Four college friends take a fateful road trip. The road, Hell’s Highway–a direct route to terror. They pick up Lucinda: A hot young hitchhiker, full of sexual deviance and lust for the bloody kill. After being terrorized and nearly killed, the group manages to turn the tables. They thought they killed her, but around the next ben–around every ben– she appears like a mirage ready to murder again. Is she the devil? Can anyone stop her killing spree?
Sure, Hell’s Highway is super low-budget, but if you love no-budget horror like me, this is a very fun flick. The video quality is a dead giveaway of the lack of budget here, a few shots actually have what appears to be a finger in the upper left-hand corner of the screen, as if someone’s dad was the cinematographer.
Like any true b-movie Hell’s Highway is a stretch to get to 70 minutes, unlike a lot these no-budget flicks though there are quite a few kill scenes and they are all an absolute blast. There’s plenty of gore gags, from intestines being snagged by a car resulting in half a body being dragged away, to a head splitting shovel to the noggin, the filmmakers went above and beyond to deliver an impressive assortment of no-budget gore effects. And all the little mistakes here and there, no doubt due to budget and time constraints, only add to the fun.
The plot is incredibly basic, and the characters make decisions that serve only the movie such as instead of driving out of the desert to escape the hitchhiking killer they decide to camp overnight, and also have sex. Pretty standard horror staples that even Hollywood’s millions don’t seem to be able to fix.
The twist ending is a bit much, and the attempt to pull the rug out from under the audience does kind of suck the wind out of the sails instead. I would have preferred they try and go big with the evil devil stuff, especially after seeing the dream sequence with the demon, but I get what they were trying to do. This same type of ending has made its way into a couple of Sterling Entertainment flicks and it always feels like a bit of an easy cop out.
All plot and budget complaints aside if you have an hour to kill and enjoy low budget horror, Hell’s Highway is an absolutely ridiculous gory fun time.
Directed by: Jeff Leroy
Written by: Scott Leff (introduction), Jeff Leroy
Starring: Phoebe Dollar, Kiren David, Hank Horner, Beverly Lynne
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