Rest Stop is a film that I really thought I was going to enjoy, however my opinion of the film turned out to be the opposite as I not only found this film to be a bit on the boring side, but it was also unoriginal. I was talking to a friend of mine about this film the other day, and the only though he had was that it was very similar to High Tension, but not as effective. I agree with that statement to an extent, however this film can be open to interpretation, and the filmmakers never made it clear about what was really going on with this story. In other words there was a lot of things in the script that were left open, and at times were very confusing.
The story is about two young lovers (Nichole and Jessie) whom live in Texas, they both decide to run away to California to be in movies and run the gantlet in Hollywood dreamland. While on their way they get in to a little bit of a roadside scuffle with a guy in a pick-up truck. It seems to be no big deal, but we as fans know it’s going to be a big deal soon. So what happens is Nichole refuses to pee on the side of the road so Jessie pulls into a rest area off a lonesome highway. Nichole goes into the bathroom, (a nasty ass bathroom that I wouldn’t even piss in as a man), does her business and upon her return to the parking lot Jessie and his car are gone. Nichole thinks it’s a joke at first, but it turns out that the guy in the pickup truck is now behind Jessie disappearance. Now Nichole is left to battle it out with this mysterious guy in the truck, as she tries to get help and find Jessie.
I personally didn’t care for the script. Yes it was a simple film shot mainly in one location, however we got teased with other locations such as the killers hideout on an abandon bus, and the area around the rest stop. But we were never taken to that place as a primary location, it was just shown in clips full of the killer torturing his victims. Everything seemed to confined and I can only take so much of a women being locked in a bathroom so long. Pretty much to get right to the point, the film starts off really slow, almost like an amateur movie, then it gets better, then slowly declines again. It was predictable to a point, until the conclusion where you left wondering what the hell is really going on with this guy in the truck, and the rest stop area. It was just left open, with no closure. It was never explained who the killer in the truck was, and why everyone he comes into contact with goes missing. The film had to many loose ends, that were never tied up.
The acting is ok, at times I felt a lot of over acting going on and did not find Jaimie Alexander to be that convincing in the role of Nichole. I felt at times she was not acting as scared as a normal person would in such a situation, she seems like such a weak character at the beginning of the film, someone whom always depended on Mommy and Daddy for everything, and then just switched gears and became this survivalist. It didn’t work for me. However the high point of this film comes from an unexpected actor, a vet of teenage television flicks; Joey Lawrence. Yes Joey Lawrence was probably the only good thing about this film, his acting was very believable, and he seemed to shine more in his small part as a sheriff just driving though than anyone else in the cast did. I mean he gave one dam good solid performance and to be honest with you, if he was in most of this film I probably would of enjoyed better.
There are some decent special effects in this film, most of it is make-up effects involving plenty of gore and blood. There is are some effects that reminded me of the kind you would see in such films like Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Hostel and Saw. There were also a lot of stunts as well as a lot of effects involving fire. For some reason this film had a lot of shit blowing up towards the end.
Overall, I really didn’t care much for Rest Stop. It was just another plain old horror film that we’ve all seen a million times over. It tried to be a different kind of film, but the confusing script with all the plot holes made me lose interest in this film. I heard somewhere that this film was going to be featured on the Sci-fi Channel, if so it will be in it’s edited version, in that case if I can’t figure what’s happening in the unrated version, people watching it on sci-fi are really going to be confused. I’m not saying that the film is a total waste of time, it does have the good effects that every high class horror film does, but in terms of story it just falls flat. Watch at your own risk and you decide.
– Horror Bob
- Interview with J.R. Bookwalter - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
