Ate de Jong’s Highway to Hell is a pretty insane movie. The overall premise is pretty straightforward and simple. Charlie (Chad Lowe) and Rachel (Kristy Swanson) are a young couple on their way to Las Vegas to elope. Charlie decides to take a side road and it results in Rachel being kidnapped. This could be the setup of any thriller, but there is a pretty major difference – the kidnapper is some type of demon, known as a Hell Cop (C.J. Graham), and he takes Rachel to Hell! Now we’re talking!
Before this happens Charlie and Rachel stop at a small gas station run by an elderly man named Sam (Richard Farnsworth). Sam warns the couple of the backroad they’re traveling but they ignore him, writing him off as a crazy, old man. With his girlfriend now kidnapped, Charlie rushes back to Sam to get some more info. Sam tells Charlie all he knows about Hell Cop, even giving Charlie a shotgun with special ammo that he can use to stop him. With the new information Charlie is off to save Rachel!
Once in Hell Charlie meets so many strange and fascinating characters. I suppose this should come as no surprise. I think we all kind of expect Hello to be full of weirdos and freaks. There’s a weird diner with Anne Meara is a waitress, Jerry Stiller is a patron and Ben Still is a cook. Later we go to a club of sorts where Ben returns as Attila the Hun and is hanging out at a table with a group that includes Cleopatra (Amy Stiller) and Hitler (Gilbert Gottfried). In between all this Charlie has to deal with a biker gang and a hitchhiking Lita Ford. So yeah, this one is a bit out there.
I had never seen Highway to Hell before this viewing but I’m a big fan of de Jong’s Drop Dead Fred so I was very interested in this. I can’t really say what my expectations were going into this, but I can definitely say Highway to Hell wasn’t really what I expected. I absolutely mean that in a good way though. The film is this weird adventure that never stops being fun. It sort of reminded me of Cool World but instead of going into a world of animation it takes you on this journey through a world of practical creature effects. Steve Johnson, who has an impressive list of special effects work under his belt, supplied the makeup effects for Highway to Hell and did an absolutely wonderful job.
The film is now out on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber and it’s a very good looking Blu-ray. There are a few moments where you can tell the source material had some scratches, but these are all very minimal and never really get in the way at all. I imagine this was a fairly low budget movie that most expected to just fall into obscurity so the fact that it’s on Blu-ray and looks this good is very much welcomed. Kino Lorber has made more of an effort to include special features as of late and this release has a couple. There’s a commentary with de Jong, an awesome interview with Johnson about the production experience on the film, a trailer and then a pretty cool animated image gallery of publicity shots and such.
Highway to Hell is a fun experience that I would definitely suggest checking out. It’s a little comedy, a little horror, a little fantasy, so you’re likely to find something enjoyable with it. Worst case scenario it’s a movie that is sure to stick with you.
Highway to Hell is now available on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber.
