13 Nights of Hallowe'en 2010: Night #4 Route 666

Route 666 is the fourth movie in our thirteen. It stars Lou Diamond Phillips--no stranger to small horror titles--as a Marshall incharge of retrieving and protecting a run away witness played by Steven Williams--who for me will always be Creighton Duke from Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday. Phillips is partnered up with some other law enforcement men and women, one of which is played by Lori Petty. They take the titular Route 666--a part of the normal Route 66--as a way of eluding some hit men after Williams. The road has been closed for some time for being dangerous, but of course the terrain is the least of anyone's worries since it's viciously haunted. I will let you know that this isn't your usual haunting and I for one really like the different take. The ghosts follow their own rules and that includes their appearance.

The ghosts could easily be mistaken for zombies until they’re seen in action. As far as their background they are a prison road crew complete with equipment for use to deadly effect--that's all I'll say here. I really like the makeup jobs, and their mannerisms are just icing on the cake. It's great that people make offbeat, out of the ordinary movies like this one. The director is William Wesley who also directed Scarecrows (1988), which sounds like a similar horror layered onto a crime drama storyline. Movies like this, that meld more than one kind of story together, are sometimes distracting, but I think it was well used here. It puts me in mind of Dead Birds except better organised and executed. I found the music to be interesting, but not as much as the jackhammer sound effect, which really stood out as different and stuck with me.

Mood: furtive.

Music: Haunted by Type O Negative. MP3s