Hell's Highway

What can I say? My fiancee and I one night decided that it would actually be fun to go ahead and rent some low budget horror films to get us laughing. C'mon, what other horror movie could you see Ron Jeremy in? This plan worked effectively. We were rolling on the floor even before the previews were over.

The special effects were horrible (i.e. the priest's head exploding after being hit with a shovel, the missing appendage of Mr. Jeremy, and the incredibly gory dragging torso), the acting worse, and the characters out of a low budget porn movie.

If you need a laugh, rent this!

This one ranks with "Dead Girls" as a movie that had a pretty neat twist, but also as a movie where the pretty, neat twist that was shot all to hell by how bad the movie was. This one does deliver with the gore, though. One sign that this movie is going to be worse than bad appears early on in the movie when characters exchange dialogue that is lifted shamelessly and DIRECTLY from "Detroit Rock City" (of all movies!). You can even see this part in the trailer, as if they were proud to be ripping off said goofy teen comedy. Not much later, dialogue is lifted from "The Hitcher" ("I'm gonna sit here... and you're gonna drive.") Now some of this dialogue-lifting could be a tribute (as opposed to blatant ripping off of others' material), but these filmmakers seem to be the former types when looking back at the scene with "Detroit Rock City" dialogue. As a horror movie, it has some moments of dread and such, but most of this was so bad I couldn't even laugh at it. The gore FX were done better than I've seen them in many no-budget movies, but when the gore (aside from the would-be interesting twist ending) is the only redeemable point, there is a problem. It was a great idea put to death as horribly as the victims. And, as for the scene where they rip off "Blair Witch" and want to be taken seriously, I wish I could've laughed at that, but the joke was already stale aside from the fact that these people aren't good at jokes (again, they ripped-off dialogue from "Detroit Rock City"!), unless you consider this whole movie as a joke. Still, even though I like schlocky stuff a lot more than you might think ("Terror Toons", from the same company, being a personal favorite), this movie sucks even by bad movie standards.

Hell's highway is about a group of four teens on a road trip. On their travels they pick up a hitchhiker called Lucinda. After a short while she says she is going to kill them all, just like their friends before (who had set off on the same road trip). They expel her from the car forthwith, but have they seen the last of her? It also appears that many have met an untimely fate on the Devil's highway, judging by all of the crosses on the side of the road.

Directed by Jeff Leroy, who is still making horror today. Joe Castro, also a familiar name for practical special effects, in low budget films provides some excellent work here.

Excellent cast that include. Phoebe Dollar and Beverly Lynn, both well established scream queens on the indie circuit, and with a cameo by porn legend Ron Jeremy, who is suitably killed with tongue firmly in cheek.

I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. It had a good story, acting was good. Kept my attention throughout. Some of the special effects were excellent and really delivered on the gore groceries. Nothing is quite what it seems and this will keep you guessing to the bitter end.

Great little homage to the original Texas chainsaw massacre as Phoebe wields a chainsaw like Gunner Hanson.

I would wholly recommend this film to all gore hounds and those that like low budget horrors.

Two couples traveling through Death Valley to the California coast pick up a hitchhiker from hell (Phoebe Dollar). Havoc ensues. The infamous Ron Jeremy is featured in a glorified cameo.

"Hell's Highway" (2002) proves that an ultra-low budget doesn't mean a movie can't be entertaining. Yes, some of the gory parts are cheesy (while others are pretty impressive) and a miniature set is obvious, but both are serviceable (and somewhat charming) and keep the story flowing. Viewing the trailer, I thought this was going to be a horror comedy, but it's not; it's essentially a serious slasher with cheesy effects and campy elements, particularly Phoebe as the over-the-top nefarious hitchhiker. Jeff Leroy shows his genius in that "Hell's Highway" is adept spare-change filmmaking and genuinely amusing DESPITE the obvious cheapness of it all.

Without Phoebe in the key role, however, it wouldn't be half as effective as it is. She's not blow-your-mind beautiful or anything, but she has a unique look and there's something alluring about her demeanor, not to mention she has curves in all the right places. Beverly Lynne (Monique), with her conventional "hot blonde" look, can't hold a candle to her (she has an unnecessary softcore sex scene, for anyone who might be offended). Kiren David, as Sarah, is the third main female in the cast and is a convincing actress. Actually, all the main cast members take the material seriously and offer respectable performances.

The score/soundtrack didn't do much for me, unfortunately. This is a movie that needs a few quality rockin' numbers. The last act features a couple of creative twists in the story and shows that Leroy put some time into the script. But, as semi-enjoyable as this flick is, there are regrettably too many unnecessary nasty elements to give it a higher grade.

The film has little filler at a mere 70 minutes and looks like it was shot in Southern California.

GRADE: C+

"Hell's Highway" has a somewhat interesting plot despite the cliches thrown in it, and it's quite enjoyable for most of its presentation.

What wrecks this horror/bizarre comedy are its cheap production values, painfully yet hilarious editing, weak special and makeup effects, and the atrocious acting from the ensemble casting, except the leading woman Phoebe Dollar as the sexy hitchhiker who needs to kill whoever pickes her up on an endless desert highway. She does a great job, seductive and scary. Considering that basically everyone comes from softcore and/or porn movies where acting isn't the required need except for the hot action, they're all better in what they did outside of this picture. But there's hardly ever any sex in here.

It revolves on a group of college kids driving through a desert highway and when the mysterious Jacinda asks for a ride they're in it for something extremely dangerous that could cost their lives. There's a legend about that place where a couple died in the 1800's trying to cross it, and a curse sprung out from there as a woman kills whoever crosses her path and she needs to add more and more victims to her list. Among the victims there's big name of porn Ron Jeremy playing a failed film producer who tries to make an "audition" with the girl and then comes an hysterical moment.

There are fine moments of thrills and horror to make you fully invested in it as we try to antecipate what comes next. Then, it becomes weirder, funny (intentional or not), with one lousy dialogue after another, and the image quality shot on video is simply dreadful. "Hell's Highway" is one of those flicks that cannot be taken seriously, and if you're in it for some good laughs you're about to be deeply rewarded, but also annoyed. There's no way that the girls in the car would accept Jacinda simply because the boyfriends thought she was hot - those girls should dump them right there for simply that opinion. There are other things to be complained but better not.

Why I was watching this? Pure boredom, perhaps, but mostly it was a curious view in seeing Jonathan Gray outside of softcore flicks, maybe see some different acting skills outside of hooking up with babes. Great looking dude and quite a good actor in those films. Here, he was wasted badly. Poor delivery of lines and cheesy acting (like basically everyone there), it's simply weird. But the script doesn't help anyone either. The scene where the fate of his brother is revealed was awfully written and his reaction was non existent. Where's the big cries, the big shouts, the huge "NOOOO". It became something else, it's unbelievable.

An embarassing experience but not a complete waste of time. It's destined for "special occasions" when you need to watch something bad, laughable and trashy. 4/10.