It seems rando comely hitchhikin’ babes are finding themselves all murdered-up down Australia way. Travelling those same roads is wise-ass quip machine Pat Quid (Stacy Keach); a trucker who runs his mouth to his own captive audience; his pet dingo Boswell.
On his journey, our hero meets all manner of wacky folks on the road… but none are stranger than the dude in the green van (Grant Page) that keeps turning up and acting more and more like the culprit of the horror biz listed previous.
Before long, Quid picks up a hitchhiker named Pamela (Jamie Lee Curtis), and together the duo attempt to solve the mystery at hand… but Pam soon runs afoul of that vicious van and it’s up to quirky Quid to try and save the day!
A bizarre mix of Hitchcockian suspense, trucker picture, and hallucinogenic mind-fuck, Road Games is as weird as it sounds, and it’s damn entertaining to boot! The film also comes in on the glorious Ozploitation wave that crashed into the ol’ U.S. hard-fucking-core back in the eerie early eighties, which adds the proceedings a distinctive flavor as well!
What I’m basically sayin’ is, producer/director Richard Franklin (who also came up with the film’s story along with screenwriter Everett De Roche) has created a fright flick that borrows from Hitchcock and exploitation flicks and delivers a ghoulish goulash with a flavor all of it’s own!
Adding to the proceedings are fantastic performances from Keach and Curtis (no stranger to our beloved horror biz) who have undeniable chemistry, which makes us invested in the whole affair and makes the tension have that much more impact.
Also of note are the spectacular vehicular stunts (all practical), creative use of rear projection techniques, and the surreal vistas of Australia’s Nullarbor plain that give the film an otherwordly vibe.
As for special features on this Scream Factory Blu-ray release, let me tell ya; you get an eighteen-wheeler sized amount! Kicking things off are two audio commentaries, one featuring filmmaker Mark Hartley (who directed the amazing Ozploitation documentary Not Quite Hollywood), director of photography Vincent Monton, production secretary Helen Watts, and costume designer Aphrodite Kondos, and the other featuring Franklin. Both are solid listens and provide good-natured conversation that detail just what it took to bring Road Games to the screen, as well as what didn’t make the final cut.
Following that we get an interview with Keach, an archival audio script read from 1980 featuring Franklin, Keach and actress Marion Edwards (which was an excellent inclusion for those of us that love seeing the process behind a creative work), a poster and stills gallery set to demos of Brian May’s (not the dude from Queen) score for the film, an archival “making-of” doc, a series of extended interviews from the aforementioned Not Quite Hollywood, a lengthy archival lecture (also from 1980) by the filmmakers discussing the production, an archival audio interviews with Franklin, Keach, and Page, and an archival retrospective on Franklin.
Bringing up the rear we get a gallery of stills, production shots, storyboards, and promotional material as well as the film’s theatrical trailer.
Taut with suspense, featuring a great cast, and a unique locale; Road Games is a road-based thriller horror hounds should add to their creepy collections immediately; and with the extras assembled here this is truly the edition to grab!
