Tell me this, ladies and gents: What do you get when you cross English prisoner DNA, Scottish governance, a land where everything down to the plant life wants to kill you and copious amounts of industrial grain alcohol?
Well there can only be one answer to that.
That's right. Australia. The Land Down Under. The land that gave you AC/DC, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, this video, and probably future war with China. The land that comprises around 90% of the shitposting community despite having the least functional internet of all the OECD countries. And given all that, what other country could provide us with such insane cinema gems as:
And many others. Chances are if you've seen a Brian Trenchard Smith film, then my friend, you have been Aussied.
But I'm not here to talk exclusively about the achievements of the Empire (although trust me, it has occurred to me). I'm here to do what I always do which is talk about films I've seen. Which shows you how dull my life is. And as you've no doubt gleaned, I watched an Australian film. A seemingly little known Hitchcockian thriller known as "Roadgames".
Of course Green Van Man turns out to be the murderer in question and after Pamela is taken hostage by the killer and Quid is fingered by the police as the prime suspect, Quid finds himself in a race against time to track down the killer and save both Pamela and himself.
Firstly, this is no dreary road movie. This film is pure Hitchcock, from the (implied to be sexually motivated) psychopathic antagonist, the witness turned suspect wrongfully pursued by the law, to the very wicked sense of humour, Roadgames isn't covering up its inspiration. No wonder then that it's praised by the likes of Quentin Tarantino, as that's pretty much his career in a nutshell.
Stacy Keach is by far the best thing about this movie, and given that the rest of the movie is pretty golden, that's saying a lot. He plays a character who is high on intelligence and low on ambition and every moment he's on the screen is entertaining. The fun and fast paced dialogue written by Everett De Roche (writer of "Razorback", "Harlequin", "Long Weekend" and many others) certainly contributes to the overall charm, even when Keach's only acting partner in a scene is a sleepy looking dingo.
Pat Quid as a character is I guess what you could call a self-trained snob but not insufferably so, frequently claiming that "Just because I drive a truck, doesn't mean I'm a truck driver." His tendency to overanalyze the world around him is only complimented when he picks up hitchhiker Pamela, played by Jamie Lee Curtis, who despite being the Scream Queen and this being a serial killer movie, never actually lets out a scream. But to be fair that's kind of hard to do when you have a sack over your head. Their chemistry is excellent, even to a point where a romantic scene happens between the two and it doesn't really come off cringeworthy despite the age difference between the two characters.
Stacy Keach himself even said that it was a bit of a coincidence to have two Americans meet in the middle of the Outback, but it works as the idea of the two foreigners in a strange and hostile land only lends itself to the scenes of genuine suspense and dread that comes later in the film. This isn't first time an Everett De Roche scripted film has left me with that sense of dread, as "Long Weekend" managed to scare me with a manatee's corpse. Indeed Greg McLean, director "Wolf Creek", names Roadgames as a definite inspiration for Wolf Creek and it's not hard to see why.
The killer himself is played by stuntman Grant Page, and in true "Halloween" style he doesn't say a word. We never find out what his motivations are beyond speculation from our main protagonists. All we know is that he kills women and that his wits match that of Pat Quid in their game of cat and mouse across the plains of Australia. Further proving that sometimes the scariest antagonist is the one that's unknown and yet entirely familiar. If I were to lay down one gripe about the film's handling of the killer, I'd say it's that I probably wouldn't have revealed his face so early on. I think it would have lent a more mysterious slant to the character, perhaps even leaving you wondering if he's even real or not, a la "The Hitcher". Indeed the first murder scene makes his first appearance in the blinding light of the hotel bathroom seem almost supernatural and that's kind of undermined a little when you see pretty quickly that he's just some bloke.
Overall Quality Rating - 4/5
Roadgames is definitely a treat for both Hitchcock fans and fans of Aussie cinema. The film crew actually made the journey that the characters do from Melbourne in Victoria all the way to Perth in Western Australia, so if you're looking for a film that displays the beauty and desolation of the Outback in all its glory, then Roadgames is the film for you. Other than that, it's a classic and highly influential thriller and I recommend it to anyone.
Idiot Rating - 3/5
The film has an excellent sense of humour. Stacy Keach is constantly cracking often Dad level jokes, and the characters that he comes across on his journey are often strange and hilarious in their own right, with special attention paid to a certain man with a certain doomed boat. The film even ends with a very dark piece of comic imagery, meaning you'll be laughing about as much as you'll be fearing for the character's lives.
I'm DeadEye... g'day mate.
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