Director Albert Pyun
Starring Michael Paré, Clare Kramer, Courtney Peldon, Deborah Van Valkenburgh & Roxy Gunn
Score 4.5/6
A soldier who has been fighting a long war is driven mad because he no longer believes in any purpose or righteous truth behind the killing. He comes home to a surreal world looking for his first and only love from his youth, believing she will rescue him from his demons. On the road to Edge City he encounters two seductive spree killers who oppose his efforts to find his love and the redemption he desperately seeks.
Okay, I know I usually wait a longer period before I revisit a given movie, but the cinemas are still closed so I suppose I can make an exception. For those of you who haven’t heard of Road to Hell it’s the unofficial sequel to Streets of Fire. And I will admit that possibly I should have watched the two movies back to back. It should be noted that Michael Paré and Deborah Van Valkenburgh are the only actors to reprise their roles from the original movie.
When it comes to a film series I’m a big fan of directorial continuity, but in this case the lack of directorial continuity can be easily overlooked. This is a beautifully shot movie director Albert Pyun managed give the backroads a surreal other worldly quality. It really doesn’t surprise me to learn that this was probably shot in a film studio somewhere in Los Angles, though I have admit the pictures from a holiday to see the shooting Locations for Road to Hell would be a tad different then any other potential holiday to visit shooting locations from movies that I have fallen in love with. It should be noted that some of the violence could be considered to be rather brutal but as the old joke goes ‘you can be as brutal and grotesque as you want in your action sequences just so long as you don’t show it on screen’.
I enjoyed Roxy Gunn’s and Joei Fulco’s performances. Fulco had a great onscreen presence and I hope that Gunn get the chance to act in more movies. It was also good to see how much Michael Paré’s and Deborah Van Valkenburgh’s characters had changed since the previous movie
Just like with Streets of Fire I loved the soundtrack for Road to Hell, it was good to see that songs such as Nowhere fast that where featured in Streets of Fire are also featured in Road to Hell. I’d also like to note that my favourite song from the Road to Hell soundtrack was Goodbye Kiss.