RRP: £16.99
Our Price: £3.93 (subject to change)
Exploitation Please!
Review date: 2008-02-15 Rating: 10 out of 10
I was all prepared for a let down having sat through lots of similar features over the years but this one really delivered. I'm suprised it isn't better known. For starters there's snappy, incisive dialogue, some great plot twists and plenty of violence and sex although both are pretty tame by contemporary standards. Sexist? Well I guess you could say that but one of the film's strengths is the constantly shifting power balance between the three main characters. None are likeable but you couldn't help feeling for each of them at various points in the unfolding drama. The scene where failed Journalist Franco Nero "interviews" psycho David Hess about his deprived upbringing and finds all his liberal cliches tossed aside is worth the price of admission on its own. Bear in mind, this is exploitation cinema and we're not talking great art. But it does have something, and some straight talking about human character and motivation is just one of the many delights on offer in this underrated and unjustly neglected movie treat.
The story begins with Franco Nero and Corrine Clery as a married couple on vacation. The couple seem to spend a great deal of time arguing, and given the time and place the film was made, we see a great deal of male chauvinism from Nero's character. Despite this it is hard not to warm to him at least to some extent.
During the car journey back from the vacation the pair stop to pick up a hitchhiker, and have a row about whether picking up a hitchhiker is a good idea, and who should the hitchhiker turn out to be? David Hess! Now, most of us know what to expect from a David Hess character, the guy got so typecast after 'Last House On The Left', that we would probably be disappointed if he didn't play a vicious nutcase! Needless to say, the car journey afterwards becomes a great deal more lively...
The rest of the film works extremely well as a tight and violent thriller with the characters playing off each other brilliantly so that our sympathies are shifted to and fro between them, and ultimately ending with a shocking twist that both pulls and repulses our sympathies leaving us with a powerful sense of moral ambiguity.
One thing to remember is that this is an 18 rated film, and some of the scenes are particularly unpleasant, including rape. Whilst this does fit in with the plot, some viewers may wish to avoid the film because of it.
The big draw for this DVD is the film, in Widescreen it looks pretty good considering the relatively low budget that the film was originally made for. The extras on the DVD are nice enough, but not world shatteringly good, but the film is a big enough draw that the lack of a huge bunch of extras does not really matter.
Buy this film because it makes you think deeply, not just for the thrill of the violence. This is quality stuff and definitely deserves a place in your DVD collection.