"Incident On and Off A Mountain Road"

It has been far too long since I have reviewed anything for Bleak House, but with school starting and working two jobs, I haven't had the horror movie time that I crave, so I was chomping at the bit to get back here and since "Incident On and Off A Mountain Road" has been in my Netflix instant queue for months and it is less than an hour long, I figured it was a good place to start.

Overall, I thought that this movie was really good.

The intro to the Masters of Horror was pretty good, especially the drips of blood that were punctuated by the piano notes. I also liked the opening credits of the movie. They were very ominous and slow, which is something that I think a lot of horror movies don't handle all that well. Obviously things aren't going to go well, we as viewers know that we are in for a horror movie, but I liked the subtlety of Ellen driving past the "No Gas or Service for 75 miles" sign. The whole beginning of the movie, leading up to the accident, is also very slow and peaceful. It does well to make the accident, which in itself is not all that violent or destructive, all the more jarring as it comes very abruptly out of the peaceful serenity of the drive so far. I do wish that Ellen hadn't reached for the radio though, as that was a clear indication that something was going to happen, but I was expecting Moonface or a person to be in the road, so the accident was still good.

I also liked the use of the flashbacks with the boyfriend/husband throughout the movie. The initial one was a little confusing because it wasn't clear that it was a flashback until she woke up in the car after the accident, and I also was surprised that they made a point to say that this was the first date and then have them up at the cabin. Seems a little trusting, especially since they aren't going to his apartment in the city, but a cabin in the remote woods. I also liked the abrupt transition between the flashback and Ellen waking up at the wheel of the car. I especially liked that they used them before the scenes when she was setting the boody traps. She was very resourceful: the bent back branch with the scissors, using the hole as a deadfall and making the nail file sling shot with the panty elastic and her dress. Even from when she gets out of the car and initially sees Moonface, she dives over the guard rail and immediatley begins running through the forest.

The chase scene in the forest may have been my favorite scene in the whole movie. I thought that it was really well done with the lightning flashes punctuating things and I liked that they didn't rely too heavily on suspenseful music to keep the suspense up throughout the scene. The moonlight provided good lighting between the lightning strikes too. It showed good subtlety by the director when Ellen crawled under the log and the chase continued there. Obviously the speed element is eliminated from the chase, so here the music comes into the forefront to add to the suspense. Well done.

I also thought that they did a good job with Moonface. He was very reminiscent of the main hill freak from "The Hills Have Eyes" remake, but the metal teeth were a nice touch. In the beginning, especially when the chase was going on, he did a lot of grunting and growling which made him seem a little more primitive than he actually was, but I loved the shushing that he did. I also liked the psychology behind his digging out the eyes of his victims, that the eyes saw everything but often lied. The scene with the eye gouging machine was pretty wicked, especially since it was mostly sound and the visual of the bloody drill. It still made me cringe. I realize that every killer has to have a weakness, none are going to keep coming through all attacks, but Moonface seemed to get taken down and slowed down for pretty significant periods by pretty much anything that Ellen did to him. He even gets taken down by getting hit in the face with a baby skeleton.

I absolutely loved Buddy. I am honestly still not quite sure what he was doing there since he didn't seem to actually be restrained but also didn't seem like he was Moonface's father or anything like that. Buddy was funny and fun and he actually provided a lot of valuable information such as some of the eye lore and by giving the stats that 1 in 10 cars don't make the turn and at least one car drives the road most nights. I think that, even more than the number of bodies that we are shown, indicated how many people Moonface has really killed.

There was a nice fake out when Ellen left the cabin where she heard the owl and turned around. I was fully expecting Moonface to be standing there dripping wet, but I was glad that he wasn't because that would have been much to predictable.

What was not predictable, however, was Bruce's body being in the trunk. The flashback of the abuse and rape makes it okay that she killed him, but the fact that she took him back to Moonface's house and drilled out his eyes showed that the encounter with Moonface had pushed her over the edge into insanity that her life with Bruce had driven her to the brink of.

I thought the end gave the movie a wonderful cyclical quality. She sets off driving with the same song on the radio like nothing, not the ordeal with Moonface or the eye gouging of Bruce has affected her at all.

This was a great movie that didn't disappoint, especially for being less than an hour long. If you get a chance, check it out.