ROAD GAMES (1981) (Scream Factory Collector's Edition Blu-ray Review)

ROAD GAMES (1981) 
Collector's Edition 

Label: Scream Factory 
Region Code: A
Rating: PG
Duration: 101 Minutes 
Audio: English DTS-H MA 2.0 with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.35:1) 
Director: Richard Franklin
Cast: Stacy Keach, Jamie Lee Curtis, Grant Page

Directed by Richard Franklin (Psycho II) the Hitchocock-ian road thriller Road Games (1981) stars Stacy Keach (Body Bags) as American truck driver Pat Quid working in Australia, we catch up to the quirky driver as he's hauling frozen slabs of meat across the Australian outback, playing what he calls "road games" to keep himself occupied on the long stretches. These games includes peering into the vehicles of passing vehicles and making-up stories and dialogue about the occupants of those vehicles to pass the time on the long drives. Quid dubs the other drivers with names like 'Captain Careful' and the 'Sneezey Motorcyclist', all the while carrying on a one-sided conversation with his loyal sidekick, a dingo-dog named Boswell. 

Early on Quid picks up a feisty older woman whose husband seemingly abandoned her on the side of the road after an argument, she gets the trucker to stop for her by creating a barrier of what looks to be ribbons of pink toilet paper across the roadway, but quid seems only happy to have the company. He teaches her how to play his road games, during which she tells him off a string of rape/murders being committed in the area by a serial killer. 

The macabre story captures his attention and makes him think of a peculiar thing he saw at a roadside motel earlier, a suspicious man who was carefully eyeing the garbage truck as it picked up trash at a motel. With the murderer on his mind the conversation gets a bit darker, upsetting his passenger who begins to suspect that Quid could potentially be the killer, which causes her to panic and flee the truck when he pulls over, nearly sending herself right off a cliff into the ocean. This is when Quid spots a green minivan driven by the suspicious man from the motel, who looks to be burying a large black trash back in the middle of the outback, which seems very odd indeed. 

Increasingly obsessed with the driver in the minivan Quid picks up a new hitchhiker after leaving the previous gal at a gas station, a charming, free-spirited hitchhiker (Jamie Lee Curtis, Halloween) whom he dubs "Hitch". The pair share conversation and further theorize about the motivations of the serial killer. They eventually catch up with the minivan at a roadside garage, Quid following the killer is in the restroom to confront the culprit, while Hitch goes to check out the could-be killer's vehicle. The scenario ends with Hitch in a bit of peril and Quid giving chase, hoping to save his new found lady friend from the killer before it's too late.

The film is an offbeat road film with the affable but slightly loony Quid being a likable enough character, it's a slow-burn thriller set on the open road with director Franklin and the screenwriter straight-up lifting directly from Hitchcock's classic thriller Rear Window, only set in the cab of a semi-rig, which is a set-up I liked quite a bit. 

Stacy Keach and Jamie Lee Curtis are likable characters, they play well against each other, though Curtis's character doesn't have all that much to do. It's Keach who carries the entire film all on his own with his brand of humor and charm, assisted by the technically well-executed and suspenseful direction from director Franklin (Cloak and Dagger), with atmospheric cinematography that captures the rouged charms of the Australian Outback. 

I think this film gets short shrift because it's been lumped in with the early 80's Jamie Lee Curtis slasher films, partly because of the iconic movie poster with the girl being strangled by a guitar string, it screams slasher film, but it's not that sort of film. The gore is nearly non-existent, though there is that nice guitar-string strangling at the top of the film in a seedy hotel room that has a certain giallo-tinge to it, but the movie lives and breathes on a clever Hitchcock-ian script and taught direction. it's a slow-urn, with the film culminating with Quid pursuing the killer through the narrow streets a small town and into an even tighter alleyway, finally picking up some steam, delivering some car-crunching action here at the end. 

While I love the film but I can see how this pot-boiler might not have the visceral impact someone expecting a slasher might be craving, but it as it's moments of excitement, like when Quid's semi plows through a wooden boat on the road, but for every pulse-raising scene there are eight more of Keach's character just talking to himself, but it works for this slow-burn thriller, it's just not a action-packed slasher film.  

The cat and mouse suspense and the Keach performance kept me rapt throughout, the writing and visuals are clever and well-executed. The joy of this one is in the execution and build-up, keeping a steady boil going for the most part, but if you're coming into it expecting an bloody early 80's slasher you're gonna be disappointed, but what you will get is a well-crafted suspense film with taught direction that one delivers the goods. It might not be bloody but it is darkly perverse, a highlight for me would be the mystery of a slaughtered corpse potentially hanging in Quid's semi-rig's refrigerated trailer that makes for a particularly delicious stinger right there at the very end with a fun visual gag that always brings a smile to my face. 

Audio/Video: Road Games (1981) arrives on Blu-ray from Scream Factory presented in 1080p HD framed in 2.35:1 widescreen. This is not advertised as a new scan of the film, and it looks to be the same 4K scan of a release print that was used by Umbrella Entertainment for their 2016 Blu-ray release. Since we do not get a new scan I am assuming that the original film elements are no longer available or missing, but again this is easily superior to long out-of-print Anchor Bay DVD release. It does have some issues that I would associate with it being from a theatrical print, including anemic blacks, some wonky contrast and a general lack of fine details, all of which we've seen previously from theatrical sourced transfers. That said, the source is in good shape, there's been some restoration to remove nicks and scratches and the results are good without appearing overly digitally manipulated. Grain is not as finely resolved as I would hope for, but it's been been left intact. Colors look good but not great, nothing here really pops, it's muted, but considering the source I think it's acceptable. 

Audio comes by way of an English DTS-HD MA 2.0 Mono presentation with optional English subtitles. The sleeve and slipcover both indicated a DTS-HD MA 5.1 audio option but there's only a mono track on the disc. It is uncompressed though, an improvement over the Umbrella release which only had a lossy Dolby Digital presentation, though they did also include a 5.1 option as well. The suspenseful score from Brian May sounds fuller with the uncompressed option, but the film is mostly dialogue driven without a lot of bombast. 

Scream Factory complement their own extras by porting over nearly all the extras from the Umbrella release, these archival extras include an audio commentary with Richard Franklin, the 21-minute Kangaroo Hitchcock featurette from the Anchor Bay and Umbrella releases, over an hour of uncut 'Not Quite Hollywood' interviews with Jamie-Lee Curtis, Stacy Keach, Grant Page, Richard Franklin, Everett De Roche,Vincent Monton and Tom Burstall. We also get the a pair of audio-only interview with the director from 1981 and 2001, plus a 1981 lecture with the Franklin, composer Brian May and co-producer Barbi Taylor, and 2016 audio interviews with both Stacy Keach and actor/stuntman Grant Page. 

The one extra not carried-over from the Umbrella release is featurette about the 4k telecine transfer with an interview from the movie's DOP Vincent Monton.

New extras come by way of a brand new 13-min on-camera interview with Stacey Keach, a lot of what is covered is regurgitated from previous interviews included on the disc, but its great to see him on-camera discussing the film. we also get a new audio commentary with Cinematographer Vincent Monton, Production Coordinator Helen Watts, And Costume Designer Aphrodite Kondos, moderated by 'Not quite Hollywood!' director Mark Hartley, plus an audio only script read with Producer/Director Richard Franklin and actors Stacy Kea and Marion Edwards, plus 4-min of composer Brian May music demos . The disc is buttoned-up with an extensive gallery of images including stills, production shots, storyboards, newspaper clippings, and promotional and artwork.

The single-disc release comes housed in an standard Blu-ray keepcase with a sleeve of reversible artwork featuring a new illustration by artist Joel Robinson and the familiar gloved hands strangling a woman with a guitar string, which is my preferred option, I love that seedy artwork! The new artwork at first glance looks like a knock-off of The Hitcher, not a fan of it, so thankfully we have the original poster artwork. The disc itself features an excerpt of the new illustration.    

Special Features: 
- NEW Australian Long Haul – An Interview With Actor Stacy Keach (13 min) HD 
- NEW Audio Commentary With Cinematographer Vincent Monton, Production Coordinator Helen Watts, And Costume Designer Aphrodite Kondos, Moderated By Filmmaker Mark Hartley
- NEW 1980 Script Read With Producer/Director Richard Franklin And Actors Stacy Keach And Marion Edwards (117 min) (Audio Only)HD 
- NEW Composer Brian May Music Demos Accompanied By Stills And Poster Gallery (4 min) HD 
- Archival Audio Commentary with Producer/Director Richard Franklin
- Kangaroo Hitchcock: The Making of "Road Games" with Producer/Director Richard Franklin and Actor Stacy Keach (21 min) 
- Uncut 'Not Quite Hollywood' Interviews with Jamie-Lee Curtis, Stacy Keach, Grant Page, Richard Franklin, Everett De Roche,Vincent Monton and Tom Burstall (64 min) 
- Lecture On The Making Of Road Games With Richard Franklin, Co-producer Barbi Taylor, And Composer Brian May, Introduced By Critic Tom Ryan - November 20th 1980 (131 min) 
- Extensive Gallery accompanied by Essay written by Fangoria writer Lee Gambin: Gallery of stills, Production Shots, Storyboards, Newspaper Reviews, Promotional and Artwork Materials (33 min) 
- Profile of Richard Franklin (1981)
- 1981 Interview with Richard Franklin (25 min) HD
- 2001 Audio Interview with Richard Franklin (24 min) HD
- 2016 Audio Interview with Road Games Lead Actor Stacy Keach (10 min) HD
- 2016 Audio Interview with Road Games Stunt Coordinator and Actor Grant Page (33 min) HD
- Theatrical Trailer (3 min) HD

Richard Franklin is a bit of an unsung director, he made some thrillers that are worth re-discovering, and Road Games is a fantastic showcase for the talents of Stacey Keach, I think it's his best film. Scream Factory do good work carrying over almost all the extras from the past releases and adding a few of their own, making this the more definitive release in regard to the extras package.

ROAD GAMES (1981) (Umbrella Blu-ray Review)

ROAD GAMES (1981) 

Label: Umbrella Entertainment
Region Code: Region-FREE
Rating: M
Duration: 101 Minutes 
Audio: English Dolby Digital Mono 1.0, Dolby Digital Surround 5.1 with Optional English Subtitles 
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.35:1) 
Director: Richard Franklin
Cast: Stacy Keach, Jamie Lee Curtis, Grant Page

Directed by Richard Franklin (Psycho II) the Hitchocock-ian road thriller Road Games (1981) stars Stacy Keach (The Ninth Configuration) as American truck driver Pat Quid working in Australia, we catch up to the quirky driver as he's hauling slabs of meat across the Australian outback, playing what he calls "road games" to keep himself occupied on the long stretches, these games includes him peering into the vehicles of passerbys and making-up stories and dialogue about the occupants to pass the time, Dubbing the other drivers with names like Captain Careful and the Sneezy Motorcyclist, all the while carrying on a one-sided conversation with his trusty sidekick, a loyal dingo-dog. Quid picks up a feisty older woman whose husband seemingly abandoned her on the side of the road after an argument, she gets the trucker to stop for her by creating a barrier of what looks to be pink toilet paper across the roadway, but he seems happy to have the company and the pair play road games, during which she tells him off a string of rape/murders being committed by a serial killer on the loose in the area. The macabre story captures his attention and makes him think of a peculiar thing he saw at a roadside motel earlier in the film, with a suspicious man carefully eyeing the garbage truck as it picks up trash. With the murderer on his mind the conversation goes a bit darker, slightly upsetting the old woman who begins to suspect that Quid could very well be the killer in question, causing her to panic and flee the truck when he pulls over. This is when Quid spots a green minivan driven by the suspicious man he saw back at the motel, the driver looks to be burying a large black back in the middle of the outback, very odd indeed. 

Now increasingly obsessed with the driver in the green minivan Quid picks up a new hitchhiker, a charming young woman (Jamie Lee Curtis, Halloween) whom he dubs "Hitch", short for hitchhiker, and the two share conversation and further theorize about the motivations of the sadistic killer. They catch up to the minivan at a roadside garage/gas station, while Quid believes the killer is in the restroom, so he goes in looking to confront the culprit, meanwhile Hitch moves in to check out the could-be killer's vehicle and ends up in peril with Quid giving chase, hoping to save his new found friend from the killer before it's too late.

The film is an offbeat road movie with the affable but slightly loony Quid being a very likable character, it's a thriller set on the open road with director Franklin and the screenwriter making no bones about this being a straight riff on Hitchcock's Rear Window set in the cab of a semi-rig, and I liked it quite a bit, it's a good premise. Stacy Keach and Jamie Lee Curtis are likable characters, they work great against each other, though Curtis's character is a bit downplayed, but she does good work here opposite Keach who really makes the film all on his own with his brand of humor and charm, assisted by the very capable and technically well-executed direction and cinematography behind the camera. 

Road Games is a suspense film that I think gets short shrift because it's been lumped in with early 80's Jamie Lee Curtis slashers, but it's not that, the gore is nearly non-existent, but there's a nice guitar-string strangling at the top of the film in a seedy hotel room that has a giallo-tinge to it, but the movie lives and breathes on a clever script and good suspense. The film culminates with Quid pursuing the killer through narrow streets and into an alleyway, finally picking up some steam, delivering some car-crunching action there at the end, but while the film has had a boil going it never really boils-over properly at the end, though there is a fun scene earlier with the Quid's semi plowing through a wooden boat on the roadway, offering some Mad Mad style thrills.    

The cat and mouse suspense and the Keach performance kept me rapt throughout, the writing and visuals are clever and well-executed, the joy of this one is in the execution and build-up, keeping a steady boil going for the most part, but if you're coming into this one expecting an early 80's slasher starring Jamie Lee Curtis you're gonna be seriously letdown. However, if you're down for a road movie with oodles of suspense and some fine cinematic craftsmanship this one delivers the goods. I really enjoyed the darkly perverse nature of it, it's not graphic but the discussion of the killer's psycho-sexual motivations and the idea that there might be (and what happened to?) the slaughtered corpse of a woman hanging in the semi's refrigerated trailer is particularly twisted.

Audio/Video: Road Games (1981) arrives on region-free Blu-ray from Aussie label Umbrella Entertainment as part of their Ozploitation Classics line-up, presented in 1080p HD framed in 2.35:1 widescreen. This is a 4K scan of a release print, for reasons unknown to me it seems the original elements are not available, but it's easily better than the old long out-of-print Anchor Bay DVD release but does have some issues that I would associate with it being from a release print, such as some occasional wonky contrast and lack of crisp details, this is something we saw from Scream Factory's Blu-ray of Hell Night, which was also sourced from 4K scan of print and not the original elements. That said, the source appears to be in good shape, there;s been some restoration to remove nicks and scratches and the results are goof without appearing overly  digitally manipulated, grain has been left intact and the colors look superior to the previous incarnations I've seen on home video, so I am pleased with what we have here even if the source is not optimal. 

Looking at the audio we get two options, both are lossy, Dolby Digital mono 1.0 and surround 5.1, though I preferred the more natural sounding mono track, optional English subtitles are provided. Despite the lossy audio it sounds good, the suspenseful score from Brian May sounds nice and full, the film is mostly dialogue driven without a lot of bombastic scenes, but when called upon the audio has some decent depth to it. 

Umbrella give this one a healthy dose of extras, porting over the great audio commentary with Richard Franklin and the 21-minute Kangaroo Hitchcock featurette from the long out-of-print Anchor Bay DVD and adding quite a few new ones on top of that. The new stuff begins with over an hour of uncut 'Not Quite Hollywood' interviews with Jamie-Lee Curtis, Stacy Keach, Grant Page, Richard Franklin, Everett De Roche,Vincent Monton and Tom Burstall, the Curtis interview is particularly fun and well humored, I like that she has such a matter-of-fact and unvarnished view of her career leading up to this movie, detailing what it was like on set and how she was received as an American actor an an Australian shoot.   

We also get a featurette about the 4k telecine transfer with an interview from the movie's DOP Vincent Monton, I love these extras that go into restorations with the before and after comparisons. DP Monton is on hand but sadly mostly speaks about the benefits of digital cinematography versus film.

There's an archival 1981 interview with the director, a 2001 audio interview with him, plus a 1981 lecture with the Franklin, composer Brian May and co-producer Barbi Taylor, the quality of this on is straight from VHS. Also produced for this release are two 2016 audio interviews with Stacy Keach and actor/stuntman Grant Page, the Keach interview regurgitates a lot of what he said on the vintage making of doc. 

The single-disc release comes housed in an oversized Blu-ray keepcase with a sleeve of reversible artwork, the a-side and b-side being the same familiar gloved hands strangling a woman with a guitar string, the b-side is minus the unsightly ratings box on the cover, the disc also features the same key art. 

Special Features: 
- Audio Commentary with Producer/Director Richard Franklin
- Kangaroo Hitchcock: The Making of "Road Games" - Featurette with Producer/Director Richard Franklin and Actor Stacy Keach (21 min) 
- Uncut 'Not Quite Hollywood' Interviews with Jamie-Lee Curtis, Stacy Keach, Grant Page, Richard Franklin, Everett De Roche,Vincent Monton and Tom Burstall (64 min) 
- Newly-Discovered Two Hour lecture on the Making of Road Games from Richard Franklin, Barbi Taylor and Brian May - November 20th 1980 (131 min) 
- New Extensive Gallery accompanied by Essay written by Fangoria writer Lee Gambin: Gallery of stills, Production Shots, Storyboards, Newspaper Reviews, Promotional and Artwork Materials (33 min) 
- Featurette on 4k Telecine Transfer by Roar Digital featuring SD-to-HD Comparisons, Quality Approval and Interview with DoP Vincent Monton (11 min) 
- 1981 Interview with Richard Franklin (25 min) 
- 2001 Audio Interview with Richard Franklin (24 min) 
- New Audio Interview with Road Games Lead Actor Stacy Keach (10 min) 
- New Audio Interview with Road Games Stunt Co-ordinator and Actor Grant Page (33 min) 
- HD Theatrical Trailer (3 min) 

Richard Franklin was an unsung master of suspense in my opinion and he made some great slow-burn classics that are worth re-discovering, it's great to see this one get the deluxe treatment with loads of extras from Umbrella. Fans of road pictures and clever thrillers should really dig into this one, it's a rewarding watch if you go in with tempered expectations, just don't watch it expecting a slasher, it's not that exactly, but it's plenty entertaining and a good slice of suspense cinema set on the open road.