I wish "The Road" was a better movie. It's based on a neat idea, and has the bones of what could make for a terrifying and fairly epic horror story. Unfortunately, the film is undone by dumb dialog, clunky editing, an underdeveloped script, laughably thin characters, and bad acting.
The neat idea? A haunting in present-day, which claims the lives of three teens in the film's first section, is revealed to be caused by events which occurred a decade previous in the film's second section. But those events which caused the haunting weren't without their own causes. We see a young man kidnap and murder two girls, but it's obvious there's something more at play; he seems to respond to a presence the girls don't see. And so, in the film's final third, we jump back in time yet another decade, and discover how the young man of part 2 was driven to violent madness by an abusive mother and an ineffectual father.
The recursive nature of this tale provokes some thought. It depicts a cycle of violence which spans generations, and leaves a dark spiritual footprint on a place. There's a poetic quality in that. It leads one to wonder, how far back does the violence actually go? Could we jump back yet another generation, and discover the horrifying circumstances that made the abusive mother into the monster she's shown to be? And from there, beyond? One imagines a chain of evil, begat at the dawn of time, handed down through generations, each generation damaging the next and thus forging the next dark link in the chain. There is no beginning; there is no end.
Or something like that. These were the thoughts this film inspired in me. It's unfortunate, then, that it's not a better movie. The cinematography is competent and creepy, the lighting is never bad, and the sound effects were passable. Fortunately, those things count for a lot, and they made the movie watchable.
Where the film falls down the most is in the script. These characters just aren't fleshed-out at all. There's a cop in the present-day section who is trying to piece-together the mystery, and his character is so thinly-defined as "Hero Cop" that I imagine that's what his name was in the script. It becomes unintentionally funny.
There's also, I think, a big problem with the young man who was cast to play the killer in the film's second section. I understand what the filmmakers were going for -- I believe they wanted a timid sort of guy who is driven to murder girls because of his mother's tormenting voice in his head. Sort of a Norman Bates persona. Unfortunately, the guy cast in this role is just an average-looking, clean-cut, blank-faced boy of about 17. He doesn't have a threatening frame; he's not "big" enough to be imposing; it's not believable that this guy could knock a girl out in one sideways punch, as he's shown to do. His shirt and jeans look too laundered; the grease and blood that accumulate on him over the course of the film look like makeup; he never actually looks dirty or disturbed or mad. He looks like a guy who would be much rather be playing XBox in his bedroom then murdering girls. I just didn't buy his performance at all, not for a second. I hesitate to even call it a performance. I don't think the actor understood how to play this role. He's utterly unbelievable.
Anyway, those are the film's strengths and its biggest weaknesses. It's not a total waste of time. It's just a shame it isn't better.
The neat idea? A haunting in present-day, which claims the lives of three teens in the film's first section, is revealed to be caused by events which occurred a decade previous in the film's second section. But those events which caused the haunting weren't without their own causes. We see a young man kidnap and murder two girls, but it's obvious there's something more at play; he seems to respond to a presence the girls don't see. And so, in the film's final third, we jump back in time yet another decade, and discover how the young man of part 2 was driven to violent madness by an abusive mother and an ineffectual father.
The recursive nature of this tale provokes some thought. It depicts a cycle of violence which spans generations, and leaves a dark spiritual footprint on a place. There's a poetic quality in that. It leads one to wonder, how far back does the violence actually go? Could we jump back yet another generation, and discover the horrifying circumstances that made the abusive mother into the monster she's shown to be? And from there, beyond? One imagines a chain of evil, begat at the dawn of time, handed down through generations, each generation damaging the next and thus forging the next dark link in the chain. There is no beginning; there is no end.
Or something like that. These were the thoughts this film inspired in me. It's unfortunate, then, that it's not a better movie. The cinematography is competent and creepy, the lighting is never bad, and the sound effects were passable. Fortunately, those things count for a lot, and they made the movie watchable.
Where the film falls down the most is in the script. These characters just aren't fleshed-out at all. There's a cop in the present-day section who is trying to piece-together the mystery, and his character is so thinly-defined as "Hero Cop" that I imagine that's what his name was in the script. It becomes unintentionally funny.
There's also, I think, a big problem with the young man who was cast to play the killer in the film's second section. I understand what the filmmakers were going for -- I believe they wanted a timid sort of guy who is driven to murder girls because of his mother's tormenting voice in his head. Sort of a Norman Bates persona. Unfortunately, the guy cast in this role is just an average-looking, clean-cut, blank-faced boy of about 17. He doesn't have a threatening frame; he's not "big" enough to be imposing; it's not believable that this guy could knock a girl out in one sideways punch, as he's shown to do. His shirt and jeans look too laundered; the grease and blood that accumulate on him over the course of the film look like makeup; he never actually looks dirty or disturbed or mad. He looks like a guy who would be much rather be playing XBox in his bedroom then murdering girls. I just didn't buy his performance at all, not for a second. I hesitate to even call it a performance. I don't think the actor understood how to play this role. He's utterly unbelievable.
Anyway, those are the film's strengths and its biggest weaknesses. It's not a total waste of time. It's just a shame it isn't better.