The premise of the movie is basically an inferior American rip-off of "Shallow Grave", a really great British thriller starring among others Ewan McGregor (famous from Trainspotting). In Route 9, two sheriffs in a calm rural county stumble upon a drug deal gone bad. All the criminals have shot each other dead, and in one of the cars is a briefcase filled with money. Sheriff Booth Parker (Kyle MacLachlan) wants to report in, but his partner Dwayne Hogan (Peter Coyote) persuades him that this is the great chance they have been waiting for; a miracle from God that will save them from the hell of being, basically, white trash without a future. They take the money and torch the car to (as they believe) cover their tracks before reporting in. To their horror, they then discover that one of the badly injured criminals is still alive and might have witnessed their theft. Hogan argues that their lives will be ruined if the man survives long enough to tell on them, and he "helps the man along" by suffocating him with his jacket. After this, they are forced to more and more evil acts as they desperately try to cover up their tracks. The acting is fair. Peter Coyote is not as convincing as Kyle MacLachlan, but MacLachlan does have the advantage of playing the Nice Guy With The Conscience. The plot is pretty predictable with a moralistic ending. See Shallow Grave instead, it is much more scary, realistic, fast paced and unpredictable.
