5.4 | / 10 |
Users | 3.2 | |
Reviewer | 1.0 | |
Overall | 1.6 |
Jess is at the wheel. Nicole rides shotgun. And at the end of the road stretching before them is glittering, glamorous Hollywood. They're on a road trip, all right...straight to hell. When the runaway lovers pause at an abandoned rest stop, Jess disappears. And someone else appears - someone with his own demented sense of fun. With drills. Staple guns. Box cutters. All the tearing, grinding, ripping tools you need to hew wood. Or metal. Or people. Especially young, pretty people just like Nicole.
Starring: Jaimie Alexander, Joey Mendicino, Joey Lawrence, Diane Salinger, Michael ChildersHorror | 100% |
Thriller | 56% |
Video codec: VC-1
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: Dolby TrueHD 5.1
English: Dolby Digital 5.1
English SDH, French, Spanish
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region free
Movie | 0.5 | |
Video | 1.5 | |
Audio | 1.5 | |
Extras | 0.5 | |
Overall | 1.0 |
Everybody's got their own private demon.
Is there anything in modern cinema that is more worthless than lousy horror movies? It seems
that
these days any tired, lame-brained idea can be made into a derivative slasher picture. All that is
needed
is a killer with some scary identifiable feature (or not), a creepy locale (or not), and at least a pair of
quarter-witted teenage fodder (yes, this is one requirement that cannot be left out of the
equation).
Throw the teenagers in front of a camera, make sure an attractive girl (preferably blond) is in
the mix so she
can be the lone survivor, bloodied and beaten but still tickin' at film's end, shoot for 80 some-odd
minutes, and bam! a horror movie there is. Oh, and make sure to market it as "uncut" or
"unrated" once it comes to home video (even if the studio never released the film to theaters).
Rest
Stop follows the formula, but it has also somehow taken the basic horror outline and
worsened it. At least movies like the afore-alluded to Prom Night feature a semblance of
cohesion, production values, and passable acting. Rest Stop: Dead Ahead offers none of
that. This is bad stuff; the film may pass for a decent amateur outing on a shoestring
budget, but Rest Stop even manages to give direct-to-video a bad name.
Yeah, me too.
Rest Stop: Dead Ahead pulls over onto Blu-ray with an ugly 1080p, 1.78:1-framed transfer. Not only is the movie terrible, but it looks awful, too. The film features a rough, rugged look, one that is dark and dreary, with muted colors, minimal detail, and smooth-looking objects. Many background details appear smeared and lacking in definition. Black levels are decent, though there appears to be an appreciable loss of detail in many dark scenes. Flesh tones are inconsistent at best, at times appearing normal, and at others ranging from orange to pink. There is a tremendous amount of noise over much the image, particularly in the darker corners. The presentation is rather inconsistent, and is certainly not helped by the dismal cinematography and shooting locations. This is one of the least impressive transfers currently available on Blu-ray.
Hear Nicole whimpering and whining in Rest Stop: Dead Ahead with its lackluster Dolby TrueHD 5.1 lossless soundtrack. For all the times Warner has failed to offer lossless audio on their biggest releases, they oddly deliver a lossless mix here, and the results are incredibly substandard. This track is front heavy with virtually no rear channel presence, either in support of the front or through the use of discrete sound effects. A few random effects come across as passably good, such as when a pickup truck rams a car in chapter seven or the bad guy tries to get inside a barricaded rest stop in chapter 10. One instance of decent bass comes during an explosion in chapter 18. Dialogue reproduction is adequate, though the movie might just play better on mute, anyway. That's really about all she wrote for this one.
Rest Stop: Dead Ahead comes to Blu-ray with minimal supplements. The disc offers three alternate endings, all presented in 480p standard definition, two photo albums (On the Bus and Scotty's Blog Exposé) and the film's trailer (480p, 1:43).
Rest Stop: Dead Ahead is the very epitome of horror movie drivel. The acting is awful, the script in shambles, the production values nil, and the film is just plain ugly to look at, failing to capture that gritty, grimy look that can be effective if done right. Warner Brothers presents this Raw Feed film on Blu-ray in a package nearly as dismal as the film itself. The transfer barely passes for high definition material, the lossless soundtrack is one of the dullest in memory, and the supplements are not worth the effort. Overall, this is one of the very worst packages available on Blu-ray and is best left on the store shelf.
2008
Unrated Director's Cut
2006
Uncut
2013
2016
Unrated Collector's Edition
2007
Theatrical Cut
2006
20th Anniversary Edition
2003
Collector's Edition
2005
Scre4m
2011
Unrated
2010
Unrated Director's Cut
2009
Director's Cut
2007
Director's Cut
2005
2013
Unrated
2005
1987
Unrated Edition
2005
After Dark Horrorfest
2006
Unrated Edition
2006
Unrated Director's Cut
2008