Road Games Review

MPAA Rating: PG
Released: 1981

Road Games is a slightly surreal thriller featuring a minimalist atmosphere and plenty of suspenseful moments presented in the same style of the great Alfred Hitchcock. A truck driver suspects the owner of a green van is a serial killer that has been murdering young women all across the Australian Outback, and when a young hitchhiker close to him is kidnapped by the owner of the green van he becomes obsessed with tracking it down. But in a dangerous game of cat and mouse such as this, it's hard to say who is truly chasing whom.

In Road Games Stacy Keach stars as Patrick Quid, an independent trucker that transports deliveries across the barren deserts of the Australian Outback with little else but the company of his best friend: a dingo. The evening before he is scheduled to pick up a load of meat from a plant he observes some suspicious behavior: a man in a green van checks into the local motel with an attractive young hitchhiker. The next day, he watches some bags of garbage attentively.

A little put off by the circumstances, Patrick picks up the meat as planned; after all, imagination can run rampant when you've been driving countless miles across the parched landscape. But on his journey he stumbles across the green van again. This time it is parked off the road, and the owner is digging a hole to deposit some more garbage bags.

By now Patrick becomes convinced that the driver of the green van is chopping up young women and throwing away their parts in garbage bags. He desperately tries to alert the police to his suspicions, but his attempts go nowhere. In fact, the police actually suspect him rather than the driver of the green van!

The ante is raised when Pamela Rushworth (Jamie Lee Curtis), an inquisitive young hitchhiker that struck up a friendship with Patrick during one of the legs of the journey, is seemingly kidnapped by the owner of the van. Patrick's sanity begins to slip as he attempts to corner the green van and prove once and for all that the occupant is a vicious serial killer.

The premise of Road Games would make for a great horror movie, and although this film does have some horror elements in it, ultimately Road Games is best defined as a Hitchcock-style thriller. Director Richard Franklin (Psycho II) is a dedicated student of Hitchcock, and he does a fantastic job of incorporating the master's taut use of suspense. Road Games manages to be downright creepy and disturbing during select scenes without ever resorting to the use of visceral violence (thus why it is rated PG).

James Keach, Jamie Lee Curtis and the other handful of actors did a wonderful job in this film. Each character is somewhat quirky (yet not in an overblown manner), and these strong performances help lend a slightly surreal atmosphere to Road Games. Everything and everyone is realistically portrayed, yet it's just slightly off… almost like watching an episode of the Twilight Zone.

If a criticism were to be found it might be in the pacing. While Road Games is definitely a thriller that will quickly capture the attention of many viewers, there are periods where nothing really occurs; we just bear witness to Patrick Quid's trucking. The scenes aren't a failure, per se, since both he and his occasional passengers are interesting enough characters, but the incorporation of road-trip elements into a thriller dilutes the latter a bit.

Road Games is also a low-budget film, but just like other successful low-budget movies filmed in the Australian Outback (i.e., Mad Max), the low budget does not harm the integrity or appeal of the movie whatsoever. With deft direction by Richard Franklin, impressive acting by the actors and a sparse backdrop (the Australian deserts), one doesn't need a huge budget to make a polished and successful film.

Those looking for an out-and-out horror film will probably be a little disappointed in Road Games, but those that enjoy Hitchcock's work will appreciate the thick blanket of suspense and atmosphere that permeates this movie.

Movie rating: 7 stars

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