Road Games

Jack is hitch hiking home to England in 'rural France' – more on that later. Along the way he encounters Veronique and they decide to hitch together. This is against the backdrop of a serial killer who – you guessed it – hunts hitch hikers – mwahh etc

Then they encounter a strange older couple who have an old Rover 2000 but live in a fantastic château and their paths having crossed will have ramifications. That is when things get interesting.

Now to say any more would be too much of a reveal. That said there is not a lot of substance to this film. The actors are all very good and manage to illicit empathy and conjure up a sense of foreboding as and when is necessary. The music is right too and I liked the locations – actually believing it was France, but some of the shots were done in Kent.

This film has its fans and its detractors and its fans but despite the tension and the pacing it still felt a little on the slow side. I did however 'enjoy' it for the most part but appreciate why some have labelled it a 'B Movie', than again some films in that genre are excellent.

Since a few decades, you can rely on the French if you seek brutal, perverted, and excessively violent backwoods horror! Of course, they're nearly not all as good as "Haute Tension", "Frontière(s)", and "Martyrs", but most still have that same raw & disturbing atmosphere and shocking gore. "Road Games" has a bit of intense atmosphere, but sorely disappoints when it comes to gore. Writer/director Pastoll goes for mystery and surprise twists instead, but his script isn't as unpredictable as he thinks.

The story opens with the young and British Jack hitchhiking on a remote backwoods French road on which there are signs warning drivers not to pick up hitchhikers. He meets the beautiful and adventurous Véronique, and they continue their trip together, until they are picked up by a friendly chap in an old junk car and taken to an isolated countryside mansion. The elderly host Grizar and his British-American wife Mary (Barbara Crampton) are suspiciously friendly and creepily hospitable, so experienced horror fanatics know what to expect. The next morning, Véronique has vanished, and Jack is treated a lot less warm and welcoming!

The twist at the end is clever, for sure, but not unique or super-intelligent, and it certainly doesn't justify the lack of action earlier in the film. If you pay attention to details and little human behaviors & interactions, you can anticipate the climax or at least feel less surprised when it comes. The weirdest thing about "Road Games" is the constant switching between the French and English language by three out of four of the lead characters. I speak French, so it didn't bother me too much, but I reckon it must be confusing and irritating when you don't. Barbara Crampton, the favorite starlet of every horror-loving male born between 1970 and 1990, also recites half of her lines in French, but she's completely incomprehensible. I don't know if she took French classes or learned her lines phonetically, but the pronunciation is abysmal.

Admittedly I haven't seen a lot of French films, but those I have seen I've tended to love. In fact both 'Amour' and 'High Tension', despite being very different films, are both in my top 20 of all time. From what I can tell, the French make very patient films which are intended to be retrospectively thought-provoking and also tend to enjoy a good twist. All of which is on display here in 'Road Games'. There is a certainly a lot to consider and all was not as it seemed, however I'm not sure how useful actually analysing it is going to be, because I'm sure all of it made sense.

So if we break the film down into thirds, the first two are very patient and mysterious. We haven't met a lot of characters and we are getting the distinct possibility we aren't going to meet many more along the way either. We have a love story of sorts going on, and we have a mystery element too, because we know (based on the very first shots of the films) that not every character is what they seem. Then something absolutely bizarre, random and inexplicable happens. And I don't just mean at the time, I mean even now, having finished the film, I'm not entirely sure why this event happened or what it was supposed to mean. I won't spoil it for anyone who hasn't seen the film, but for those of you that have I'm pretty sure you will know what I'm talking about.

It's at about this stage that the final third of the film begins and all hell breaks loose. Sadly, what should have been the strongest part of the movie, the part everything had been building up to, is the part that lets it all down. The concept is actually a novel one, I just don't think they did it quite right. A twist in a movie should almost physically hit you. You should feel it in a way. Here, I felt almost nothing. A quick, "Oh yeah, that's kind of cool" and that's it. Then the final scene, which had the potential for great dialogue and to leave the audience on a real high, wondering what will become of these people, is completely drowned out by the background music. You need subtitles for the English words in that scene because it is just inaudible. An incredibly disappointing way to finish the film.

I think a stronger, more experienced film maker could have done a lot with this idea. Even as it is it's quite an enjoyable film at times. Sadly though, I can't see too many people being blown away by this one. A decent effort that comes up just short of the mark.

This is a weird film but it's worth the hour and half to watch it.

A very slow thriller-horror (which to be fair is sort of the norm these days for the genre).

But that said it's not terrible; it's really nicely shot with rich colors of the French countryside, the acting is good enough to keep the interest going and the ending is pretty good.

I find it funny how some reviewers complain that too many parts are in French, like really?

Complaining about it being too many French-speaking parts in a movie set in France is like complaining about the water being too wet.

But I guess they either don't know how to read or how to put on the subtitles, which says more about them than it does this movie.

Anyway like I was saying, a movie with a bunch of positives but that still falls just a bit short with some unfulfilled potential; the script could have done with some improvement.

That said I wouldn't recommend anyone against watching it, unless they are looking for a fast-paced thriller I guess which this is not.