Rest Stop: Don't Look Back

This follow up for the original "Rest Stop" is fast paced, entertaining, humorous (Jared taking a crap and being ambushed by a truck by later getting a crap shower! in the likes of "Slumdog Millonaire" or the having sex with a ghost scene), and gory at some points.

The plot twist that worked in the original tries to repeat the success in this sequel but it didn't make an impact at all.

The whole explanation towards the legend of death is pretty interesting and gruesome if you take in account the opening murder. The creepy twins, the midget, the sexual sadistic mother, and the preacher; now that's material for a b-direct to video sequel. The gore is just good and it's all about eye gouging and stabbings. The acting is just regular by the standards of these kind of movies.

The lead actress is pure hotness! Most of the characters are likable, heck even Jared. I liked how it kept connected with the events of the original.The "ends here" line was pure gold and gave a darker tone to the movie.

Watch it if you're fan of direct to video horror. It has the "b" feeling all over it.

The ending left me wondering "what the hell?!". And I'm sure a sequel is on it's way. But for the better it should "ends here".

I'm in a minority here, but I really enjoyed the movie.

The gore scenes were pretty good, a few good jump-scares, and just creepy and fun scenes make it a fun movie to watch. Very weird, hard to understand and a lot of problems with it, but it's better than the first, and at least worth a rent.

One of my main problems is the characters were annoying, and I often kept wanting to smack Marilyn across the face.

But, considering a lot of the straight-to-DVD crap that gets put out, this was an okay film that I actually enjoyed, maybe a little more than I should have...

Who in their right mind would green light a sequel to Rest Stop? And from a major studio. Ok, I have another question, but I know the answer. How is it possible to make a movie worse than the original Rest Stop? A: You can't. I'm giving this sequel an extra star for a couple things I appreciated: They go back and explain the origin, as well as exactly what was going on in the first movie. Also, seems like they were allowed to use real equipment this time, as this movie looks rather good. So, things make slightly more sense, but are there any good ideas? Absolutely not! Rest Stop: Don't Look Back is full of unintentional laughs, has some embarrassing performances, a silly curse (and resolution to it), plus a comically bad villain ("The Trucker"). Why did they give him a fake moustache? He looked like a dork. Assuming, he's supposed to be menacing. The actor they used is not intimidating to begin with.

So, it's a year after the first film, and the original couple, Jesse and Nicole, were never seen again. Jesse's brother Tom comes back from Iraq, and vows to find them. Along for the ride is his girl, and... Jared. 13 minutes into this thing, and I realize this insanely annoying character is in it for the long haul. At one point, Tom rescues Jesse... and BAILS! Leaving the other two behind to fight for themselves (in a losing battle).

Let's see, they really amp up the torture porn, so be warned. Also, this score blew as much as the first one (same person, who has gone on to a highly successful and prolific career, composes and conducts orchestral scores! Nowhere to be found here). Yeah, scratching on a low E string... real creative.

By far, the best part of this movie is the bible thumping family in the RV, who are given an expanded role, on the road looking to punish all sinners (and in the wife's case, get off as much as possible -- she is ecstatic in proving someone is sinful). I sort of liked the alternate ending better. The ending they used was just a setup for another sequel. The alternate was low key, and anti-climactic, but the idea was there (not even an original idea, but the one they went with was kind of dumb).

The plot: Searching for his missing brother, a soldier runs into the killer ghost from Rest Stop, with predictable results for him and his friends.

Rest Stop 2 follows many of the conventions of the first movie, but manages to excise some of the pointless filler, replacing it with extended scenes of gory torture. Also, the origin of the ghostly killer is revealed, along with his connection to the creepy religious family. If you were dying to know these things, then I can understand why you'd want to see Rest Stop 2, but there really isn't much reason to subject yourself to this movie, when you can just read the synopsis on Wikipedia or the IMDb.

One of the saving graces of the original Rest Stop was its atmosphere and judicial use of gore. Unfortunately, the parts without gore tended to be a bit boring. In Rest Stop 2, the gore is pretty much its sole reason for being. As a result, I would recommend this movie only to fans of Rest Stop, gorehounds, and torture porn enthusiasts. Most other people will probably be either bored stupid or too grossed out. It's no masterpiece, but the gore effects are pretty good, for a low budget, direct-to-video sequel. Honestly, I'm a bit tired of horror movies that are nothing but young adults being tortured to death slowly, but I've seen worse ones than this. Some of the scenes were twisted enough to be memorable, but the movie itself really isn't.

I realize I may be in the minority liking the first, then again the IMDb boards seem to be there only to complain.

Rest Stop was a bit of slasher with a ghost story thrown in. There were several places where you just kinda went "oh...didn't see that coming". In part 2, it seems like they tried to duplicate those, but after seeing the first one, they didn't have the oh-wow value.

The ghost sequences were all pretty obvious (sans one) and the whole Family is a known from the first one so that wasn't a surprise.

As for the background they tried to give the people from the first one, while somewhat interesting, it just didn't seem to fit or feel quite right. One can only hope that if they make a third one it will all payoff. However, they need to finish the story instead of trying to keep stretching it out as it's getting a bit thin and there will not be much more you can do with the story.

If you liked the bit of gore from the first one, this one has taken it up a few steps. If you like the spooky atmosphere, that is there, but not as present as the first one. If you like old Ford trucks, you're in luck!