The terrorised road trip genre has given us many classics including Duel, Hitch-Hike, Roadkill (a.k.a Joyride), Highwaymen Breakdown and the wholly godfather of them all The Hitcher. Roadflower (a.k.a Road Killers) is another entry in this genre hailing from 1994 and starts off promisingly buts ends up a mixed bag.
Roadflower is a film of two halves. One half road chase thriller, one half talky, psychological battle of wits. Both halves are pretty good in their own right but never quite gel as a whole. The first half hour (road chase thriller) is taut and suspenseful. Director Sarafain builds up tension superbly as Jack, his family and friends are terrorised by Cliff and his gang. Shot in a claustrophobic manner by James Carter, and with tense music by Les Hooper, the filmmakers create a sense of impending doom. The desert location is sweatily evoked and McDonald is very effective as the increasingly harassed Glen. After a silly, but well staged game of chicken, Glen is killed in a rather disturbing scene and the stage is set for a dramatic game of cat and mouse across the American desert. However, the tone change somewhat as the film switches its perspective from Jack's desperate family man to Cliff's demented gang of drifters.
At a lean 86 minutes, one gets the sense a lot of chopping occurred in the editing room. Afterall, this is an earlier offering from the destroyer's of film du jour: The Weinsteins. It seems someone was so pleased with Sheffers' performance (good, but does get irritating after a while) they decided to change the focus of the film to his character. It would be interesting to see if Tedi Sarafian's original script had more road chase elements to it. Despite this, Sarafian has made an entertaining and often disturbing little flick. Just don't go into it expecting The Hitcher mark 2.
Roadflower is a film of two halves. One half road chase thriller, one half talky, psychological battle of wits. Both halves are pretty good in their own right but never quite gel as a whole. The first half hour (road chase thriller) is taut and suspenseful. Director Sarafain builds up tension superbly as Jack, his family and friends are terrorised by Cliff and his gang. Shot in a claustrophobic manner by James Carter, and with tense music by Les Hooper, the filmmakers create a sense of impending doom. The desert location is sweatily evoked and McDonald is very effective as the increasingly harassed Glen. After a silly, but well staged game of chicken, Glen is killed in a rather disturbing scene and the stage is set for a dramatic game of cat and mouse across the American desert. However, the tone change somewhat as the film switches its perspective from Jack's desperate family man to Cliff's demented gang of drifters.
At a lean 86 minutes, one gets the sense a lot of chopping occurred in the editing room. Afterall, this is an earlier offering from the destroyer's of film du jour: The Weinsteins. It seems someone was so pleased with Sheffers' performance (good, but does get irritating after a while) they decided to change the focus of the film to his character. It would be interesting to see if Tedi Sarafian's original script had more road chase elements to it. Despite this, Sarafian has made an entertaining and often disturbing little flick. Just don't go into it expecting The Hitcher mark 2.