heard it in the graveyard, halloween prep, end of the world radio, dead mail, avery, horror poetry, amy lowell, after hearing a waltz by bartok, events, night of the living dead, nosferatu, edgar allan poe, neve campbell, anne rice, books, the clinic, matthew weber, don pitsiladis, michaelbrent collings, this darkness light, dark blossom, vincent stoia, red beans and rice, feeding the lwas vodou cookbook, amy sumida, best band season 8, unveil, mixed messages, flash fiction friday, kadriah wade, they buried her deep, theme song contest, master of macabre contest, jennifer’s body, hemlock grove, under the dome, terry m. west, heroin in the magic now, crawl or die, crystal connor, the last road, crossback, wm. a. yandell
Plotline: Story of a fighter down on his luck, who loses his life in the ring. The movie then takes us into the afterlife, where Toby meets a stranger that seems to know everything about him and he has to make the right choices to which road to take… Heaven or Hell… with no initial help or clues. He meets many other souls on his journey who could take him down many different paths. Coming to his final heart wrenching decision… There are many cruel, sometimes disturbing, but also emotional twist and turns.
– Synopsis written by Laurence Williams for IMDb
Scariness Factor: This film isn’t scary its atmospheric and haunting
Gross-out Factor: N/A.
High Points: Visually this film is stunning with a capital S. The Last Road was filmed in the Salisbury Plain located in England, in the valley of the Bratton White Horse. The surrounding landscape becomes a character because this is John Wheeler’s vision of hell. The problem is that these people are wandering around this beautiful place with absolutely nothing to do, I really liked that because as you know being bored is a kind of hell in and of itself.
Complaints: Toby. After the opening scene I really didn’t like him and then watching the way he interacted with his mother … just eight minutes in and I was completely disconnected from this character. Maybe he was written that way in order to justify the reasons for him going to hell.
The film is very well acted but there seems to be huge pieces of the story missing, like it was a film adapted from a book. For instance the flash backs on Toby’s childhood life and the one ‘incident’ with his father aren’t horrible enough to excuse the way he acted and the choices as an adult. If this was based on a novel I couldn’t find it, and trust me I looked.
Overall: I think watching horror movies should be an ‘interactive’ activity (which is why I watch them alone) and the more I yell at the people on the screen the more fun I’m having. Now there are only eight entries for The Last Road, and compared to my other reviews that’s not that many but that doesn’t necessarily mean The Last Road wasn’t a good film.
For one it’s not a horror movie but because of the cinematography it is a haunting one. I spent quite a bit of time pausing and rewinding trying to connect the dots, to better understand why the things that were happening happened. That along with what’s listed above The Last Road just didn’t work for me. Like I’ve said before I am a tough customer and I can be pretty unforgiving when it comes to the myopic way in which I prefer to be entertained. But if you were planning on watching The Last Road my advice would be I think that you should.
Stars: 2 ½ Stars
~~~~Diary Entry~~~
Late in the afternoon on Aug 5th, 2014, Crystal Connor, with a bowl of popcorn and a coke, settled down in to watch a movie. For the next two hours her neighbors were subjected to screaming, crying, and expletive outburst…
This is the unedited journal chronicling the harrowing experience her neighbors were forced to endure as she viewed John Wheeler’s 2012 The Last Road
Reader discretion is Advised
Entry 1: When you’re standing before St. Peter, or in this case his asst. you pretty much already know where you’re going.
Entry 2: Leave shit alone!
Entry 3: Wow, even the dog went to hell.
Entry 4: Queue the naked and underdressed women.
Entry 5: Ok, don’t listen to him…
Entry 6: Really?!
Entry 7: Wait a minute, he just got to hell and just like that he has the rank/power/knowledge to torture and torment others?
Entry 8: Wait … what?
Washington State native Crystal Connor has been terrorizing readers since before Jr. high School and loves anything to do with monsters, bad guys, rogue scientific experiments, jewelry, sky-high high heel shoes & unreasonably priced hang bags. She is also considering changing her professional title to ‘dramatization specialist’ because it’s so much more theatrical than being just a mere drama queen. Crystal’s latest projects can be found both on her blog and Facebook fan page at:
Washington State native Crystal Connor has been terrorizing readers since before Jr. high School and loves anything to do with monsters, bad guys, rogue scientific experiments, jewelry, sky-high high heel shoes & unreasonably priced hang bags. She is also considering changing her professional title to ‘dramatization specialist’ because it’s so much more theatrical than being just a mere drama queen. Crystal’s latest projects can be found both on her blog and Facebook fan page at:
HorrorAddicts.net 