Hell's Highway

Lexzilla3.0

Maybe it’s just me, but there’s something so fun about wildly and joyfully unconvincing gore effects. Like this film knows its running on $5 and fumes, doesn’t pretend otherwise and just throws itself, full-on, into the horror hijinks mix.We’re talking entrail dragging, head splitting, eye shot out, penis severing, chainsaw through the torso kind of splatter. Plus, an actual jump scare moment that got me. Rubber monsters. Toy miniatures. And it’s not without some ingenuity too, there’s one moment where it makes a phone to pager message scene play out with the vibes of a Mexican standoff. Sure, the dialogue has some cringe moments and it never loses the not-that-pretty shot on video look, but there’s a semblance of a story, with a twist and everything, a move-everything-along-briskly pace, amateur but decent performances. It’s unpredictable and a bit of a blast, which is more that can be said about a lot of films with money.It is a horrifying experience to fall into madness when you could have jumped into a dumpster fire aka Seasonal Trash Fall 2025 19. Watch a horror movie featuring Phoebe Dollar.

Tony the Terror4.5

I remember when this first came out I was pretty interested in seeing it, but I just never quite got around to it until now. Luckily, it lives up to my “19 years in the making” expectation level. I mean it really is quite awesome! There’s a scene where someone flashes their pager like it’s a gun in an old western movie so if that doesn’t make your nips hard then I don’t know what the hell to do with you.You’ve got Phoebe Dollar giving what has to be her greatest performance and that’s supported by half the cast of Camp Blood 2. There’s also a cameo scene from Ron Jeremy in which he gets his dick cut off and honestly it’s exactly what he deserves both on and off the camera. Add to that Beverly Lynne in a supporting role and another cameo in the form of Joe Castro and you’ve got yourself a damn good time with some lovely squishy gooey practical special effects!It’s really quite impressive how much the director was able to do with a budget that consisted of a crisp sawbuck and a six pack of Pabst. I mean, that is the standard Sterling budget so I’m guessing this was no exception although this was also one of the better films he has produced so it’s possible he also offered the director like a 10% discount on the 160% overpriced dvd release of his own movie provided he only purchase it through the kunaki link on David’s Facebook page and not an outside distributor. If you know you know! 🤷🏻‍♂️

Ghoul Gruel4.0

“Jesus Christ, she’s still attached to the car!”Phoebe Dollar cuts off Ron Jeremy’s hog and vanishes while he spurts dick blood and drives into a gas station and explodes. That could be the whole review.There’s also a wild dream sequence with some busted, peeling, dripping demon. They hit a girl and her guts get stuck to the car and as they drive off they drag her torso by the arseropes like cans after a wedding. It’s also got the weirdest phone call standoff sequence you’ve ever seen. Manages to avoid most the pitfalls of microbudget SOV and deliver a unique and engaging story with little lag. The end twist was lame but not out of place for the genre and they mostly made it work, plus it was an excuse for a mini gore montage so they could admire their work and we could see a priest get his face split in two again.“…Isn’t that a scream? Doesn’t that just make you wanna die?”