Route 666 (2001)

Here's a b-title that seemed to have a lot going for it from first glances; a premise that calls back to old school horror films, a respectable b-movie cast, and it being the latest film to come from William Wesley, who hasn't been working since he directed the cult hit "Scarecrows" in '88. Unfortunately, the film itself is a lifeless disappointment, despite a few enjoyable moments to be found.

Lou Diamond Phillips and Lori Petty play two FBI agents, traveling out on the road to apprehend an errand boy (Steven Williams) for a Russian mob, enjoying some free time before being sent to testify against the mob and go into a witness protection program. They manage to catch him in a bar and decide to take the shortest route possible to get him to a courtroom trial on time, which happens to be a road that has been abandoned and closed for three decades. Things start to take a strange turn however, when the group starts discovering new secrets about this "easy" route of theirs and soon find themselves on the lam from a mob and a zombified "chain gang," who were supposed to have been killed in the '60s.

Wesley takes advantage of the quiet desert locales for great effect, but his overuse of choppy slow motion and shaky camera work during the action scenes are incredibly irritating and detracted a great deal from the movie for me. Aside from a little motion sickness, Wesley doesn't make much of an impression here.

The screenplay is sloppily constructed and contrived, with some boring spirtual mumbo jumbo and bland plot twists added to the mix. Just when you think there's some excitement to be had when the zombies show up, Wesley kills any fun to be had from his camera work.

Sometimes it gets by on by a few funny moments. One particular moment had me in stitches where Williams is handcuffed to a car while the other cops are messing around; making out and fistfighting. When he catches sight of the zombies, Williams starts screaming at the top of his lungs and tries to find a way to escape, yet the cops around him somehow don't even hear this and ignore him.

Williams, a long time bit player who has appeared in films like "Better Off Dead" and "Jason Goes To Hell," gets to take on a leading role for once and proves to be the true highlight of the movie. His charisma won me over, giving his "comic relief" character a truly funny and likable persona. Phillips acquits himself fine in tough guy mode and there's some small, yet welcome appearances from Sven Ole Thorson, L.Q. Jones, and Dick Miller. For a one-dimensional role, Dale Midkiff does a fine job as a scumbag agent, but Petty grated on my nerves pretty quickly.

This film had signs of promise, but somehow got mucked up in the execution. I'll award it an extra star alone for Williams efforts to keep this film afloat, but for the most part, it fails to deliver in any suspense or campy material for that matter. Its nice to see Wesley working again, but hopefully he'll do better next time around.

Rating: ** 1/2 out of *****

Review by Adam Eshack - (c) 1/22/02