Road Train
Pinnacle Films
DVD and BluRay
Australia
Road
Train is another one of those films that definitely won’t be used for tourist
promotion in Australia. In fact there is even a sly dig at the recent “Where
the hell are you” tourist advertisement. While there are elements of Duel
and Wolf Creek the film stands by itself as a top piece of terror.
Building on the background of disappearing tourists and backpackers throughout
Australia’s Outback, the film adds a supernatural aspect. With the recent conviction of serial killer
Ivan Milat, who preyed on these backpackers, the
film’s basic story is quite believable.
Four
friends set off on a camping holiday in Central Australia. Along the lonely
highway they are menaced by a huge road train, a semitrailer pulling two large
trailers. They crash and one of the boys, Craig, suffers a broken arm. The road
train stops and when they catch up with it they are surprised to find there is
no driver. They jump in and are just driving off when a man waving a gun runs out
of the bush. They keep going and somehow Marcus, the one doing the driving,
nods off during the night. In the morning they are on a dirt road in the middle
of nowhere. Marcus can’t get the truck
to start again – it is apparently out of fuel - so he and Nina set off to go
back to the highway for help. Marcus is also becoming a little hypnotised by
the truck’s bonnet ornament, a three headed dog that could represent Cerberus,
the ancient guardian of the underworld. It is invading his dreams and his
imagination but he says nothing to the others. The purpose of Cerberus was to
prevent souls leaving Hades after they had crossed over. This seems to be the
friends’ problem – once they stepped into the truck they don’t seem able to get
away from it.
When
they reach the highway the man with the gun reappears, demanding to know where
his truck is. He appears mentally disturbed rather than homicidal. From here
things only get worse. There is more going on than a murderous truckie. Craig’s
broken arm miraculously heals. When Nina finally opens one of the containers on
the road train trailer there is something dreadful inside.
The
film probably has more in common with Mad Max than with Duel –
the same savage and irrational violence, the same sense of isolation of the heroine.
If it was just a road trip film it would still be good viewing but the
supernatural slant makes it exceptional.
“You
didn’t take the truck. The truck took you.”
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