GL84 Transporting a dangerous witness through the desert, a federal agent and his team realize the abandoned road they're traveling on is haunted by the ghosts of an accident years ago and must try to get out alive.Overall, this one was better than it really should've been though there's some big problems within this. One of the better elements here is the film's far more action-packed roots that set the story up rather nicely, taking even the fact that this is initially based on a flimsy-but-workable approach of having the transport group serving interference against the hit-men. The opening shoot-out at the diner leads into the whole on-the-run premise that gets them through the rest of the movie makes this one quite interesting and every enjoyable by setting up a plausible situation for the other big action scenes along the way. The encounters with the ghosts along the highway work nicely by getting the gang involved quite well in a couple of enjoyable encounters and also giving this some rather graphic kills here which is nice considering the potential body count at hand. As well, the ghosts look quite nice and creepy here with the gravelly road-marks and dead eyes which really adds to this one with an overall great look added to the other factors in the film. There's still a few issues here with this one which really lowers this, as the biggest one here is the decided lack of time spent on the ghosts themselves. They're involve in just a few scenes here which is mainly due to the inclusion of the storyline about the corrupt cops being so heavily involved in the final half of this one. It really serves no purpose for their involvement since they're the only ones who know the group is out there and what's on the road to begin with, so their placement in the film is way too much for what would happen in real life and really takes a lot of the time up in the film doing this. As well, the films' indecision over whether they're ghosts or zombies is really problematic as they've referred to each yet break rules for both several times. It seems to settle on ghosts, but the ambiguity is a little unsettling and does come off hurting this along with the other flaws.Rated R: Graphic Violence and Graphic Language.

Scarecrow-88 Get a load of this premise:federal agents taking a mob informant to a court date take an old road as a short cut to Los Angeles and find themselves being chased and attacked by the zombie spirits of a dead chain gang! For some reason these spirits(whose faces/skin are crumbling like old dirt and old prisoner uniforms ripped and tattered)are wandering the road seeking them and follow a repeated pattern where a few beat their victims with pick-axes while another drives a jackhammer into their stomachs. The film gets particularly interesting when a desert sheriff of the territory, Bob Conaway(LQ Jones)and his two deputies enter the picture with ulterior motives concerning the feds not leaving the Route 666 alive.Lou Diamond Phillips is ex Navy Seal and head Federal Marshal Jack La Roca whose father was one of the chain-gang who mysteriously vanished with a marked grave off the road of 666. He and US Marshal Stephanie(a peppy Lori Petty)are assigned to bring "Rabbit" Fred(Steven Williams, chock full of one-liners in a spirited performance as the obnoxious informant who changed his mind on giving key info on two mob organizations)into court, with an accompaniment of other agents, led by PT(Dale Midkiff), who's really difficult and always trying to rouse La Roca into arguments and fisticuffs..it's clear that he doesn't like taking orders from a superior just recently placed in command. Despite their differences, La Roca and PT will have to co-exist if they are going to make it out their difficult situation alive. Also important are these memories from the past, concerning the four prisoners of the murdered chain gang who return as zombie spirits, which pop up in agent La Roca's mind over and over during the film.This flick is just crazy. I mean a plot so ridiculous, and played so straight, must be seen to be believed. It plays, for a while, as a straight action thriller with this mob assassin in pursuit of the feds hoping to silence Rabbit, but then these zombies appear out of thin air, and the film really takes off into strangeland. The desert is an awesome setting for a horror film, and the setting provides a unique atmosphere for all the lunacy that takes place. The violence isn't too gory because the director shakes the hell out of the camera when the zombies are released on the road to exact carnage on those poor souls whose blood they crave to remain active spirits. The cast is quite fun..the chemistry between Phillips, Petty & Williams helps because they make the most of their roles in such a wildly bizarre film. The ending brings everything full circle and we get an understanding as to why these zombies are appearing on this particular stretch of road, what the sheriff's motives are for causing trouble with the agents, and why La Roca sees all those images replaying over and over in his mind. Unfortunately, most of the action sequences(..including the opening shoot-out between La Roca and Steph with the Russian assassins in front of the diner where they apprehended Rabbit)are shot through shaky-cam. I won't lie to you, though..despite the film's premise, I thought it was a lot of mindless fun. Dick Miller has a miniscule role at the opening as the diner bartender and Gary Farmer has a strange cameo as a sunshaded Shamman who befriends La Roca, offering him Peyote tea to drink.

outlaw2448 I saw just the first hour of this movie trying to see what my guide meant by dead. Then when I find out the movie turns out to suck. The cinematography is horrible with the fact that you can see what is computer generated and what isn't. Give you an example, the first time the zombie gang attacks our "heroes" of this movie one of the marshals is firing out of the SUV and it looks like they used a blue screen either for the character or for the background. Why does a zombie carry around a jackhammer in the first place. Ohhh, and for an added bonus the marshals who are supposed to be trained at firing guns can't hit the jackhammer zombie because they are firing at the jackhammer that is just there.This "MOVIE" doesn't make any sense at all.

Woodyanders In 1988 former cameraman, theater director and Army documentary filmmaker William Wesley made the superbly eerie and grisly living dead horror zinger variant "Scarecrows." Some thirteen years later Wesley finally resurfaced with this snazzy direct-to-video terror shocker which centers on a dry, dusty, desolate patch of remote desert backroads haunted by the lethal, murderous, unrestful eyeless, zombie-like, asphalt-encrusted, crumple-faced spirits of four extremely vicious and dangerous chaingang convicts who were all killed in a brutal roadside massacre back in 1967. Rugged Federal marshal Lou Diamond Phillips, feisty lady cop Lori Petty, antsy mob informant Steven Williams (the tough, determined bounty hunter out to bag Jason Vorhees in "Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday"), and several expendable fuzz who include Dale Midkiff (the dumbbell doctor dad in "Pet Semetery") and Alex McArthur (the chillingly emotionless serial killer in William Friedkin's "Rampage") encounter the fiendish undead felons when they make the unsound decision to use the titular condemned, closed-off highway as a shortcut. Meanwhile, a mob assassin pursues our beleaguered bickering bunch.Ingeniously blending a tried'n'true fright film premise with elements lifted from your basic chase action yarn and rough, gritty, noir-leaning crime thrillers, "Route 666" provides loads of crisp, pacy, straight-up grue-slinging creeped-out monstermash fun. Wesley directs in the same taut, spare, stripped-down no-nonsense manner which distinguished "Scarecrows." Philip Lee's sharp, panoramic cinematography vividly evokes a quietly unnerving wide-open feeling of total isolation and vulnerability. Terry Plumieri's countryish shuddery score likewise hits the spooky spot. The cast all turn in sturdy performances: Philips is less stolid and more agreeable than usual, Petty has spunky charm to spare, and Williams delightfully supplies the hilariously whiny, craven and conniving comic relief. Better still, we've got nice cameos by venerable character actors L.Q. Jones as a folksy sheriff and Dick Miller as a gruff, gravel-voiced bartender. In short, "Route 666" is just the place to find plenty of good, gory, neatly streamlined and to the point horror pic kicks.