The successful writer Richard Kinnell (Tom Berenger) heads from Derry, Maine, to Boston to participate in a writing conference. Then he has a check-up and his colonoscopy accuses that something is wrong with him; however his doctor refuses to diagnose before the result of the biopsy. While driving back home, Richard sees a yard sale in Rosewood, where he buys a creepy painting entitled "The Road Virus Heads North" that belonged to a tortured suicidal painter named Bobby Hastings. He stops first at the house of his Aunt Trudy (Marsha Mason) that suggests him to get rid of the painting. When Richard has a car accident on the road, he decides to dump the painting in a river. However, when he arrives in the house of his friend Sally (Susie Porter) to take his dog Hobo back, he finds the painting in the backseat of his car and concludes that the evil thing is following him.
"The Road Virus Heads North" is a creepy tale of a writer that is used to control the fate of his characters and suddenly loses control of his own life with the discovering that he has a serious health problem and the chase of an evil painting from a tortured genius that committed suicide. The story is intriguing and tense, with great acting, but unfortunately the conclusion is disappointing; actually there is no ending and the mystery is never resolved. My vote is four.
Title (Brazil): "A Pintura" ("The Painting")
