Night 2: Road Trip Horror Night
“That’s the trouble with you Australians, you take your games too seriously.”
Though it stars Americans Stacy Keach and Jamie Lee Curtis, Roadgames is an Australian film and a unique one to say the least. This is not strictly a horror movie though there are some slasher elements. Probably the best way to describe Roadgames is as Rear Window as a road trip through the Australian outback. Even though it is only rated PG, what Roadgames lacks in violence, it makes up for in interesting characters, top notch suspense, and an over the top climax. Stacy Keach stars as Quid, a truck driver hauling frozen pork through the deserts of Western Australia. He spends most of his time having surprisingly interesting one sided conversations with his pet dingo, the famously silent wild dog of Australia. After hearing radio reports of a killer preying on female hitchhikers he begins to suspect that a man in a van traveling on the same road as him is the killer. At one point he sees the man stopped by side of the road about to bury a cooler. The man sees Quid and flees. Both Quid and the killer are males traveling alone and picking up hitchhikers. This will cause a lot of trouble for Quid.
The first hitchhiker Quid picks up is Frita (Marion Edward), a housewife deserted on the side of the road by her husband. They both like to talk so they get on each other’s nerves and Quid’s talk of serial killers puts her on edge. The second hitchhiker he picks up is Pamela (Curtis), though he calls her “Hitch” for hitchhiker. They actually get along and speculate on the serial killer together. In an incredibly suspenseful scene worthy of comparison to Hitchcock's best work, she investigates the mysterious van at a rest stop while Keach thinks he is about to confront the killer. The danger for each is palpable. Director Richard Franklin no doubt drew on Hitchcock for many scenes in Roadgames; it's also worth nothing that Franklin would go on to direct the surprisingly smart and thrilling Psycho II. Stacey Keach typically plays the heavy or lovable tough guys so it is great to see him play an unlikely hero. He excels at the solo scenes and monologues and holds our sympathy and attention all through the story. Probably the most enjoyable parts of the movie are Keach talking to the dingo, philosophizing or coming up with a profile of the killer. Of course there are the scenes of him sounding like a madman as he tries to explain about the killer, but he is hardly a stock character and this is hardly a by the numbers movie. Jamie Lee Curtis, no doubt cast to cash in on her fame as the reigning scream queen of the era, has a much more interesting role than in some of the other horror movies that gave her that title. As Pamela/Hitch she is a rebellious but mature young person, the runaway daughter of an American diplomat. When she ventures into the possible killer’s van, it fits with her character instead of coming across as a dumb decision by a horror movie character. 
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