Travel = Satan
Ever noticed when you’re setting out for your favorite vacation spot Satan always seems to pop up? He’s either the foul-smelling guy squished up next to you on the Amtrak or the overly talkative woman on the plane eating hard-boiled eggs. Well, these fine films showcase a handful of situations where Satan or his followers are hell-bent on not letting the protagonists have any sort of R & R, whatsoever!
• Jeepers Creepers (2001)–Two attractive teens are on
their way home from college through the nondescript mid-western countryside.
All of the sudden… Was that guy pulling bloody bodies out of the back of his
truck? Before you can say “stupid teenagers,” the meat wagon is on their tail
wanting another piece. A supreme beginning, dripping with dread and tension,
turns silly and CG midway, but the demon is a master predator and the overarching
ruthless style of the film makes it watchable and ultimately unique.
• Race With The Devil (1975)–Motorcycle monkeys Peter Fonda and Warren
Oates take their wives to Aspen, Colorado for a big bike race. While driving
through Texas in their enormous RV, they stumble upon a group of bloodthirsty
Satanists in the middle of a human sacrifice. Soon our two couples are on the
run from everyone, because it seems that EVERYONE in the great state of Texas
are Satanists (G.W.??).
• Highway 61 (1992)–Don McKellar (Last Night) stars in and co-wrote
this script, in which a mild-mannered Canadian barber, Pokey Jones, finds a
dead body in his backyard. A beautiful, crazy-toothed woman (Valerie Buhagiar)
appears claiming the stiff is her brother. She enlists Jones to transport the
coffin on top of his car, due south to their family home in New Orleans. Along
the way, though, who should pop up? Of course… Jello Biafra as a border cop,
but more importantly the Devil himself, looking for souls to steal and community
bingo matches to ruin. Oh, that Satan. He’s so damn impolite! M. LON FREE