Road Games

Let me start off by saying that I kind of enjoyed this movie. However . . .

It's a total mess. A mountain of things happen that you, as the viewer, are supposed to take in and remember later as events unfold.

Scary mansion, older folk and mannequins are all in abundance. What isn't, is any sense of a linear plot after the first 40 minutes.

Watch it if you're drunk, speak French, or enjoy worrying about the dialogue flipping between English and subtitled French.

Since a few decades, you can rely on the French if you seek brutal, perverted, and excessively violent backwoods horror! Of course, they're nearly not all as good as "Haute Tension", "Frontière(s)", and "Martyrs", but most still have that same raw & disturbing atmosphere and shocking gore. "Road Games" has a bit of intense atmosphere, but sorely disappoints when it comes to gore. Writer/director Pastoll goes for mystery and surprise twists instead, but his script isn't as unpredictable as he thinks.

The story opens with the young and British Jack hitchhiking on a remote backwoods French road on which there are signs warning drivers not to pick up hitchhikers. He meets the beautiful and adventurous Véronique, and they continue their trip together, until they are picked up by a friendly chap in an old junk car and taken to an isolated countryside mansion. The elderly host Grizar and his British-American wife Mary (Barbara Crampton) are suspiciously friendly and creepily hospitable, so experienced horror fanatics know what to expect. The next morning, Véronique has vanished, and Jack is treated a lot less warm and welcoming!

The twist at the end is clever, for sure, but not unique or super-intelligent, and it certainly doesn't justify the lack of action earlier in the film. If you pay attention to details and little human behaviors & interactions, you can anticipate the climax or at least feel less surprised when it comes. The weirdest thing about "Road Games" is the constant switching between the French and English language by three out of four of the lead characters. I speak French, so it didn't bother me too much, but I reckon it must be confusing and irritating when you don't. Barbara Crampton, the favorite starlet of every horror-loving male born between 1970 and 1990, also recites half of her lines in French, but she's completely incomprehensible. I don't know if she took French classes or learned her lines phonetically, but the pronunciation is abysmal.

I did not see this one coming.

I really loved the music, gave it an old school giallo feel to the movie. Not that all the yellow in the cinematography didn't do the trick.

Road Games does expect us to swallow some stuff that does not go down too well, but overall it was a great slasher-styled movie experience, that never bores.

The characters are interesting enough to keep your interest to the very last minute, and I mean the very last.

The suspense of what's going on is great. Lots of twist and turns to keep you on your toes as you try to figure out what's going on.

The plot twist was a little lackluster, but it goes with the whole environment.

Well done!!

Admittedly I haven't seen a lot of French films, but those I have seen I've tended to love. In fact both 'Amour' and 'High Tension', despite being very different films, are both in my top 20 of all time. From what I can tell, the French make very patient films which are intended to be retrospectively thought-provoking and also tend to enjoy a good twist. All of which is on display here in 'Road Games'. There is a certainly a lot to consider and all was not as it seemed, however I'm not sure how useful actually analysing it is going to be, because I'm sure all of it made sense.

So if we break the film down into thirds, the first two are very patient and mysterious. We haven't met a lot of characters and we are getting the distinct possibility we aren't going to meet many more along the way either. We have a love story of sorts going on, and we have a mystery element too, because we know (based on the very first shots of the films) that not every character is what they seem. Then something absolutely bizarre, random and inexplicable happens. And I don't just mean at the time, I mean even now, having finished the film, I'm not entirely sure why this event happened or what it was supposed to mean. I won't spoil it for anyone who hasn't seen the film, but for those of you that have I'm pretty sure you will know what I'm talking about.

It's at about this stage that the final third of the film begins and all hell breaks loose. Sadly, what should have been the strongest part of the movie, the part everything had been building up to, is the part that lets it all down. The concept is actually a novel one, I just don't think they did it quite right. A twist in a movie should almost physically hit you. You should feel it in a way. Here, I felt almost nothing. A quick, "Oh yeah, that's kind of cool" and that's it. Then the final scene, which had the potential for great dialogue and to leave the audience on a real high, wondering what will become of these people, is completely drowned out by the background music. You need subtitles for the English words in that scene because it is just inaudible. An incredibly disappointing way to finish the film.

I think a stronger, more experienced film maker could have done a lot with this idea. Even as it is it's quite an enjoyable film at times. Sadly though, I can't see too many people being blown away by this one. A decent effort that comes up just short of the mark.

The psychological thriller "Road Games" aspires to be atmospheric avant-garde entertainment. Alas, it never reaches such territory. However, any flick that features an American, a Brit and two Frenchies has it's merits. Even if the potpourri of performances and plot points are perplexing as all hell. Nevertheless, "Road Games" is a helluva ride.

If you can just manage to maintain traction.