Written by Fantasma el Rey
Rest Stop: Don’t Look Back. Well, they did warn me in the title.
Potential, yes this movie had it. Rest Stop 2, as I’ll call it going forward, tried to expand on the first movie and add a back story, which always gets me; I’m a sucker for histories. And I was slightly amused for an hour and a half, so I guess that’s a good thing. Anyway, as far as slashers go not too much of that took place and as for the ghost story aspect it’s just okay.
So the plot is thus: G.I. big brother of the douche that got hacked in movie one assembles a team of the usual slasher crew (dumbass sidekick and impatient, hot bitch) and goes looking for baby brother and his girlfriend. Along the way they run into all the creepy folk from Rest Stop Uno and the new crew become the hunted. But this time the new crew are aided by the Ghost of Corpse’s Past and are given clues to “the bus” where all the Driver’s evil goes down. Along the way torture of the new team ensues and half-naked chicks are placed in key camera positions.
What gives this sequel a small niche is its back story and attempt at a California Bermuda Triangle of sorts, where ghosts and spirits run rampant and torture “sinners” as they travel down “The Old Highway.” In round two of Rest Stop we get to see the “who made who” regarding the Driver and the Winnebago Family. The Driver is the hand of God that delivers the death blows while the Winnebago Family, who are religious freaks acting as seekers, helpers, set-up men, or whatever you want to call them, have at it.
So here it is, y’all (Spoiler Alert). The Family kills and tortures the Driver after the Driver bangs the preacher’s wife. Sinner! The Driver must be cleansed (killed), loses a hand and an eye as the Bible commands but in this mysterious corner of the world the body and/or spirit rises and hacks the looney family to bits, gets in his phantom truck, and drives off to an eternity of killing sinners.
We get flashes of what happened in the first movie as we encounter the ghost or almost ghost from the first movie. I say “almost” because when the ghost or these barely living people are encountered, they disappear after some key actions. So did they die awhile ago or just now after the current team finds them and “rescues” them? That part of the film does make me wonder and I was hoping that would be further expanded upon but maybe in the next two or three flicks they hope to make we’ll get the answers.
Anyway, that’s about all this movie’s got. There is not much slashing and torture as the makers wanted to concentrate on the ghost story of Rest Stop 2, which ends up rather confusing. I dig what the makers of this flick tried to do it’s too bad they fell a bit short. Sadly this whole film can be figured out by watching a few minutes of each chapter and then pressing the skip button on the DVD player’s remote; I did both and got the same results except I missed the little gore that took place: nails and drills in thighs, eyeball extraction, minor slashing with sharp objects.
The DVD’s special feature includes a decent look at what the men behind this movie wanted to do. There is audio commentary as well that carries as much insight as the featurette does. Deleted scenes don’t add much either.
So, ghoulies, in short, go watch Texas Chainsaw Massacre instead.
