Released: January 2017
Director: Albert Pyun
Not Rated
Run Time: 87 Minutes
Genre: Action/Thriller
Cast:
Michael Pare: Cody
Clare Kramer: Caitlin
Courtney Peldon: Ashley
Deborah Van Valkenburgh: Sister
Roxy Gunn: Ellen Dream
Joei Fulco: The Archangel Gabriel
Making movies is not a simple process, nor is it cheap. You see a lot of big blockbuster movies these days that can cost upwards of 200 million dollars or more. While these films definitely have a polished and fantastic look about them, there seems to be something missing. It comes down to a lack of creativity and imagination, I feel. Having such a massive budget can be freeing in a lot of ways in terms of production design and hiring the best cast and crew that money can buy. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but on the flip side, having that much money can actually do more harm to a movie than good. Look at all these big budget sequels like The Matrix Reloaded and you can definitely see the money on the screen visually, but the story-telling and acting get left by the way-side. The independent film genre is less a genre and more of a philosophy. Some of the smaller and low-budget films that I’ve seen are some of the best movies ever made. Take a movie like Bone Tomahawk, a western/horror hybrid that was made for a million bucks, but looks like a big-budget production with big-name talent attached. You CAN have a good movie without spending millions upon millions of dollars. I have a lot of them in my Blu-Ray collection. Sometimes you come across a movie that’s very bizarre and yet strangely compelling. For me, that movie was Road To Hell.
The plot of Road To Hell revolves around a man named Cody, who was a highly trained soldier, as he returns home to Edge City after nearly 30 years. Apparently his time in the military has left him….damaged and seeking redemption. He’s heading to Edge City to reconnect with a former flame that he left behind years ago. The story seems pretty simple on the surface, but the film takes a turn for the surreal. It’s implied that there’s a supernatural aspect to the film, but it’s never really gone into detail. The film is narrated by The Archangel Gabriel, who takes the form of the lovely Joei Fulco. It’s pretty clear that we’re not dealing with your typical road movie. I’m not kidding when I say this film is bizarre. Cody is a guy that apparently really enjoys killing and yet when he runs into these two strippers turned spree killers, he hesitates. It’s very much implied that Cody is in some form of Purgatory, because Gabriel said so. Yet, that aspect of the film is never fully explored. It leaves the audience asking the question of whether this is Purgatory/Hell or not. While certain aspects of the film are resolved by the end of the picture, that supernatural element is not even addressed. It’s not a terrible story. It’s surprisingly pretty thoughtful, but there are certain aspects of it that could have been fleshed out a little bit more, I think.
There’s a number of things that stood out for with Road To Hell. The first is the visual aesthetic of the film. The colors and brown/orange-ish overcast really gives the film its uniquely surreal quality. I actually rather liked how visually interesting the film was. There’s a lot of green screen used and it is fairly obvious. Again, Road To Hell is a very low-budget indie film, so this was to be expected. I actually rather like the way it’s done. It kind of gives off this otherworldly vibe to the whole thing. When I read other movie reviews on other sites, I notice that a lot of critics tend to not mention a film’s music, which is a shame, because that is absolutely one of the most important aspects of a film, no matter how minimal it is. The music in Road To Hell is actually very good. There’s a lot of songs in here that are sung by Roxy Gunn and her band. These are surprisingly good. It has a good selection of songs. The actual score by Tony Riparetti is….okay, but nothing overly special. His writing for some of the songs though is really good.
The acting in Road To Hell is mostly okay. Michael Pare is probably one of the most underrated actors of his generation. His performance comes across as particularly introspective and menacing at the same time. Some of the best actors act with their eyes, and Michael Pare nails it. Roxy Gunn, who plays Ellen Dream, does a decent enough job as a girl who has led a pretty tragic life. One of the best aspects about Roxy Gunn’s performance is when she gets on the stage. She’s not necessarily an actress, but she is quite a singer and musician, and that really comes across in her performance. The songs that she sings have a very personal vibe to them that really helps her on the stage. Unfortunately, the two girls that Cody runs into on the road bring this movie down a bit. There’s something about their performance that bothers me. I don’t know what it is, but their performance simply wasn’t that good. It’s like they were playing their characters deliberately like they were in a low-budget film. Aside from that, the acting was pretty solid across the board.
Albert Pyun has made some….interesting movies over the course of his career. Some of them pretty decent, others not so much. One of his most notorious films was Captain America from 1990. How much of that film was his fault I’m not entirely sure, but it didn’t do him any favors. Some of his more memorable movies have a tendency to deal with cyborg’s like….Cyborg with Jean-Claude Van Damme. It’s one of my personal favorites. That being said, I feel that Road To Hell is definitely one of his better efforts and is a surprisingly effective little movie. It’s not perfect, but it is certainly better than most of the big-budget crap that we’ve been getting over the past few years. In my opinion, at least. Overall, I think it’s definitely worth a look. If it gets released to the public.
My Final Recommendation: It’s worth checking out, provided the film gets out of Purgatory. 8/10.