highwaytourist

The makers of this film were inspired by the town of Trona, California, at the entrance of Death Valley. The location is rather haunting, but little is done with it. The story of two young fiances who come to help the bride-to-be's eccentric ghost hunter uncle is trite and most of the film is depressing rather than scary or suspenseful. The ghosts in the town make very little of an appearance and most of the film is people fleeing from a serial killer in a ghost town. The actors are OK. But the story is tiresome and the ending so dreary, you'll be sorry if you watched until the end.

This poorly made movie failed to get the facts. Donna Yaklish was proved to be a liar. In fact, she abused her stepchildren when her husband was at work. On the TV show "Evil Stepmothers," her stepdaughter claims for the record that Donna threatened and beat her. While Donna is portrayed as prisoner in the home, she actually led a very active social life, which included cheating on her husband. She stole money from her husband's parents. No one ever saw bruises on her even when she wore revealing clothes. The autopsy showed no steroids in her husband's body. After her husband died, she kicked her stepchildren out of the house and kept the insurance money for herself.

This film is not only a slander to an innocent man, but it's a disservice to women who are real victims of domestic violence.

I saw this years ago and it was an OK made for TV drama. The climax was satisfying. The buildup was convincing. I caught the growing mood of the country when "Death Wish" was a box office smash. Robert Culp displays the growing frustration with bad neighbors and ineffectual law enforcement. In addition, Beah Richards makes the most of a small role. What caught my attention was that this was based on a true incident. But what really happened? Where are the real people now? If this were to happen now, it would be featured on an episode of "Fear Thy Neighbor" from Investigation Discovery. Does anybody know the real story?