4/5
I was at a friend’s house years ago and I caught a glimpse of this on the TV. I didn’t know the name of the film and didn’t really think about it until recently I remembered and thought that it seemed like a good film back then and maybe I should check it out. Thanks to the internetz I was able to find this even without knowing the name of the film.
The story is extremely simple. Our main character is David Mann who is on a business trip on his car. Its all the same boring routine until he get’s into trouble with this big-ass-truck that keeps asking for trouble. At first it seems that the mysterious truck driver is just plain cunt but we soon find out he’s much more then that, he’s also a killer.
The whole movie except for a few short pauses is just a long series of chase scenes and still its very entertaining. Its got all the elements to make a good suspense thriller and a good film. Very competent camera work, the right kind of lead actor for the part, good screenplay + some creative use of the camera and music.
This was Steven Spielberg’s first feature he directed and he said he took special care to make it look as good as possible with the small budget and tight schedule they had. Not only because it was important for his career but because he also really liked the source material (a short story by Richard Matheson who also wrote the screenplay) and you can tell the film is done with great care and ambition.
The livingNES horror reviews 