Fleisch

Saw this in the horror section of video store and it looked worth a rental. It was. A poor young German chick and her newlywed husband go on their honeymoon in New Mexico. The lady innkeeper is way too friendly, so you sort of suspect something is up with her. Later, an ambulance appears out of nowhere and kidnaps the hubby away. The wife pleads to the innkeeper for help, but now the innkeeper claims she doesn't know the wife, even though she just rented her a room! In a bizarre twist (yet it works well), the wife ends up hitching a ride with Sierra Bill, a good ol' boy trucker. So you got this redneck Texan helping a German student who's looking for her Princeton husband. Anyway, they come up with a pretty cool plan. It gets suspenseful and a bit confusing, but all is explained in the end. Jutta Spiedel surprised me as a really good actress, considering I did not know her work before this film. Good stuff

The title made me cringe thinking this would be a gory mess of a movie with a gory mess of a plot. I decided to give it a try and was pleasantly surprised by it.

The story is about newlyweds, both grad students so they're broke and end up staying at a cheap motel because they can afford it. Not long after that, the husband is abducted in an ambulance, the wife flees in terror and ends up with a truck driver who picks her up. The two try to find answers.

This is a long movie for the genre but it moves pretty good. The story is entirely from the perspective of Monica, the newlywed wife and we are wondering about the other characters, their motives and who to dare trust under the circumstances.

There are some plot holes like why didn't she go to the police immediately the two times just about anyone else would have. After thinking about it I don't feel like those were major plot holes under the circumstances in the story. No one would believe what she was claiming about people being abducted and the motel owner would just lie about seeing them. The movie flat out acknowledges the plot hole of why Bill, the truck driver does as much as he did when she asks him why he was doing this. He had no reply to her question and we don't know why either.

A good movie. I never saw a good print of it but I enjoy it anyway. You will be disappointed if you expect this to be a gory horror flick. It really isn't a horror movie as much as it is a psychological thriller.

For those that wonder, the longer version of this movie adds one detail which is implied anyway in the shorter version. You get to see Monica and Bill go to New York as part of Bill's initial delivery when they first meet. He picked her up while she was fleeing her captors and he continuesd to do his truck driving job but with her along for the ride. The shorter version omits just that one trip so you don't miss much beyond some character development.

I was drawn to watch this movie in part because it was a foreign production filmed and set in America, and that promised that the movie would have a unique angle. The portrayal of America is surprisingly balanced - there is a deep and deadly conspiracy in the story, but the movie does give us plenty of innocent and helpful American characters at the same time. Unfortunately, this interesting balance is about the only good thing I can say about the movie. Certainly I can't blame the filmmakers for the atrocious dubbing, but they are guilty of other things. At 105 minutes, the movie is way too long (and slow) for its own good. Along this tedious journey are some real unbelievable plot elements like the fact the protagonists don't consider contacting the police until very late into the story. The movie is also directed with no sense of style, with no tension or any great feelings coming from the movie at any moment - it always feel flat. It's capped off with one of the worst opening/closing credits songs I have ever heard in a motion picture. There is the occasional hint of a decent (though not original) thriller here, but as a whole it simply does not work.

The opening scenes of this film are pure cheesecake with soul music, people frolicking through the street and dogs trying to grab wedding bouquets. There's some cheesy dubbing as well. It eventually settles down into a more serious affair after a sinister ambulance abducts one half of a honeymooning couple. The girl, Monica, gets away and eventually garners the help of trucker Bill and his trucking buddies in finding out where the ambulance took her husband.

This is a pretty good film which kept me on edge throughout, as the characters were really likable. Good cinematography and a moody score help it along, and the story here is intriguing... certainly a hell of a lot moreso than the somewhat similar 1980 piece of garbage, Cardiac Arrest. If you find a copy, give it a look.

An ambulance abducts the man from a honeymooning couple shortly after they checked into a cheap motel. His wife Monica follows the trace from the ambulance with the help of a friendly trucker named bill.

This production was released shortly after "Coma" (1978) and has a similar approach. This basic concept was picked up again with "The Island" (2005).

Filmed in the U. S. this is a suprisingly well produced TV movie, that could have been run in theaters at his time. Action, speed and pace are a slower than today, but it is still has suspense. A nude scene may be the reason for its rating, blood & violence are harmless.