May 6, 2016

Back in the early 90’s when video stores were still the absolute best way to find your home entertainment, I kept my thumb on the pulse of all horror related titles and their VHS release dates. I recall first getting a glimpse of Ate de Jon’s HIGHWAY TO HELL during the preview section of The Horror Hall Of Fame special. It was the scene where the crazed ice-cream man was bouncing on top of Chad Lowe’s car threatening “I’m going to scoop your brains!” BAM! With the blast from his shotgun, Chad takes the creature’s head off and retorts, “Scoop your own brains!” This level of EVIL DEAD-esque horror/comedy was my absolute favorite type of genre fare and hence I couldn’t wait to get my hands on this movie!

I rented it, watched it. Rented it again. Watched it again. Saw it several times during my veracious horror video watching days and, for the most part, forgot about it in my adult life. But the amazing thing about the specialty Blu-Ray market is that a little indie horror title like HIGHWAY TO HELL can get a beautiful restoration and high def release. Kino Lorber did the honors and I finally got to revisit this gem from over 20 years ago in a widescreen presentation that felt like I was watching it for the first time all over again. The verdict? How the hell is this not a bigger cult favorite that every horror site talks about now?!

It really has all the ingredients for a cult movie. A love story. A reluctant hero. A bad-ass looking villain. A second bad-ass looking villain in disguise. Hell as a setting. Elaborate set pieces and locations. Cameos galore including Ben Stiller, Lita Ford and Gilbert Gottfried (as Hitler). What more could you ask for?

In HIGHWAY TO HELL, Charlie Sykes (Chad Lowe) and his girlfriend Rachel Clark (Kristy Swanson) are on the run to Vegas to elope and get married, despite the protests of their parents. While en route, they make one last pit stop for gas at “Sam’s Last Chance” and are warned by the proprietor not to take that secret back road on the highway. And if they do, don’t stop between the two Joshua trees.

In typical horror fashion, of course, Charlie nearly falls asleep at the wheel and ends up stopping just a few feet shy of the second Joshua tree and then “Hell Cop” emerges from behind the sign and kidnaps Rachel. If you believe, you can magically find the highway straight to hell in between those two trees! An alternate dimension where evil rules and anything goes. Armed with Sam’s custom made shotgun, Charlie drives into the depths of hell with the goal of rescuing his sweetheart.

Along the way, there are many radical locations and set pieces. Think about it! This is hell! Anything goes! So, for Hell Cop, a giant “ghost cop” that has a concrete head with tons of scripted graffiti and a pair of handcuffs made from two real severed hands, his first stop is at the twisted diner where all the dead cops go.

This is where we bump into Jerry Stiller and his son Ben Stiller, making one of his earliest on-screen movie debuts. Side note – I imagine all of Ben’s dialogue is ad libed… because it’s awful. Thankfully, he got better.

Also fun is Charlie’s pitstop at the night club Hoffa’s as he continues to track Hell Cop. This reminds me of the horror version of the Star Wars cantina scene. But with Gilbert Gottfried as Hitler, which needs to be seen to be believed. Then there’s the diversion to the romantic bedroom suite where Charlie thinks he’s saving Rachel – though it turns out to be a hideous demon! And then there’s Beezle played by Patrick Bergin, in actuality the devil Lucifer in disguise!

There’s so much crazy stuff that happens within the confines of the movie’s 90 minute running time that I applaud the filmmakers for making a horror film that’s completely unlike anything from that same time period. And it’s no surprise when you look at their credits. The screenwriter on this was Brian Helgeland, who penned the screenplays for PAYBACK, MYSTIC RIVER, L.A. CONFIDENTIAL and let’s not forget 976-EVIL and A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET PART 4: THE DREAM MASTER. The director is Ate de Jon who also gave us DROP DEAD FRED.

Also worth mentioning is that Hell Cop is played by none other than CJ Graham who played Jason Voorhees in FRIDAY THE 13TH PART VI: JASON LIVES! The tone is fun and humorous and punctuated by the ridiculous pop song that plays over the final few frames and credits.

There are literally tons of reasons to check out this movie, but if I only had one more to give, it’s Lita Ford. Because … It’s Lita Ford!

The Blu-Ray features director commentary and a very candid, entertaining interview with makeup FX legend Steve Johnson. As always, he gives plenty of fun tidbits about his work on the film, in particular how Clive Barker’s BOOKS OF BLOOD inspired his design for the Hell Cop, but really there are so many amazing, zany FX gags and creatures in this flick that I consider it among one of Johnson’s finest pieces of work.

So if you’ve never seen HIGHWAY TO HELL, or never even heard of it, thankfully Kino Lorber has given it a stellar looking Blu-Ray release which is destined to make this gem the cult classic it deserves to be. Highly recommended!