Product Description: Jess is at the wheel. Nicole rides shotgun. And at the end of the road stretching before them is glittering glamorous Hollywood. They're on a road trip all right...straight to hell. When the runaway lovers pause at an abandoned rest stop Jess disappears. And someone else appears - someone with his own demented sense of fun. With drills. Staple guns. Box cutters. All the tearing grinding ripping tools you need to hew wood. Or metal. Or people. Especially young pretty people just like Nicole. Raw fear rules in Rest Stop the first film from Raw Feed the newest brand name in horror sci-fi and thrillers. Director John Shiban writer and executive producer of The X-Files and Supernatural keeps the terrors and twists coming each out-shocking the last. Stop. Stay awhile. But don't expect to rest.Running Time: 85 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: HORROR UPC: 012569838154 Manufacturer No: 83815
Amazon.com: Considering that Rest Stop comes courtesy director John Shiban, an X-Files and Star Trek staff writer, one would expect this horror film to contain a kernel of originality, but unfortunately it is a poor conflation of Wolf Creek, Joyride, and Texas Chainsaw Massacre, among others. Nicole Carrow (Jaimie Alexander) and Jess Hilts (Joey Mendocino) are young, hopeful actors taking a road trip to Hollywood, though neither reaches their final destination. A psychotic pick-up truck driver dominates the rest stop they pull off at, often maiming his victims by hitting them with his truck, then dragging them off onto a school bus where he tortures them with drills, pincers, saws, branding irons, knives, and other tools. Jess disappears early in the film, leaving Nicole to fend for herself, often by locking herself in the dingy rest stop restroom, or by running to avoid being hit by the truck. After her attempt to call a sheriff ends in the sheriff's death, Nicole's prospects for survival dim. Graphic scenes are indeed horribly disgusting, but the torture methods are so clichéd that one wishes for more psychology behind the killer's methods to actually scare. A random scene in which Nicole hitches a ride in a motorhome with some Bible-thumping freaks further pushes the film into clichéd territory. Since Rest Stop fails to fully develop the killer or the victims' characters, it is difficult to empathize with them. Even Nicole, rendered powerless from the outset, lacks the personality to entertain through this full-length feature in which so little happens besides hunt-kill, hunt-kill. --Trinie Dalton
recommended to anyone looking for a good time. Another decent one from "Raw Feed." Aside from its obvious low budget, this is an entertaining little "Survival" flick. Decent gore, decent suspense. I wouldnt rank this among my top 20, but i'd definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a good time.
6/10
This movie is what you do at a rest stop...crap This is one of those horror movies that give the genre a bad name. I pretty much knew what to expect from the film within the first five minutes when we saw our heroine run away from home, take a drag from a marijuana cigarette and indulge her self with some good old fashioned fornication.
The movie is extremely predictable, even to the point where when my girlfriend and I were watching it, we would say what we thought was going to happen next...and it did. Maybe I've just seen too many of these movies or there just isn't any creativity to this film. Probably a combination of both.
If the predictability wasn't enough to ruin the movie, the acting undeniably did the job. Our leading lady, if you will, doesn't sell the movie at all and let's face it, Joey Lawrence has never been known for his acting skills. Not to mention, you know you're pretty much as good as dead when they send in Mr. "Whoa!" to save your life. You're better off fending the crazed redneck by yourself.
All I have to say is, thank goodness for Netflix!! I would have really pissed if I spent good money renting this.
Taps into some subtle unmined fears--a minor classic This is a highly effective little slasher film. If you travel and have stopped at rest areas, you may have a shock of recognition. The negative reviews for this small classic are intriguing--are these folks looking for CG effects? For years certain limited reviewers condemned DAY OF THE DEAD, now acknowledged as a masterpiece. Why? The female protagonist was too strong. Hmmm... Something similar here? Sorry, I like a well made film with good directing, editing and find it refreshing to have a hero who doesn't turn into a martial arts specialist at the drop of a clapboard.
You Missed Just gonna point out flaws, this doesn't even deserve a traditional review:
--The main character, was she not one of the most annoying characters ever? What a whining, complaining, unlikeable person. How many times did she swear in the movie? Notice how from the very beginning of the movie she would have these mini temper tantrums of varying degrees, which would continue to the very end of this terrible film.
--There was a point in the movie where I stopped giving my full, undivided attention, so maybe I might've missed something, but when the Phil Lamarr from Mad TV lookalike cop came into the picture, why weren't one or both of these items brought immediately into play: 1) his gun (before gasoline was an issue), 2) his walkie-talkie. Was there a reason why after he was injured, and they were both in the bathroom, that they didn't try to call for backup?
--What bad acting from the Phil Lamarr lookalike cop. Tons of examples, but when they were in the bathroom, he said, "don't let him trap you Nicole." What is he, her COACH for some athletic sporting event? I guess it's the inclusion of her first name, but that, combined with his tone was just wrong for this situation, it makes him sound like some motivational speaker, or a corner-man giving advice to a boxer: "watch for his jab, Nicole."
--What exactly was the killer waiting for? Why did he keep leaving her there and driving off? He could've got her anytime he wanted.
--That random girl at the end they showed walking towards the bathroom must've been someone they picked up off the street. She had exactly 0% acting skills. The worst acting I've seen has been a tie between the cop from Cube, and that little child girl from Ghost Dog - The Way of the Samurai. I might have to change this list. Just listen to her explain to the cop about what she heard behind the door. When someone says "what?" in disbelief of what they're hearing from you, your first instinct isn't to tell the GENDER of the person (she said "It was a girl!"), you usually will reiterate the seriousness of the situation by saying, " I said, I heard a voice trapped behind the door, there's SOMEONE back there! I heard a VOICE!" Not, "it was a girl." Because then the reaction could be, "WTF are you talking about,*WHAT* was a girl?" Then look at her reaction after the cop checks behind the door and concludes it was a joke, she says, "but I heard it!" Yeah, they need to go ahead and just send her back to the streets.
--"You missed."
Two and a half stars at best. I love scary movies. While looking up new and interesting horror flicks, Rest Stop caught my attention. Although I noticed the bad reviews, I decided to watch it anyway since people tend to be picky when it comes to scary movies. Turns out, I should have listened to the reviews.
So what's the movie about? Two teenagers (Jess and Nicole) have run away from home. The duo stop at a rest stop because Jess has to use the bathroom. Nicole eventually learns that Jess is missing. Even worse, there's a killer after her.
Let's talk about the positives. The general storyline is pretty interesting. The idea of someone being lost in the middle of nowhere and having to run away from a psycho is pretty cool. The only other positive I can think of is that the movie isn't necessarily boring. Although it could have been much better, I wasn't bored out of my mind.
And now for the negatives. First, I have to mention the whole sex in the woods thing. Why some horror movie writers insist on inserting random sex scenes into their movies is beyond me. It just makes the characters unlikeable.
Second, the storyline. Aside from a short scene showing what the killer does with his victims, we don't really know why the heck he's killing people. He just appears randomly whenever he wants to. He's not scary. He's just there. Some scenes were so pointless and did nothing to aid the storyline. I was really irritated that the writers threw the scenes together to attempt to scare people, giving absolutely no thought to making the storyline better.
Overall, I thought Rest Stop was dumb, thoughtless, and pointless. Do yourself a favor and skip it.
Anything Goes Trivia
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