Hell's Highway | |
---|---|
Directed by | Jeff Leroy |
Written by | Jeff Leroy |
Produced by | David S. Sterling |
Starring | Kiren David Ron Jeremy Hank Horner Joe Haggerty Phoebe Dollar Beverly Lynne Jonathan Gray |
Cinematography | Jeff Leroy |
Edited by | Jeff Leroy |
Music by | Jay Woelfel |
Production company | Brain Damage Films |
Distributed by | Brain Damage Films |
Release date |
|
Running time | 70 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Hell's Highway is a 2002 American supernatural slasher film written and directed by Jeff Leroy.
Out on a highway in Death Valley, a man picks up a female hitchhiker named Lucindia (Phoebe Dollar), and gives her a drink. Lucindia has a coughing fit upon ingesting the liquid, stumbles out of the vehicle, and is stabbed to death by the motorist. The man (revealed to be a priest, whose offer to Lucindia was holy water) buries Lucindia's body, and erects a crucifix over the impromptu grave. As the preacher prays, Lucindia reappears, and bludgeons him with his shovel as he screams, "El Diablo!"
Nearby, four college students (Eric, Chris, Monique, and Sarah) from Western Pennsylvania are on a road trip to Redondo Beach. Spotting Lucindia at a cluster of crosses, the quartet pick her up. When Chris mentions that a group of their friends are also on their way to Redondo, Lucindia brags that she tortured them to death before pulling out a gun and sexually assaulting Sarah. Lucindia then tries to shoot Sarah in the crotch, but is knocked out of the car by her and Eric.
The next day, Lucindia (who had just robbed, castrated, and murdered a motorist) catches up with the college students, who run her down, beheading and disemboweling her. On what's left of Lucindia's body, Eric finds Chris's brother's cell phone, and a battery pack that fits into a camcorder that Sarah had earlier unearthed in the desert. The group watches the last few minutes recorded by the camera, which shows Lucindia shooting all of their friends during a botched séance. Lucindia then turns to the camera and tells the story of a settler couple that became trapped in the valley; to try and save his wife (implied to be Lucindia), the husband killed himself so that she could consume his flesh. Her husband's body was not enough to sustain her, and in her last dying hours the woman cursed God and prayed to the Devil for salvation, and received it in exchange for a steady stream of victims.
When the video ends, Lucindia appears, and attacks and mortally wounds Chris with a chainsaw. The students drive off, with Lucindia catching up to them when they run out of gas. Sarah, Eric, and Monique run, but are cornered by a pair of Lucindias, who murder Monique. Sarah accidentally kills Eric, then kills one of the Lucindias and is saved from the remaining one by two government operatives, who then capture Sarah.
Sarah is taken to a military installation, where it is explained that there were four equally delusional Lucindias and that they were the result of cloning and accelerated growth experiments. The staff tell Sarah that she is going to become their new test subject and as they try to give her an injection, a wounded Lucindia barges in. Sarah screams "I told you the Devil would come back!" as Lucindia opens fire with a shotgun, causing an explosion that presumably kills her and everyone else in the room.
Joe Bob Briggs gave Hell's Highway a score of 2½ stars out of a possible 4, and wrote, "The acting is uneven, but the story does satisfy the first rule of drive-in movie-making: anybody can die at any moment. And you've gotta love a movie that has a sequence with porn legend Ron Jeremy as a bitter film producer who picks up the diabolical hitchhiker and is rewarded by getting disemboweled with a butcher knife while he's driving". [1] Bruce Kooken of Horror News was highly critical of the film's twist ending, but still categorized Hell's Highway as "campy, funny and, without question, a blast" and summed up his closing thoughts regarding it with, "Just because I was disappointed with the ending doesn't mean there isn't plenty of entertaining aspects of the film". [2]
The Hitch-Hiker is a 1953 American independent film noir thriller co-written and directed by Ida Lupino, and starring Edmond O'Brien, William Talman and Frank Lovejoy. Based on the 1950 killing spree of Billy Cook, the film follows two friends who are taken hostage by a murderous hitchhiker during an automobile trip to Mexico.
Suburbia is a 1983 American coming-of-age thriller drama film written and directed by Penelope Spheeris and produced by Roger Corman. The film's plot concerns a group of suburban youths who run away from home and adopt a punk lifestyle by squatting in abandoned suburban tract homes. The punks are played by Chris Pedersen, Bill Coyne, Timothy Eric O'Brien, Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea and others.
Screamers is a 1995 Canadian-American-Japanese science fiction horror film starring Peter Weller, Roy Dupuis, and Jennifer Rubin, and directed by Christian Duguay. The screenplay, written by Dan O'Bannon with a rewrite by Miguel Tejada-Flores, is based on Philip K. Dick's 1953 short story "Second Variety", and addresses themes commonly found in that author's work: societal conflict, confusion of reality and illusion, and machines turning upon their creators. The film received generally negative response from critics at the time of its release. A sequel Screamers: The Hunting, was released in 2009, to mixed reviews.
Creepshow 2 is a 1987 American comedy horror anthology film directed by Michael Gornick, and the sequel to Creepshow. Gornick was previously the cinematographer of the first film, and the screenplay was written by George A. Romero who was director of the original film. The film's stars were Lois Chiles, George Kennedy, Dorothy Lamour, and Tom Savini. It was once again based upon stories by Stephen King, and features three more horror segments consisting of "Old Chief Wood'nhead", "The Raft" and "The Hitchhiker".
Debbie Ann Rochon is a Canadian actress and former stage performer, best known for her work in independent horror films and counterculture films.
Highway to Hell is a 1991 American B horror comedy film directed by Ate de Jong and starring Chad Lowe, Kristy Swanson and Patrick Bergin. It was written by Brian Helgeland. The film tells the story of Charlie Sykes (Lowe) and his girlfriend Rachel Clark (Swanson), who is kidnapped by a demon and taken to Hell to become one of Satan's brides, while Charlie must travel to the other dimension to rescue her.
Psycho II is a 1982 horror novel by American writer Robert Bloch. It is a sequel to his 1959 novel Psycho. The novel was completed before the screenplay was written for the unrelated 1983 film Psycho II. According to Bloch, Universal Studios loathed the novel, which was intended to critique Hollywood splatter films. A different story was created for the film and Bloch was not invited to any screenings. Universal suggested that Bloch abandon his novel, which he declined and released anyway to good sales.
Monster Man is a 2003 American comedy horror film written and directed by Michael Davis. It stars Eric Jungmann, Justin Urich, Aimee Brooks, and Michael Bailey Smith. In Latin America, the film was released with the title Wrong Turn 2.
Beyond the Darkness is a 1979 Italian exploitation horror film directed by Joe D'Amato. It follows Francesco Koch, an orphaned taxidermist who inherits a house in the woods where he lives with his housekeeper Iris, who is determined to become the new owner. After Iris kills his girlfriend Anna with a voodoo curse, Francesco steals her corpse from the local cemetery. He then commits murders connected to his enduring passion for her. A local undertaker investigates and meets Teodora, Anna's twin sister.
Killjoy is a 2000 American fantasy slasher film directed by Craig Ross, starring Ángel Vargas. It follows a young man who's murdered and seeks revenge through a killer demon clown named Killjoy. It is the first entry in the Killjoy franchise.
Rockula is a 1990 American comedy horror film directed by Luca Bercovici and written by Bercovici, Jefery Levy, and Chris Ver Weil. Dean Cameron stars as the vampire Ralph LaVie, Toni Basil plays Phoebe LaVie, Ralph's mother, and Thomas Dolby is the villain, Stanley. The story centers on a vampire under a curse; the tagline for the film is: "He's a vampire that hasn't scored in 400 years—tonight's the night!".
The Hitchhiker is a 2007 American thriller film written and directed by Leigh Scott, and co-written by Jeshua De Horta.
Killer Party is a 1986 Canadian supernatural slasher film directed by William Fruet, and starring Martin Hewitt, Ralph Seymour, Elaine Wilkes, Joanna Johnson, Sherry Willis-Burch, and Paul Bartel. It follows a trio of female sorority pledges who unleash a demonic force after participating in an initiation ritual in an abandoned house on their university's campus.
"Phantom 309" is a song written by Tommy Faile and released as a single by Red Sovine in 1967. It was a minor hit, peaking at number nine on the Billboard Magazine Country chart. The lyrics are spoken, rather than sung.
Curse of the Undead is a 1959 American Horror Western film directed by Edward Dein and starring Eric Fleming, Michael Pate and Kathleen Crowley.
Hyenas is a 2011 American supernatural horror film written and directed by Eric Weston. The film stars Costas Mandylor, Meshach Taylor, Christa Campbell, Derrick Kosinski, Joshua Alba, Christina Murphy and Amanda Aardsma.
Fear, Inc. is a 2016 American comedy horror film directed by Vincent Masciale and written by Luke Barnett. The film stars Lucas Neff, Caitlin Stasey, Chris Marquette and Stephanie Drake.
Mansion of the Doomed is a 1976 American exploitation horror film directed by Michael Pataki and starring Richard Basehart and Gloria Grahame.
Twin Peaks: The Missing Pieces is a 2014 feature-length compilation of deleted and extended scenes from Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, a 1992 film directed by David Lynch and written by Lynch and Robert Engels. It was released over twenty-two years after the movie and the original series ended and three years before the revival, Twin Peaks: The Return, aired.