Directed by Richard Franklin
Written by Everett De Roche
Story by Everett De Roche and Richard Franklin
Starring Stacy Keach, Jamie Lee Curtis and Marion Edwards
Australia, 1981
This is a fun thriller that takes the premise of REAR WINDOW and takes it on the road, as a trucker (Stacy Keach) in the outback thinks one of his fellow road travelers might be a killer. Jamie Lee Curtis pops up halfway through the movie as an heiress on the run, hitchhiking her way into the trucker’s heart. Just when I thought I’d seen every Jamie Lee Curtis horror movie, she pops up in the damndest places.
The Australian scenery is beautiful, and Keach makes for an interesting character study as a loner who keeps himself busy talking to his pet dingo (or at least, what he thinks is a dingo) and flip-flops between a nihilistic “who cares” attitude and an urge to help and do the right thing.
Right up until the very end I wasn’t sure how things were going to resolve themselves, and the extended truck chase goes places I wouldn’t have predicted. Thankfully it cruises into a satisfying ending, making this one of the most consistently good movies of Horrorfest 2022 so far. It’s a wonder it isn’t more well known.
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