Rest Stop DVD Review

Rest Stop begins with a creepy opening scene that looks a little too close to reality to enjoy, letting us know that Rest Stops aren’t a safe place in the middle of nowhere. Then we move on to Nicole, who is running away from her parent’s house with her aspiring actor boyfriend Jess. The film turns into a road trip film as Jess rambles on about acting while Nicole pretends to listen. They listen to music and occasionally smoke weed, pulling over to have sex in the back of their convertible. Nicole stumbles onto a number of missing person reports when they stop at a rest stop in the middle of nowhere. It is never explained why there are so many reported missing people at this rest stop with no police investigating even though the killer’s license plate number is carved into the door of the bathroom stall, but we are supposed to suspend our disbelief because it is a direct-to-video horror film.

Nicole comes out of the bathroom to find Jess missing. She waits at the rest stop as a man in a truck drives around terrorizing her. She hopes to escape by getting a ride from a family in a camper but finds herself in a nightmare that looks almost like a traveling Texas Chainsaw Massacre family. The roads of California are filled with weirdos and killers and nobody is available to help Nicole and she is forced to return time and time again to the rest stop. Even when a cop comes to her rescue she doesn’t have much of a chance, although it is worth the effort just to see Joey Lawrence with his new look. He’s like a young Bruce Willis for the few scenes that he has, but it definitely gives the film some of the better moments.

Most of the dialogue is just filler for the stronger visual scares in the film, and the acting is a bit stiff during some of the bad bits in the dialogue, but it is amateur camera work that starts to give Rest Stop the feeling of a B-film. When the camera work isn’t shaky it is uncomfortable in framing the actors. The scenes without violence especially seem awkwardly handled, with the bad sex scene tops all other scenes. Although the hokey and awkward way the scene is shot doesn’t help, it is the slow and moody music which plagues the scene as it does much of the film. There are too many scenes in which a bit of melancholy is achieved through some random band set in the soundtrack, but it’s a mood which doesn’t fit well in a horror film.

The ending isn’t at all believable, but it is pretty typical of horror film endings. If that ending doesn’t make you happy there are three other endings in the special features. There is a Texas Chainsaw Massacre ending, with a nice little conclusion scene thrown in even though it makes even less sense. There are also a couple of ridiculous endings which have Nicole followed all the way home at the end. Another feature has photos from the damage done on the school bus to the victims. The last feature is a video blog by one of the creepy family members in the RV.