A couple of weeks ago I was able to catch Not Quite Hollywood: The Wild, Untold Story of Ozploitation! which was a lot of fun and it mentioned a cult classic that I had recently purchased but had not got around to watching. That movie is Road Games. Road Games stars Stacy Keach as Patrick ‘Pat’ Quid a trucker who says that he is more than just a trucker and Jamie Lee Curtis as Pamela Rushworth who Pat Quid always refers to as ‘Hitch’ which is short for Hitchhiker. The basic premise is that Quid a trucker believes that the driver of a green van is a serial killer after he witnesses the driver watching some garbage bags being taken a way. The audience already knows that he is indeed the serial killer but Quid only suspects it. Mostly out of curiosity Quid follows the green van and its driver throughout the highways of Australia. While tracking the killer he ends up passing by ‘Hitch’ a couple of times and finally decides to pick her up and offer her a ride. The three then start to play a cat and mouse game through the Australian outback.
Road Games came out in 1981 and was one of the first Ozzie horror films to feature an American cast. It also has a wonderfully wicked dark sense of humour and does an excellent job of building tension with very little actual violence. The majority of the movie takes place within Quid’s truck cab and about half of that is just Stacy Keach with his dog. Quid knows what he is doing is pretty dumb and is putting his life at risk and the conversations he has with the dog first and later with a hitchhiker (other than Hitch herself) contain some great dialogue.
If you pick this one up I suggest grabbing the recent Anchor Bay release. It contains a documentary called Kangaroo Hitchcock. The documentary is pretty interesting but it really serves to highlight the Hitchockian nature of the story. There is very little violence and a lot of tension that just continues to build. What starts out as just a lone truck driver trying to catch a killer turns into a very personal game once the killer realizes what Quid and Hitch are up to.
I remember seeing this when I was a kid and it scared the bejesus out of me. Now when I watch it I realize how well the story is actually crafted. It is a real shame that even on the cult classic level this one is a real hidden gem. More people need to see Road Games.
I like the entire ‘road terrorism’ subgenre of flicks: Spielberg’s DUEL, the Rutgar Hauer flick THE HITCHER, the J.T. Walsh/Kurt Russell flick BREAKDOWN and the first 45 minutes of JEEPERS CREEPERS are all great.
Comment by kurt — October 2, 2008
Comment by Serena Whitney — October 2, 2008
Looking forward to what tomorrow brings
Comment by Dave — October 2, 2008
Comment by John Allison — October 3, 2008