The Revisited series takes a look back at Richard Franklin’s Road Games, starring Stacy Keach and Jamie Lee Curtis
When you look at the true legacy of a scream queen there are a lot of options out there to choose from. When looking at the top of the heap though? I’d argue that there really is only one option. Jamie Lee Curtis has been making horror movies in 6 different decades now and while a lot of them are directly tied to her most famous franchise with 7 of her horror films being in the Halloween series, there’s so much more. In fact, her run from 1978 to 1981 includes the likes of Halloween 1 and 2, The Fog, Terror Train, and Prom Night. ALL of those movies have now been remade and are considered classics but there is one in there that doesn’t get talked about enough, was a bomb when it came out, but keeps getting better with age. While Halloween II came out and stole the spotlight in 1981, Road Games (watch it HERE) has only gotten better in its 40 plus years of existence. While it could probably be on a list of Best Horror Movies You Never Saw, I want to revisit it and show off why its so good so many years later.
Road Games is an example of Ozploitation and honestly one of the finest and most approachable. The term Ozploitation refers to the boom of films that came out of Australia from the early 70’s to the late 80s as its heyday with some still happening in the 90s and 2000s and is honestly one of my favorite types of film. It encompasses multiple genres too like comedies, action, sci fi, and of course, horror. Some of the other examples include bigger names like Mad Max and its sequels, Razorback, and Turkey Shoot but also has some real gems like Next of Kin, Wake in Fright, and The Return of Captain Invincible to name just a few. It’s worth seeking out as many as you can, especially their horror movies, and checking out the documentary Not Quite Hollywood for better context and more suggestions. Director of Road Games Richard Franklin may have gone on to direct things like Psycho II, Link, and Cloak & Dagger (RIP Dabney Coleman) but his first big success was another well-known Ozploitation horror film in Patrick.
During the production of that movie, Franklin gave his writer Everett De Roche a copy of Rear Window and asked that he develop a similar movie but put it in a moving vehicle. The movie didn’t do well at all in either Australia or the US with it not coming close to touching its 1.75-million-dollar budget. It ran afoul of the Australian actor’s union Actors Equity and Jamie Lee Curtis even had people on set come up to her and ask how it felt to put Australians out of work. Jamie Lee Curtis wasn’t the original choice, but Franklin was an old USC friend of John Carpenter and visited him on the set of The Fog where he was able to secure her services. Avco Embassy was the American production company on this just as it had helped put out The Fog for Carpenter. Stacey Keach was also not the first choice as Franklin wanted to shoot for the moon and have Sean Connery in the lead role of Quid, but they didn’t have the budget for that and Keach ended up with the role. Look, I love Sean Connery as much as the next person, but this role is my favorite Keach performance, and I really couldn’t see it with anyone else in the role.
The movie was filmed in Nullarbor Plain and Melbourne and the shots are incredible. While Razorback has an almost existential music video feel to it, the cinematographer here, Vincent Monton, gives Road Games a flair that you don’t see. From the 360-degree longshot while Quid is trying to report things on the phone to the long drives and beautiful scenes of the city lights, it’s just a gorgeous movie to behold. He really didn’t do much else, but this will last the test of time for generations to come. The movie itself is seen as a pastiche to Hitchcock and there is certainly merit there. The scene where Keech and Curtis discuss the serial killer and who he is or how he is getting away with it feels a lot like dialogue between two characters from one of the master’s many films. The character that Curtis plays does have a name that we learn later but she is known as hitch to us for a while and that is both her tag as a hitchhiker but could also be a wink to the man.
The movie opens with our beloved truck driver Pat Quid and his best friend, a dingo named Bosworth. Almost everything you need to know about the movie can be seen in the first 7 minutes of the movie. We have our main protagonist in Quid, our killer in a hotel killing a victim, and a long monologue from Stacey Keatch. That kill scene brings me to my first soapbox about the movie: It’s not Hitchcock. The movie’s dialogue is certainly Hitchcock inspired but I would argue that the movie is much more of an Ozploitation Giallo informed by Brian DePalma’s late 70s and 80s catalogue. Sure, he is seen as a modern Hitchcock with things like Blow Out, Dressed to Kill, Body Double, and even Snake Eyes but even Dressed to Kill seems more appropriate to be placed in the American Giallo department.
That first kill really informs of it’s Giallo presence. We have the signature kill weapon, the gloves, the lack of real identity of the killer, and the Lucio Fulci special: the close-up eye shot. The only things we are missing to make it a true entry in the genre are the score from Goblin and the overly complicated reason for the killings. The answer to the last part, and really its fine by me, is that he’s just a dude who likes killing women and goes about disposing of them in bags along the highway. While the score isn’t done by Italy’s preeminent synth score group, it’s a memorable mix or like a western, 60s World War II movie, and suspense thriller at times and boy, does it work. It’s done by none other than Brian May. No not the killer queen but the dude is named Brian May, and he had a great career, particularly in the Ozploitation realm, and is probably most famous for the Mad Max scores.
Keach as Quid is a renaissance man. His belief system, cadence of speech, and rules he follows are all so incredibly unique. We spend a lot of time with him too and a good chunk of that time is really just him. He plays games to keep himself entertained and engaged, is incredibly quick-witted, and plays the harmonica. He believes in the cleanliness of Dingos over K-9s. He may drive a truck, but he’s no truck driver. He keeps passing the same hitchhiker which ends up being Jamie Lee Curtis character Pamela, or Hitch, but ends up the unwilling driver of another lady where we get some of the fun things that movies can do. Of course, she thinks that Quid is the killer they talk about on the news, even when he sees the real killer and explains what he is doing. Keach figures out the exact motives and reasons for the killer and its all interspersed with great shots and little humorous sight gags that both relieve and add to the tension.
I said earlier that we don’t know the identity of the killer, but we sure do see them. The movie chooses wisely to not have a bunch of red herrings on who the killer could be, at least for us, but definitely has the other characters in the film question the motives and sanity of Quid. Sometimes he feels he is living and operating in a madhouse with how the other characters talk to him or act around him. Only us as the audience and Quid as our avatar see the whole picture clearly. Quid finally picks up Hitch and she’s the only other character on his level. They are charming together and when they discuss the killer and his motives, its some of the best in the movie. It even almost rubs up against the zany fast talking screwball comedies of Howard Hawks. As soon as Curtis utters the line, “Looks like we are going to have to get him ourselves.” We are right there with them.
The most suspenseful scene in the movie is when they think they have the killer stuck in the bathroom and are checking out his car. We have the alarm in the background going off, the fact that we think he really is in the bathroom stall, and also the brilliant use of a ticking clock we hear in the van while Hitch is looking through it. While in the scene it’s a quieting and suspenseful tool, but once she pulls down the sleeping back cover to reveal the killer’s face, you realize it was a literal alarm waiting to go off. While it’s not suspenseful in the standard sense, my other favorite scene is after Hitch is taken by the killer and Quid is left to his own dark thoughts. The visual que of the sun going down and the sky getting just as dark as what’s passing through his mind is one of my favorite shots of all time. It fills with wonder in the same way that the desert scene in Razorback does.
The final chase after a creepy exploration of Quid’s truck has the upbeat “good guy” music that motivates us and him to stop this guy. While there is no literal ticking clock like we have heard multiple times throughout the movie, when he is stalled at a weigh station, we feel every second tick by. His impatience finally reaches its peak as he watches the killer gas up his van while talking to the police knowing that his friend, who may not even be alive anymore, is in there. He gets the truck stuck between the cops and the killer where neither can see each other and plays cat and mouse in the biggest coffin you can think of. The final fight looks like it will frame Quid as the killer after he gets the upper hand and attempts to strangle the real murderer, but he is saved with the pleasant surprise of Hitch not being killed and disposed of yet. She clears his name and points out Smith or Jones who smiles and never says a thing. The upbeat music and back and forth dialogue close out a wild ride and one hell of a game.
Road Games sadly didn’t perform at all but those that did see it, either critic or audience, seem to love it. It was improperly marketed as a slasher film from both its poster and trailer but that does it a disservice and probably tanked its box office numbers. It’s not a slasher and, even though I like to call it one, it’s not exactly a Giallo either. It’s a unique piece of cinema that found all the right parts in front of and behind the camera firing on all cylinders. The horror works in all the right ways even if it isn’t in the traditional ways and it’s thankfully easy to find now. It has a wonderful Scream Factory disc but is also streaming on Tubi often. Weather you want to venture into the realms of Ozploitation, top tier Hitchcock copycats, or dip your toe into the Giallo section of cinema, Road Games is a great time to be had.
Two previous episodes of Revisited can be seen below. To see more of our shows, head over to the JoBlo Horror Originals channel – and subscribe while you’re at it!