Road Games (1981)
"Roadgames" (original title)

A truck driver plays a cat-and-mouse game with a mysterious serial killer who uses a young female hitchhiker as bait to lure victims on a desolate Australian highway.

Director:

Richard Franklin

Writers:

Everett De Roche (screenplay), Everett De Roche (original story),

Stars:

Stacy Keach, Jamie Lee Curtis, Marion Edward

6 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Stacy Keach	...	Patrick 'Pat' Quid
Jamie Lee Curtis	...	Pamela 'Hitch' Rushworth
Marion Edward	...	Madeleine 'Frita' Day
Grant Page	...	Smith or Jones
Thaddeus Smith	...	Policeman 'Abbott'
Steve Millichamp	...	Policeman 'Costello' (as Stephen Millichamp)
Alan Hopgood	...	Lester
John Murphy	...	Benny Balls
Bill Stacey	...	Captain Careful
Robert Thompson	...	Sneezy Rider
Ed Turley	...	Roadhouse Proprietor
Angelica La Bozzetta	...	Young Hitchhiker (as Angie La Bozzetta)
Colin Vancao	...	Fred Frugal
Paul Harris	...	Frugal Son
Rochelle Harris	...	Frugal Daughter

Storyline

Pat Quid is driving a semi across Australia. On the way he encounters various other travellers, and the occasional hitchhikers repeatedly as they're traveling the same road. A favorite pastime of Pat is to play games to pass the time on the journey. (Such as to make up backgrounds of the other people on the road.) Pamela is one hitchhiker he picks up. But when she disappears, he suspects that the driver of a van who has been acting a little strange, (Smith or Jones) maybe the serial killer mentioned on the radio. But his pursuit of the van driver brings him to the attention of the police, who begin to suspect him.

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Plot Keywords:

hitchhiker | serial killer | truck driver | truck | australia | 

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Taglines:

On the world's loneliest highway it's not a game - it's murder!

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Genres:

Drama | Thriller

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Certificate:

PG

Details

Country:

Australia

Language:

English

Release Date:

26 June 1981 (Australia)

Also Known As:

Road Games

Filming Locations:

Diggers Rest, Victoria, Australia

Box Office

Budget:

AUD 1,800,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Essaness Pictures, Quest

Technical Specs

Runtime:

101 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

This film has frequently been compared to Hitchcock's Rear Window, which isn't just coincidence. Director Richard Franklin gave writer Everett De Roche a copy of the 'Rear Window' script while working on their previous film Patrick. After reading the script De Roche suggested to Franklin that the open highways of the Australian outback would be an ideal place for a similar suspense story. He then proceeded to write 'Roadgames'.

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Goofs

Pamela begins writing "TOMORROW'S BACON" on the door of the truck in close-up, the camera then cuts to a longer distance shot of her completing the word "bacon" but the way the letters are styled do not match the close-up.

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Quotes

Patrick 'Pat' Quid: No, it's Q-U-I-D. 'D' as in death to young girls, you cretin!

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Crazy Credits

The closing credits roll over the image of the words 'tomorrow's bacon' written on the back of Quid's trailer.

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Connections

References Rear Window (1954)

User Reviews

Very likable Hitchcockian thriller from the director of "Psycho II"...

It's amazing how many pleasant treats you'll find on TV Friday nights at one o'clock in the morning. Take "Roadgames" (or "Road Games") for example: The Hitchcockian story of a trucker delivering meat across Australia who becomes entangled in a possible mystery involving an unapprehensible serial killer who may or may not have murdered a helpless hitchhiker traveling the roads he's driving on.

Often referred to as "Rear Window" on the road, self-proclaimed Hitchcock enthusiast Richard Franklin has directed a quaint, low-budget thriller with a likable (although quite unusual) lead actor in the role of Frustrated Hero.

Pat Quid (Stacy Keach--who is indeed a man) is driving across Australia in a meat truck when he thinks he's noticed a strange happening--a man in a van seems to be burying a bag in the middle of a desert in Australia, and when he is noticed he climbs back into his blue van and speeds away into the distance.

Pat puts this event into the back of his mind when he decides against regulations to pick up a wandering hitchhiker named Pam Rushworth (Jamie Lee Curtis), who has run away from home in an effort to escape her famous father's life. The two bond together on the road and have some fun playing various games--until she is kidnapped by the same strange man in a van. At first, Pat thinks he's just being paranoid--he even starts to think that Pam left him for the man.

But then he realizes that Pam has indeed been kidnapped, and he suspects that the strange man in the van might be a notorious serial killer who has been killing young women and scattering their body parts miles apart from each other.

After the police offer no help, Pat takes matters into his own hands and sets off on a quest to bring back Pam to safety and apprehend the killer before he can strike again. Some twists and turns ensue, although nothing very surprising.

If this were a mainstream horror film with an overblown budget and big-name actors, I'd probably give "Roadgames" a bad rating. But this is the type of pleasant, likable low-budget thriller that is easy to watch and knows it's nothing more than a shadow of greater film noir mysteries/thrillers like "Rear Window" or "The Third Man"--the type of film that thrusts its hero on a one-man venture into the heart of darkness in order to find out the truth.

Stacy Keach is strikingly likable as the lonely trucker who talks to his own pet dingo as he drives along, contemplating all types of conspiracy theories about serial killers and mysteries. What could definitely become tiring--listening to a man talk to his dingo for the majority of a movie, that is--actually becomes quite fun. Keach is funny, nice, and just...likable! Too bad his career was put on hold years later after he got arrested for smuggling cocaine...

The director, Richard Franklin, is a huge Hitchcock fan--and it shows. This film is like a sort of remake of "Rear Window" and other such mystery-thrillers. It's loads of fun and an easy watch. (Trivia note: Franklin directed "Psycho II," the sequel to Hitchcock's 1960 classic original.)

I can definitely say that this film is most like "Breakdown," the Jonathan Mostow movie starring Kurt Russell as a man who loses his wife to a trucker and tries to get her back, even though there seems to be no evidence of her disappearance. But unlike the great "Breakdown," this film doesn't wither away in the second half and turn into a disappointing movie--it remains strong throughout, and yes, it has plenty of nods towards Hitchcock. (Check out the magazines Curtis starts sorting through--there he is!)

3.5/5 stars.

• John Ulmer