it online via Amazon, but would love to get my hands on a copy of the DVD, as I feel this is a film worth owning.

I watched this film initially because of the cast, and they didn't disappoint. The characters were compelling and believable with appropriate reactions to their scenarios.

While the overall acting was strong, it was the clever writing and story that kept me hooked. The ending has a major twist that I didn't see coming - and this is coming from a person who can typically guess the entire plot within ten minutes of a film. It is more a comedy than a horror to me, but there's definitely a few scenes with intensity and 'shocks'. Well worth the watch!

So, this has some pretty putrid ratings, despite more than 30% of the reviews giving it a perfect 10 point "greatest ever" rating. So why is it listed with a 2.5? How is that even possible? I'm guessing that IMDb realized that the 10's are done by the production staff and they tossed them out.

So, what is the quality of it? I'd rate it as SyFy channel grade. Yes, I could see this as one of those movies sandwiched between "Titanoboa meets Godzilla" and "The Monster Alligator From Space." So how did this turkey get made? As it is a "show within a show" movie, my guess is that somebody at some drunken party had an idea for how to make a movie that was SO cheap that it HAD to make a profit. As such, I've seen a whole lot worse. I rated it a 4 because there is no 3.5, which is what I'd give it if I could. It definitely ranked above a 2.5 in production values, acting and originality.

Well, it started okay with a standard "ghost hunter" show from the behind the scenes perspective. It never explored the supernatural aspects much focusing more on personal motivations. And the twist at the end. The acting was shaky at first, but the last bit of the movie displayed the weakness of the actors all the more. Sigh. Okay, I did finish it, and production while decidedly low budget wasn't overly poor. The main actor seemed decent enough to carry the film.

Even the Star Trek talent in this movie couldn't save it. The writing is so very poor as is the delivery of the lines. I mean they're trying hard, maybe a little too hard. The lines are delivered without any conviction or with an over-the-top conviction. Music is overdone and often too loud for the dialog. It's just bad on every level. Save your self the time, skip it and find something else to watch.

I've had the opportunity to review the screener before the film was released, and was pleasantly surprised. End of the Road has some names you'll know like Doug Jones and Robert Picardo, but also some I've never heard of. At first this film seems like it's going to deliver just what is expected, a film about some ghost hunters, but without spoiling anything, I can tell you "watch it til the end", because I'm guessing you won't have seen it coming. I doubt this film had a big budget to work with, but it seems like they made every penny count. Really solid performances and story without all the H'wood cheesiness from the studio films. Check it out.