The under-appreciated Larry Cohen works from a David J. Schow (the man who coined the terms “stalk-and-slash” and “splatterpunk”) script for his serial killer outing in the Masters of Horror series. On a desolate patch of mountain road, a bus breaks down and its passengers make a few dangerous choices. Cautious and tough Stacia (Fairuza fuckin’ Balk) decides to walk the 12 to 14 miles to the nearest hotel, Birdy and Danny decide to hitchhike with a helpful and possibly insane truck driver (Michael fuckin’ Moriarty) and a paranoid wife and her frustrated husband decide it’s safer to stay with the bus driver until help comes. A charming hitchhiker comes across the bus and all the pieces are in place for an unexpected turf war between two serial killers and a handful of strangers who just had some truly terrible luck. Paths are crossed at the tiny motel where Stacia is staying unfortunately sandwiched between a truck driver who is following the trail of bodies and the hitchhiker who needed a place to torture his latest victim. Cohen does what he does best by allowing some interesting and flawed characters to breathe in the hands of some very good character-actors. Schow’s script may be a little scattered and silly but it creates enough space for the antagonists to prosper, unfortunately the protagonist kind of gets the short end of the stick. It’s still a good time. The wonderful Michael Eklund shows up as a rest stop cashier who gets to be the focal point of Moriarty’s acting chops. Lucky.
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