Coroner’s Report: Rest Stop: Don’t Look Back

Posted by Robert Fure (robert@filmschoolrejects.com) on October 9, 2008

Arriving direct to DVD recently, Rest Stop: Don’t Look Back is somewhat of a continuation of the first one.  I’ll be honest, the first installment of this movie didn’t really stick with me.  The main reason I wanted to watch this was the DVD cover - a dude was carrying an M4 assault rifle, which I hoped he would use to great extent.  Not only did that disappoint me, but pretty much everything else did too.

The story picks up with Tom, brother to the originals Jesse, heading out with his girlfriend, Marilyn and his buddy, Jared, to find Jesse and Nicole.  They quickly find the proper trail and are just as quickly set upon by the Driver and his yellow truck and the creepy Winnebago family from the first installment.  There are a lot of ghost moments, with apparitions pestering each of the characters and the driver taking Tom as his prisoner.  The group must quickly figure out how to defeat the driver and discover the fate of their friends.

Kills

When talking about on-screen kills, this is a hard one to count.  One person who we see die ends up coming back and we see some dead bodies of people who end up coming back (as ghosts and what not), and then we assume that some more people die but don’t really see it.  So at most a kill count of nine, but really probably a kill count of two, with six deaths of people who end up as ghosts.

Ills

While it’s spread out a bit, there is some decent blood letting when it finally appears.  There is a midget freak, a head beaten in, a hand cut off, some eye stabbings, and a guy gets covered in pooh.  Yeah, that’s right.  Pooh.  There is also an awesome scene with a guy getting screws put into his leg, some more severed eyes, some blood vomit, a mutilated corpse, a drill into a leg, and the screws are ripped out of the leg in a pretty sweet scene.

Lust

There is a creepy old horny lady who gets some tame creepy old lady sex and then we get some attractive person sex and get to see some boobies.  Yessss.  There is a bloody girl in lingerie and some ghost sex.  Yeah.  It’s pretty cool.  (In theory, in the movie its still pretty lame)

Learning

Avoid shortcuts through desert areas.  Don’t trust creepy, run down gas station attendants.

Review

I’m not sure what I expected from this direct to DVD sequel, but I’m sure I didn’t get it.  The cinematography was cool at times and there is a lot of back story that could have lead to a good story, but ultimately the flick is just plain boring most of the time.  The acting is ok, the funny goofy friend is actually funny, which is a positive thing.  The Driver looked threatening at times, but he’s no memorable slasher.  There are some fart jokes and out of place humor and another implausible explosion.  I did like one of the jokes - “I’m not being a pussy, there are snakes.”

There isn’t much else to say.  The movie isn’t “bad,” it’s just not good.  Well, no, it is kind of bad.  Superfans of the original (do they exist?) might just love it.  But the average person isn’t going to find much to enjoy.  The pacing is staggered, the story feels drawn out, and ultimately all the ghost stuff is just confusing and not in the slightest bit scary.  I did like the male lead played by Richard Tillman, so hopefully he moves on to bigger and better.  As an aside, there is a pistol in the film that looks like cheap plastic, booo.  The M14 finally shows up on screen for maybe 25 seconds and isn’t used very effectively - total let down.  This movie is one for the skip pile - don’t bother unless you’re a fan of the original.

What did you think about the original Rest Stop?

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