20140130: Horror Review--Toad Road

Toad Road

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. American live action feature length film, 2012, NR, 75 minutes, horror, thriller.
2. IMDB: 5.2/10.0 from 242 audience ratings.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 67% on the meter; 52% liked it from 118 audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 2.3/5.0 from 15,103 audience ratings.
5. Written and directed by: Jason Banker.
6. Starring: James Davidson as James, Sara Anne Jones as Sara, Whitleigh Higuera as Whitleigh, Jamie Siebold as Jamie, Scott Rader as Scott.


2. Setup and Plot
1. The film opens to a group of drug addicts having fun with each other while getting high or coming down.  That's about the first 45 minutes worth of 75 minutes total.


2. James and Sara go to Toad Road to see what's there.  Supposedly there are seven gates, and if one goes through all seven, one gets entrance to hell.


3. At the first gate, one can feel something pulling at you, and wanting you gone, but you cannot see them.  At the second gate, one starts to hear things.  Just after the third gate, one starts to see things; the voices become visible.  Just after the fourth gate, things around you start to die; leaves start to fall and the like.  Just after the fifth gate, everything gets cold, but you feel warm and powerful.


4. At this point in the description by Sara, it had started snowing, and a CGI gate was visible.  James catches up to Sara.  The narration describing the gates continues.  Time supposedly changes after passing through the fifth gate.


5. At this point, James is separated from Sara.  He looks for her a bit, and calls her name repeatedly.  He gives up and takes a long walk home.  His keys do not work.  After some time he gets in touch with two of his druggie friends.  They tell him that he has been gone for months.  No one cares that he has been gone that long, but Sara is a different matter since she has roots with people and institutions that care about her.


6. Do we see Sara again?  Does James do anything to find her?


3. Conclusions
1. The characters in this mess are the best argument for birth control that I have ever seen.
2. One line summary:  Drug user investigates a path to hell, but does not remember it.
3. One star of five.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 0/10 Bipolar, to say the least.  On the one hand, some long stretches are hideously bad: fuzzy, poorly lit, poorly framed, overexposed and alternately underexposed, shaky.  On the better side, sections of the film have fine focus, good depth of field, nice framing and no camera shake.


2. Sound: 3/10 A real detriment.


3. Acting: 0/10 Non-existent.


4. Screenplay: 2/10 Next to worthless.  There is about 90 seconds of plot here, yet the film drags on endlessly for 75 minutes.  Filming drug addicts putting out their cigarettes in vomit is of no value whatsoever.