Weirdhouse Cinema: Highway to Hell

roll from a previous showing of Psycho three. Yes, yes, we're talking about the film Highway to Hell, which I'm positive that I watched on television back in the early nineties at some point early to mid nineties, I guess, uh, but I was. I was trying to just trying to figure out what I wonder where I saw it, And for a little bit there I was like eighty percent positive that I must have seen it on USA up

all night back in the day. Um. This this ran from on the USA network from about I don't know if if that would have you would if you would have been in the position to to watch this. Joe, Oh, uh well, I I don't remember ever seeing this movie on TV, but it has exactly that fragrance that USA Up All Night fragrance. Yeah, USA Up All Night was basically like it's late at night on cable. Let's show some let's show some B films. Let's let's show some

cult films. And uh, just to spice it up a little bit, you had a host there, Uh Gilbert Godfrey, the stand up comedian who will come back to in this this episode, served as host. At first was the soul host I think when they would do it on Saturdays, and then they added a second night. I guess it was so successful they started doing it on Friday nights as well. It was this um person by the name of Caroline Schlitt, but then she was replaced by on To Sheer, and Rhonda Shear was the long time Friday

night host. Um, who is this? You know, this this charismatic blonde, uh, comedic performer. And so they would host these with these you know, cheesy bits of of of early nineties comedy and introduced these strange films. And I was thinking back on it, and you know, I'm very quick to to reference Mystery Science Theater three thousand is a is a way that I, you know, early on, got into many of these weird and you know, arguably

bad films and B films and whatnot. And then another big influence was was was Monster Vision on T and T. But I often forget to give USA Up All Night any credit. I think USA Up All Night maybe where I first saw Friday thirte part eight Jason takes man Haaf,

the one that takes place mostly on a boat. Yeah. Um. I was actually just looking at some lists of films that were featured on USA Up All Night over the years, and also a spreadsheet that I think fans put together, and there were a lot of Friday to thirteenths on there, a lot of really like well known B films. Like, thinking back on it, I there's a part of me that wants to just attribute to the trashiest films to

USA Up All Night. And maybe it was just because there was something about it, Maybe it's something about the host segments to that it felt a little scandalous to be watching it as a child, like I should not be up watching. Yeah yeah, but but in many cases the other of these lists, I'm like, oh yeah, these are all great genre films, and they would have been edited for television obviously, how else will the children learn

about chud exactly? So um but one of those things that I found out looking at the list is like, oh, I guess there isn't any evidence that I have I can find right now that Highway to Hell ever aired on USA Up all Night, So maybe it never did. But I stand by what you said. This is the this this film should have aired on USA Up all

Night because it has all of that same energy. Rob, is it fair to ask if you have sort of a secret secondary career ambition to one day be a basic cable horror movie host like al Lewis, l Bira, Joe, Bob Briggs, somebody in that vein. Uh you know maybe in another life that would that would have been That would have been interesting, but um it it's weird to

look back on it. I never thought about those being actual jobs that people had somehow, you know, I I guess I didn't think long and hard about it, like why is why? Why is Rhonda shear or or Grandpap Monster? Why are they? You know, what are they doing? I guess on some level, especially when I was very young, I thought, well, they're there at the studio. It's their job to play this film like when like off camera

they're setting there watching it it air or something. You know, there's something about the horror movie host role on TV that, uh, it does serve a function which is suggesting the spirit in which you should receive the movie we are showing you. So it puts you know, Grandpa Unster is there to help put you in a mind frame to not just react to a trashy movie on TV and be like, what is this junk? But to react to it with with with jolly nous and the spirit of kind of

ironic adventure. Yeah. Yeah, And likewise, I think Rhonda Share and Gilbert Godfrey were there to to make you feel like you're, you're a little bit up to no good by watching this film like you're having a um, you know, a wild night out by staying in and watching a Friday the Thirteenth movie. Uh. Joel and the Bots and

Mike and the Bots. You know, they were all about, you know, showing you that it was it was all right to laugh at these films and take pleasure in their uh, their goofiness and uh, and I guess Joe Bob was there to to to to uh, you know, to cast a you know, a similar vibe. You know, maybe maybe it was a little less about about you know, making fun, but it was more, you know about embracing the you know, the weirdness of it. Now, wait, did we come about this in a total have we actually

introduced to the film yet? I don't recall, well, we said the title it is film Highway to Hell, which does not feature the A C D C song, which for which it was clearly named. I think some trailers for the film feature that the song, but otherwise you will not hear that song in the movie. I read a trivia claim on the internet. I can't verify this is true, but the claim is that they originally wanted it to be the theme song in the movie, but then found they could not afford it, so instead we

got a kind of off label prescription use of alternative rock. Yeah, and uh, I look forward to discussing the music in this one, because it's it's it's all over the place. Now, this is uh, this is an Arizona movie. This is kind of a nice part two, following our episode on Hands of Steel. Um. Almost all of this is filmed in Arizona. I think they might have filmed just a tiny bit in Utah as well, But uh, this, the filming of this movie takes us back to Page Arizona,

but also to Phoenix, Arizona. And yeah, you don't have to watch much of this film to realize, oh yeah, this this has a lot of Arizona in it. It's got a lot of tumbleweed diners, just like Hands of Steel, except there was nary a arm wrestling competition anywhere in in Highway to Hell, and I was a bit disappointed by that. So uh, at this point, I would like to ask this question, uh, you know, for you, for anyone else who's who's seen this film, what what exactly

is this movie? Is it? Is it a horror thriller? Is it a broad Beetlejuice style horror comedy? Is it a dark fantasy adventure? Is it Mad Max or Death Race? Uh? Is it a is it an MTV era Dante's Inferno? I feel like I can't answer the question. It feels like it's all of these things in different at different

and different degrees at different points throughout the film. Yeah, I mean, I guess the most distinct way to put it would be to say it's a horror comedy, but it's but yeah, it has elements of everything else you mentioned. There was quite a bit of of Mad Max kind of road battle uh content in there. Yeah, almost like if you if you get the filmed in Arizona package there, they tell you it's like all right, well, well here's your highway link that you can use, Um, how many

cars do you want to blow up? And like, well what this wasn't going to be a car chase movie and they're like, well it is now because you're filming an Arizona baby. Speaking of of numbers of cars, how do you think they they created the scene where you were on the highway in Hell with hundreds of VW Beatles, Remember that all the folks swagons. Somehow they source those cars? Um. I mean, I don't know if there's a little bit of screen trickery involved, but but also probably just a

lot of of actual bugs, I guess. Um. I think that scene is one of many in this film that it it does drive home that that this is a film with a unique vision. There are things that this film wanted that I don't think anybody else was asking for. I don't think maybe they're they're even the things that they're they're doing at times in this film really even all you know of work across the board. But you can't fault it for having a unique vision of things. Um,

it's it's it's ultimately ultimately a lot of fun. Yeah, you never know what exactly is gonna come next. You just know that it's going to be in this sort of weird MTV era kind of vibe. But yeah, at heart horror comedy, I can agree with that, and it is it is an orphic story. At heart is it is about going into the underworld to retrieve your lost love, which of course is a is a longstanding mythic trope

and one that we continue to define throughout our media. Now, before we go any further, there's one thing that I wanted to flag at the beginning. I thought it was

kind of interesting about this movie. It has what I would call maybe an omni mythological view of hell, in that it's the hell setting in this movie is not just the Christian hell, but it is a hell that essentially incorporates l elements from every type of vision of hell or any negatively inflected afterlife, from all of all of mythology or or even just you know, other pop culture from the twentieth century. So it's got you know,

sort of cartoon devil kind of stuff. It's got deals with the devil devil and Daniel Webster kind of things. It's got some classic Christian uh Dante's Inferno stuff. But then it's also got, as we said, this Orpheus and euridicy Basis, so there's a lot of Greek mythological visions of Hades in it. Yeah, and then all of this of course set very much in the American desert um and and interestingly enough to this is we're dealing with a a. The writer was American, but the director who

discussed here as Dutch. So you wonder to like, how much of this is like an outsider's view or understanding of America and the American desert through the lens of cinema, um, et cetera. So yeah, you have all these different energies going on. And oh yeah, let's even got kind of a dusty tumbleweed grand Pappy on the side of the road to offer wisdom and give the hero tools he needs in order to complete his quest. Oh yes, yes, and he's wonderful. Yeah, it's got Obi wan kenobi and overalls.

All right, well, let's go ahead and listen to just a little bit of the trailer here, but not a whole lot, just just a little bit of it, because this is a dumb trailer in my opinion, and and certainly don't watch it, because this is also one of those trailers where and maybe this had to do with like the fact that this movie set on the shelf

for a little bit before they finally released it. They took the approach of let's just put every special effects shot in the film in the trailer, including like major character deaths and so forth, joining us on a dazzling cinematic adventure down the Highway to Hell ad that stretches from Highway to Hell an unforget journey some softeign pictures. Now we ll have some fun. Now, does the trailer give away the identity of Satan? Because give everything everything

that's criminal. I hate it when you know I am I am very much of the teaser school of trailers. I really like it when the trailer gives you one thing from the movie and try instead of trying to cram in little glimpses of tons of things. Yeah, and yeah, this one definitely makes that mistake. It's just little glimpses

of everything in the film. Once you've seen this trailer, the film has nothing new to give you, really, except except maybe extended improv lines from Ben Stellar, which gets I noticed you were down on the Ben Stiller part. I thought it was I thought there were some some of his improving was okay, but he's so. Ben Stiller plays a cook at a diner in Hell called Pluto's Cafe, which is kind of funny. And so he's grilling stuff on the sidewalk outside and and he says, why use

mesquite when you've got concrete? You know. I liked it. It was It's fine, It's fine, but it felt like there was a lot of it. Also, Ben Stiller is jacked in this movie. Did you notice that he's been working out before they maybe? Yeah, I mean I think he was always jacked. Is a thing about Ben Stiller, Like if you if you go back and watch you know, various early appearances. Yeah, he was always pretty jack. He just you know, generally had a shirt on, but you

could see it's pretty muscular underneath there. I was impressed, all right, so let's start at the top with us. The director is Dutch filmmaker Alt Young born nineteen fifty three. Uh, he seems to have he seems to have shifted to American projects after doing an episode of Miami Vice in seven and then he went on to direct this obviously, but also dropped Dead Fred, starring Phoebe Kates and Rick

Mayle of who's famously of the young ones. Um And Uh, you know, I have not seen drop Dead Fred, which is a like a grown up with an imaginary friend, like a whimsical imaginary friend, uh, type of a plot. Uh,

But we were I was looking at the reviews. It seems like nobody liked this when it came out, none of the adults anyway, Because when we were talking to our producer Seth, he said that when he was a child and he watched this film, he very much enjoyed it, and therefore he has like kind of a warm spot in his heart for it. So I don't know, I'd love to hear from anyone out there who has who has opinions on this based on especially watching it as a child. Well, you know what, you love it, more

power to you. I gotta say it looks intensely annoying. But then again, stars Phoebe Kate's, I mean, the imminently likable Phoebe k It's a lot of people probably know her from Gremlin's you know. And Rick, I mean, Rick is terrific. Uh. Rick, Rick is amusing and everything, and I've seen him in some terrible films, but he always brings that wonderful, manic energy of his to a performance. Now, as for young Uh, it seems like like basically, like I said, he had some some Dutch films before he

came to the US. He directed these two films, both of them you know, very much kind of supernatural comedy type deals, and then he seems to have for the rest of his career he's just largely been about more independent and uh in many cases, you know, more far more European films. Um, a lot of them look like they're a lot more serious. So I don't know. I guess he got in had a taste of that, you know, that that mainstream American filmmaking, and maybe decided, uh, he'd

rather do other things. But he seems to have had a long and seemingly a successful career. Uh passed highway to hell. Now, the writer for this film is actually a major name. This is Brian Helgoland born in X one Academy Award winning screenwriter for l A Confidential. Oh that's a great script. Yeah, yeah, yeah it was. It was wonderful film. Now pre l A Confidential. Um. He he seemed to work in horror quite a bit, so he wrote the fourth Elm Street Movie. Was that one

of the good ones? Oh? Yeah, I'd say that's one of the better ones. Yeah. He also did nine seven six Evil as well as episodes of Friday Thirteenth. The series is nine seven six Evil. That movie about a phone number that when you call it, it kills you. I think it is. I don't know that I ever saw that one, but that also feels suitably like late eighties early nineties, the idea that there are evil phone numbers that you dare not call, and they're probably advertised

during USA up all night at the time. Oh. It was directed by Robert England, who plays Freddie Krueger in the Nightmare on Elm Street movies. And yeah, okay, so people who who dial nine seven six Evil in this movie, yeah, they get some kind of curse or they they turned into murderers. I think I haven't seen this one, but I do find it interesting that there is a movie of this type for every technology. So You've got The Ring, which is about a you know, videotape that when you

watch it, it kills you. And there's fear dot Com about a website You go there and it kills you. Here's a phone number, you call it and it kills you. Um, you've got the Mangler that's about I think washing machine. You use it and it kills you know, industrial washing machines will kill you. Yeah, but you know what, they never got to. They never got to a reclining chair that kills you. Oh, I think they did. I think they did eventually, but not not not during the twentieth century.

But I think I did run across some sort of a killer sofa, killer lazy boy type of the movie Century years. Yes, in one century film, but as far as I know, Helgoland had nothing to do with that. After the success of of Vale Confidential and Assassins, he went under a writer's a string of big scripts, including Conspiracy Theory, The Postman, Payback, A Night's Tale, Mystic river

Man on Fire. Um oh he he uh. He had Also early on both he wrote and directed an episode of Tales from the Crypt, and he went on to direct a Slight Case of Murder along with Payback, A Night's Tale forty two, uh and and many many more. So, what I'm saying is the script for Highway to Hell is just above reproach. I get the sense that a lot of what's on screen has been significantly sort of ad libbed or built upon, uh, beyond what's on the page.

I can't say that for sure, but I at least I've seen that alleged with like all of Ben Stiller's parts which are said to have been ad libbed. And I don't know. This feels like a movie that incorporates a good deal of improvisation. But yeah, conceptually there's a lot of good gags in it. Yeah. Alright, well, let's talk about our core character core cast here. So first of all, we have our our main hero here, we have our our orpheus and and this is the character

Charlie played by Chad low Born. At first, when I saw him, I was like, wait a minute, I didn't know Rob low was in this, And then I realized something. It wasn't quite there. It was Rob Low in the like you know, wrestling video game character creator. But somebody has moved the sliders around just a little bit, and then I realized, oh, okay, this is Rob lows extremely

similar looking and sounding younger brother. Yes. Yeah, and and I have to say low Low is perfectly fine in this playing our brave but naive boyfriend who has to travel to Hell to get his girl back. Um. Chad Low did a lot of TV work, including Spencer Life Goes On Melrose Place e er twenty four, Pretty Little Liars,

and I think more far more recently, Supergirl. I would say both of the main two actors in this this the movie doesn't require a lot of them in terms of dramatic nuance, but but for what it does require, you know what, they're both good. Yeah. Yeah, and so his the girl that he must retrieve from. How is that the character Rachel played by Christie Swanson B nine. Um, if you're not familiar with it, this is the original Buffy the Vampire Slayer from the movie that came out

before the series. Yeah, I've never seen the movie. Yeah it's um, I've forgotten most of it, but I mean it exists, and I think Paul Rubens is in it Okay, but but yes. Swanson was also in Dude, Where's My Car, Ferris Beeler's Day Off and Flowers in The Attic. TV Viewers might also know her from the series Psych All

right now. In the Joseph Campbell theory of the myth cycle, your young hero has to have a mentor figure is sort of like wise older figure who appears to give supernatural aid near the beginning of the story and encourage the hero to sort of like breach the boundaries and go into the underworld or the other world. And in this movie that character is played by is is the

dusty grandpappy we talked about earlier played by Richard Farnsworth. Yeah, Farnsworth play Sam and this brings the second future Academy Award winner into this picture. Uh So. Farnsworth was a

longtime stunt man uh turned actor. He did a lot of Western work, but eventually popped up in films and it was acting roles um films like The Two, Jake's Misery and and probably most notable of all, his final film role The Straight Story by David Lynch, in which he plays an old man who makes this long journey by lawn mower to mend his relationship with an ill brother. And one of the things about this is that again,

this was Farnsworth's last role. Uh. He was actually terminally ill during the filming, and I went on to earn an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. So what I said earlier about him being a winner, he did not win the Academy Award for this role, but was nominated, And I think that that's that's still pretty good. But at any rate, Richard Farnsworth, Yeah, he's great in this,

playing the old man who has the secret knowledge. He's the old he's he plays also that kind of horror movie trope of the the old feller that's going to warn you about what you should not get up to. Um. But then he's also here to guide our hero once he does get into trouble. Oh yeah, I mean, in a way you could look at that. Well, I guess

this is a much a different version of that. But I was thinking about, you know, Crazy Ralph in in Friday the Thirteenth, who warns all the kids not to go to Camp Blood because he's got a death curse. But Crazy Ralph comes off as if you know, he is menacing in his own way. Uh, this old fellaw. I guess he's a little bit ominous. When he first starts like wiping the windows at the service station and it's playing these dramatic music stings. I don't know why

it's doing that, but I did find it funny. So whatever you were doing, filmmakers, that did work. I enjoyed that scene. There's also a funny part right after that where there's their dramatic music stings when Chad Low goes into the service station and he goes to the coffee stand and there's like the sugar caddies and stuff, and it's going done, done, done. But anyway. He ultimately plays a very uh kind, wise and benign figure in this movie, who who arms the hero with the supernatural tools he

will need in order to defeat the great evil. Alright, Uh. The next actor of note in this Patrick Bergen uh plays this character that we encounter in Hell. Uh is introduced by the name of Beazel and turns out to be this kind of satanic mechanic. Um. You know, I guess what is a homage to the Rocky rd Picture Show. I assume if the trailer spoils everything for you. It's okay if we go ahead and spoil everything for you,

the big twist and reveals and so forth. Um yeah, let's go ahead and say, yeah, this is the point of no return if you want to go into this spoiler free ended all hope of surprise. He who enter here. Uh yeah, So, as you might guess from the name, Beazel, who appears at first as a helpful, friendly figure in Hell, turns out to be b El's a Bub Satan himself the Bael's Abub, but I want to be clear, is not always represented as identical to Satan. Sometimes he's just

one of the demons of Hell. But in in some Christian traditions, Beel's Abub and Satan are the same, and here that they take that tech. Uh. Though I thought it was very funny when we first meet him, I get, I don't know how surprising it is supposed to be when you ultimately find out that he has Beel's abub because his name is Beazel. They're doing a very Edwood you know, doctor Acula thing like that, but at least

the characters act surprised. Um. I have to point out that when we first encounter Patrick Berg and he also has a very nice mustache. Um, which I'm kind of taking it on myself for this to be maybe a theme for this month's Weird House Cinema, since we're participating in November that we need films with strong, um encouraging mustaches. Uh. In the picture, well, cheers der satanic mustache. Later on he's clean shaven, and then later on beyond that he's

like in full demon mode with horns and stuff. His accent also changes a little bit depending on what mode he's in. Yes, sometimes he sounds almost Australian. Did you get that? Yeah? Well, like so, just to back up Patrick Berg and if you're not familiar with him, Irish actor m who was especially hot in the nineteen nineties, appearing in such films as Sleeping with the Enemy, Patriot Games,

Robin Hood and Love Crimes. He also played Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton in Mountains of the Moon in nineteen ninety, which I haven't seen in a very long time, but I remember as being great. I don't know how it holds up. That was one that also started uh Ian Glenn as John Speak also featured Richard E. Grant, Fiona Shaw and Peter Vaughan. Um oh, and he also played a uh Bergen also played Dr Frankenstein in the TV adaptation that I that I fondly look back on. I

saw he was also in lawnmower Man to Beyond Cyberspace. Yep, um it's I think that one was also Job's War. I think it has different titles. Uh oh, and he in Bergen also played Dracula in a two thousand two TV series, so he's he's gotten a little bit of the Dracul, a little bit of the Frankenstein. He's basically a horror icon. But anyway, yes, no, before you move on, I'm hung up on this. What was it lawnmower Man Too,

Beyond Cyberspace, Job's War. I think it has different subtitles depending on where you're encountering it, so you weren't going to get both. Yeah. I feel like we've discussed this before. I don't know if it was on Mic or off Mike. But we'll just have to cover lawnmower Man Too at some point and just put all of this to rest. Okay, it's got a good cast, it's got people are liking it, and it's based a Stephen King's story. So okay, yeah, about as much as this movie is based on Orpheus

and euridacy. Yeah. Anyway, back to his accent, yes, so Patrick Bergen is Irish, and I feel like early on his character is more Irish, but by the end of it, I'm not sure what accent he's using, and I'm not sure how much of the demon um special effects makeup is changing the way he talks, you know. But anyway, Petrick Bergan is a He's a fun screen presence throughout. Would this be our second movie within a month that's got an Irish big bad You got Dan O Harley

he and Halloween three? Oh yeah, I guess so. Alright, another major villain in this piece as a character we'll we'll describe in more detail in a bit, but hell cop hey k a Sergeant Bedlam is plays that are are are big physical threat of a character of a villain played by C. J. Graham, who didn't do a lot else besides of this, but he did play Jason Vorhees in Friday the Thirteenth, Part six Jason Lives. Is

that one of the good ones? Uh? As we discussed last time, I don't know if there are any good ones but that one certainly enjoyable. That's the first one that just commits to Yeah, Jason is undead. He's back from the grave. Something I appreciate. Instead of having to go the Halloween route and always explain how he didn't die when you thought he did last time, instead they said, yeah, he died. He's just now Now this is a supernatural series.

It wasn't before now it is, so what I think that's ultimately admirable to say, we got to shake it up a little bit. We're not ready to go to space, but we'll do this. Yeah, precisely. So Part six is a lot of fun. Uh, it's the first one where he's undead. This is the undead Jason, and I gotta say, hell, cop, he's a lot like Jason. He is. He doesn't speak, he's just very impassive and violently efficient. There's very little emotion in his performance. Yeah, and and ultimately I think

that's one of the reasons this character really stands out. Uh, and is I think one of the real highlights of the film. Alright, but other characters, other humans involved. We have this this character Royce, who's like a biker in Hell who also has a sword, and he's played by Adam Stork born nine two. Can you explain this character to me? I don't think I missed anything, but I didn't. I felt like this character was supposed to mean something

that I never understood. Yeah, Like, I don't know if there were key scenes that had to be cut, but he was probably the least interesting thing in the film for me. Whenever he was on the screen, I was I was wondering, where's help other characters should be asking? Yeah,

to better explain what I'm saying. I feel like this is a character that would almost make sense if he was supposed to be tapping into like a type or another character known from outside the movie, the way that Gilbert Gottfried shows up as Hitler and so like that part is supposed to be funny because the audience is supposed to already bring knowledge of who Hitler is and why he would be in Hell. But this character, it feels like that, except we just to have no idea

who this guy is. Yeah, exactly. It would have made a lot more sense and would require less wondering if they we were like, oh, yeah, well he matches up with this historical or mythic figure and therefore, uh, you know, we we don't. We don't have to think too long and hard about what he's supposed to be in this film. But as far as Adam Store goes, he appeared in Mystic Pizza, Death Becomes Her and did a lot of TV work. He was also in the TV adaptation the

mini series of Phantom of the Opera. Uh, this is what I've actually seen. I've kind of remember enjoying this as a kid. It's started Charles Dance as the Phantom, and it also featured Ian Richardson and Burt Lancaster. Oh, how did I never know about this? Charles Dances the Phantom. I would love to see that. Yeah, I remember it was.

I think it was my first introduction to Phantom of the Opera actually, and uh and so so I don't know what if how that ways that it might have been terrible, but it was like the first real Fantom story I watched. Oh. In quick note in the film though here in Highway to Hell, Royce has a gang of bikers with him in Hell, and they are apparently played entirely by the alt rock band from the late eighties Doss Psycho Rangers. I don't know this band. Yeah.

I think they only put out like a couple of things, so they weren't They weren't huge. But they are credited in the credits for the film as Doss Psycho Rangers. I do remember that. Yeah, alright. Our our next actor of note in this Pamela Gidley plays Clara. This is the old man Sam's lost love. Uh, this will make sense when we described the plot a little bit, but she lived. She played the title character in the the post apocalyptic sci fi I guess that one is also

kind of a sci fi comedy deal. Cherry two thousand. Um, though, if you're only familiar with the with the poster our Cherry two thousand is not the main character in Cherry two thousand. It's a it's a female bounty hunter character who's helping to retrieve Cherry tooth thousand. Melanie Griffith, Yeah, Melanie Griffith plays you have Melanie Griffith is lead. Melanie Griffith is not Cherry two thousand. But Gidley was also

in Twin Peaks fire Walk with Me. She played Teresa Banks. Now, as we mentioned earlier, we we do have some Ben Stiller in this film, but it goes beyond that, we don't. We have the whole Stiller family in a Highway to Hell, actually sometimes in multiple roles, right because Ben Stiller, I think, plays both the cook at Pluto's cafe the hell Diner, and he plays the Till of the Hun. Later in a scene where you're you're you're watching like evil historical

figures sitting around a table. Oh yes, because okay, so at the in the scene where it's the historical figures, Yeah, it's Ben Stiller is a Till of the Hun. Ben Stiller's sister Amy Stiller playing Cleopatra, and Gilbert Godfrey playing

Adolf Hitler. Um, they're playing cards or something. And uh, and I should add that I think, Um, Gilbert Godfrey is the only one even halfway trying to do an accent and still very much Gilbert Godfrey doing a German accent, and I think his choice is to portray Hitler in Hell as insufferably whiny. Yeah. Yeah, it's excellent casting, excellent casting.

But yeah, it's not just just Amy Stiller and Ben Stiller. Uh, but it's also Jerry Stiller, who plays a desk cop and then Jerry Steeler's wife and Amira plays media who is a waitress at Pluto's the hell Diner um. And of course this is fun because they were a stand up comedy act back in the day. They were a husband and wife stand up team. Yeah, she she's quite

funny in the diner scene. And Jerry Stiller he, I didn't fully understand what was going on between him and the hell Cop, but eventually the hell Cop like shoots him with a with a dimensional portal gun. Yeah. Yeah, but he's like messing with hell Cop. He's like asking for it. He's being like really annoying towards him, and I don't I don't know what the relationship between the two is supposed to be. He's like, that's what I

do in Hell I I prank hell Cop. But he's the only one who's not afraid of hell Cop, which which seems fitting. That's a good point. Yes, he's the only one in the movie who doesn't fear him other than Satan himself, I guess yea, and Satan himself respects him, like he knows this is a good Hinchman. But yeah, Jerry Stiller is just not buying it at all. So it's such an always I have no I still do this day. I have no idea why this is the case, why the entire Stiller family is in this strange film,

but is one of its charms. Oh, but I guess this comes back to that thing I read. I think I already said this, but I read on at least the IMDb trivia page. If this is correct, it claims that been Stiller ad libbed all of his dialogue in the film. And I don't know if that's true, if it could be all of it, but certain certain parts to do feel rather improvisational. Oh yeah, I mean he's he's basically a background cameo that was allowed to swell and take on life like nothing he's saying is important

to the plot. Uh, so I buy that. I bet he did improve all of these lines about frying eggs on the sidewalk in hell. Now another actor of note in this uh, Kevin Peter Hall, who lived nine appears later on in the film playing the character of Sharon the You know this is the character from Greek mythology, but also, uh, you know a character pops up in Dante's Inferno Ferno. This is the uh, this is the boatman who brings you across the river into the Underworld. Yeah,

and he's portrayed here as having his eyelids sown shut. Yeah. And and this is neat for Kevin Peter Hall because you have all seen Kevin Peter Hall movies, but he's generally covered in a lot more makeup. He played the Predator in both Predator one and two. He also played the alien in Without Warning, the very first movie we watched for Weird House Cinema. That's right. Yeah, he played Mutant Bear in nine Prophecy. That was his first film. And he played Harry and Harry and the Henderson's as

well as Big John in Big Top Pee Weee. So yeah, that is interesting. Somebody who's been in a lot of well known movies and is in a way himself well known for like great physical performances, but people wouldn't recognize his face because he's always behind a bunch of makeup. Yeah. So he he uh sadly died due to age related pneumonia. He had contracted HIV from a blood transfusion apparently, and

this was his final film role. Now here's another interesting really this is a cameo as well, but also this is very telling of the vibe of this film. Leada Ford shows up playing a hitchhiker. She was the lead guitarist for the all female rock band The Runaways in the late nineteen seventies before going solo as a glam metal act. In the late nineteen eighties. She sang a duet with the Ozzy Osbourne on the single Closed My

Eyes Forever. So she's a denizen of Hell in this movie who has a freaky early encounter with Chadlow when he shows up. Yeah, that leads right into um, this strange attack by a one of Hell's ice cream salesman. It's like, scream Scoop and he's like, Okay, I'll ate you, Yeah, and our character has to blast him with a holy shotgun. Um. I will mention the cinematographer on this one because it's this is kind of interesting. Robin Vigion Uh born nine

uh this. This guy was a cinematographer on such films as Hell Razor, Hell Razor to the Fly, to The Never Ending Story Well three Um. He He also worked in the camera and electrical department on Raiders of the Lost Arc, Never Say Never Again, and the World Is Not Enough. And he was second unit director on Event Horizon. So I especially thought the Hell Raiser Hell Razor two thing was interesting given that we have a character and

here was some strong cinebide energy. Yes, that's right, And speaking of that character, I would say one of the things I found most impressive about this movie is the design of hell Cop. Hell Cop looks really interesting. One of the main things about him is that he's got writing carved all over his face and apparently that was a touch coming from the UH. The person behind special makeup effects in this movie Steve Johnson. Right. Yes, Steve

Johnson born nineteen sixty UH. He has special effects, makeup, design and creation credit on this He is has a very long history UM in the practical special effects and makeup special effects. For instance, he made Slimer for Ghostbusters. He worked on such films as The Howling with with Rob Bolton. He worked on American Werewolf in London with Rick Baker, and he co ran the special makeup effects studio at Boss Films that worked on pol Guys, to

Fright Night and Big Trouble in Little China. His company x FX worked on the Abyss species as well as four seasons of the Outer Limits series. I was excited to UH to see that so he's worked on loads of films with with interesting practical special effects makeup. He worked on Blade too, for example. So uh so, yeah, this is a film knowing that Steve Johnson is heavily involved. You know that that if nothing else, uh, the monsters and the makeup and the gore, it's all gonna look

really good. And it sure does. Yeah. I know that last one is going to be special to you because Rob, I know you're a Blade to man. Yeah. Yeah, alright. Let's talk briefly about the music here. So the music is mostly credited Two Hidden Faces, which I believe a trio of of individuals. Yeah, this is a musical group. I looked them up and they have four film composition credits on IMDb. Several. I don't think I've ever seen any of these movies, but I just wanted to mention

several because they were funny. One from a movie called Nuns on the Run. This is a farce crime comedy starring Eric Idol and Robbie Coltrane. So, Sir Robin and Hagrid. I guess um, I am right about that, right, that's Hagrid. Yeah, um, I saw this as a child. By the way, really so I don't remember anything about it. I've never seen it. But these are gang stories who have to run and hide from the police and from hit men who are

simultaneously after them. And the scheme they come up with is they're going to pretend to be nuns and hide in a convent. Is this also the plot of Sister Act, except here it's Eric Idol and Robbie Coltrane. Um, I'm not sure. I feel like there was another film that had a very similar plot that came out around the same time, but possibly Sister Act. I don't think I've seen I don't think I've actually saw Sister Act. I'm just familiar with the musical numbers from it. Just looked

it up. Yep, it sure is so. In Sister Act, Whoopi Goldberg plays a lounge singer who is forced to join a convent after being placed in a witness protection program. So, yes, she is hiding out in a convent pretending to be a nun to in order to hide from hitman who want to kill her. Oh. I had to look it up because yes, I think it's also basically the plot of the nine film We're No Angels, which is a

Neil Jordan's film. Uh. And in this one, what I think, it's Sean Penn and Robert de Niro who pretend to be priests. This time it's not nuns but priests hiding from from somebody, wait, priests or monks, priests in this case, definitely priest. But this seems to very much be a thing wise guy or gals um hiding within the church pretending to be monks or priests or nuns or something. Right right, Okay, So you got Nuns on the run for Hidden Faces, and then you got Highway to Hell.

And then the other two movies that they composed for are called Under the Hula Moon and the Players Club. Players Club is movie written and directed by Ice Cube. Uh. And then Under the Hula Moon. I was looking at the IMDb synopsis. This is a movie in which Stephen Baldwin plays a man named Buzzard who lives in Arizona and he thinks he's going to get rich by inventing a type of new sunscreen called camo, which looks like

camouflage when you put it on. M Okay, that I can see that that plot going in in totally different directions. It could be serious, It could be comedy. Well, I think I think it eventually turns into a kidnapping movie. So I think, Uh, Chris Penn plays like an evil guy in that movie who kidnaps Steven Baldwin's wife, Okay,

and he's got to go rescue her. Now. When I was looking looking at information about this film Highway to Hell, um, I of course looked it up in Michael Weldon's The Psychotronic Video Guide, and in it he he specifically mentions that this movie makes use of Tangerine Dream music from the film Miracle Mile, which is the apocalyptic thriller starring

Anthony Edwards. And at first I was, I was, I didn't doubt Michael Weldon because Michael Weldon, aside from being an expert on all of these these films, um, he also generally had a really he has a really great head for the music scene. So if he mentions a particular release or a particular artist being involved in the film, I mean he's he's invariably correct. So I didn't doubt him. But I was looking around and like IMDb does not

list Tangerine Dream on the credits. Uh that they have there? Uh, they don't don't have anything about Tangerine Dream in the trivia section. Uh. You know, there's nothing on the wicki um, but if you if you watch the full credits for the film, they do say, um, special thanks to Tangerine Dream for additional music. So some of the time, I think when we're when we're watching Highway to Hell and the music is particularly good, uh, we're actually listening to

Tangerine Dream. Huh. So do you think subconsciously that's why you picked this movie? Uh? Um, I mean probably probably not, But it's kind of a neat idea that I kind of like accidentally tripped into a Tangerine Dream score. Um, because there are there are Tangerine Dreams scored films that I've kind of been eyeballing, Like we could talk about that,

and that'd be an excuse to really discuss Tangerine Dream. Um. So uh, and we'll probably come back to that because ultimately this is not the place to really get into Tangerine Dream because I'm not even I'm not even exactly sure which bits of music that we're hearing our Tangerine Dream bits. I just suspect that certain ones, the ones that were more um uh, you know, it gave you more of this, uh, this sort of spacey, otherworldly fee

that those must have been a tangerine dream moments. But I'm not familiar with Miracle Mile or their work on Miracle Mile, so I can't really identify it. All right, Well, are you ready to get into the plot. Let's discuss the plot. Okay, So I don't think this is one of the ones where we're gonna go scene by scene and do the whole thing, but instead maybe mentioned things that stood out to us as we as we go along. So there was a strange choice. I thought to begin

the live action portion of the movie. Now there's a there's a credit sequence that showing you this like animated postcard that says greetings from Highway to Hell um. But then after that it begins the live action portion of the movie with video game footage. You're watching a cop play an arcade cabinet game called Highway to Hell. And I know they did not create an original video game for this movie. So I was trying to figure out what actual aim this is. Nothing on the web tells me.

I thought I could match something, you know, just match the screen to something. It looks kind of like out Run or Final Lap, but the hut isn't quite right, So I don't know what game this is, but it ties into something that's mentioned in the text epilogue. So after the last scene fades out and you get that, you know that text crawl on the screen telling you

what all the characters. It says that the Chad Lowe's character Charlie goes on to become rich and famous by developing a bunch of very successful video games that are all Hell themed. I guess it's imagining that he made Doom or something, though otherwise video games are not a theme in this movie. It's only the opening shot and and then that epilogue. Yeah, yeah, the epilogue that was totally unasked for. Like you don't you don't reach the end of this movie and you're like, I wonder what

happened to them? It doesn't matter, No, everybody wants to know. It's like the last episode of The Wonder Years. You want to know what everybody became when they grew up, who got married to who, Like Chad and Rage escaped Hell like that that's all you need to know. Like that's enough. Nothing else they're gonna do is going to top that. Um, So you know, why do we need this epilog? I totally disagree. I think we needed to

know that Chad became a video game lord. You know, he probably had to testify before Congress at some point when they were holding a hearing on violence in video games and hell imagery. And then Rachel what does it say she opened a bunch of successful health themed Pizzaiha's Yes, that's right, she did. I want that information. Oh and it says that their dog Ben went on to star in dog food commercials. Yeah. Yeah, they felt it was important for us to know this as well. The narrative

would not be complete without the dog food commercials. Yeah. And they're also like, and Satan still satan ng that's all he doesn't actually, it's not actually doing anything differently. He's just he's still doing the same. But okay, opening, So that we've covered beginning to end there, right, that's right now, there are a few things we should mention in between. So so opening scene, you got Chad Low and Christy Swanson. Uh you know that there again? Um,

what are their names? Yeah, Charlie and Rachel. They are they're eating basket burgers at some diner in the scrub land I think it's supposed to be outside of Las Vegas and uh, and Charlie is nervous because the situation is I think they're like teenagers who ran off together to get married in Las Vegas. So they're trying to Elope and they think that their parents found out that they ran off to get married and they're trying to and that they're going to send the cops after them

to bring them home. Yeah, so they're they're very concerned that this cop that was playing the video game is coming for them and it's gonna and is in fact following them when they drive away from this diner, right, So they bolt from the diner with with their dog, Ben, who was very cute dog. I love to have the dog. I had to at the beginning. I had to be like okay, Google and going too does the dog die?

Dot com? And looking at up No, the dog does not die, but this doe, I I don't know because I'm not around your dog all the time, but I felt like this dog looks like your dog. Not immensely, but yes, sort of. Plus, the main character's name is Charlie. Charlie is the name of your dogs. I guess that'll true. Added to it. Yeah, But so their dogs hanging out and they're dinged up forward Pinto and I love the Pinto,

by the way. So they they're driving around in a Pinto with a jiggling triangular light up roof sign for a pizzeria called Nunzio's Pizzeria. So I guess we're to understand that that Chad Low is a pizza delivery boy.

And when he takes his burger back to the car, he puts the burger in his mouth and then lets the dog eat it out of his mouth, which okay, but it's pretty great because he established this is I mean, this is really well put together, because we're very just a few minutes into the film, and you already know pretty much what these characters are, what they're doing, what their dynamics are, like, they're super gonna love he loves his dog too, but he's he's riding around in this

pizza delivery car clearly doesn't have like two nickels rubbed together, so so you can and and they're they're just they're very concerned that this cop is going to be after them, and and really if they ran, if they think the cops are after them, they're they're totally in the wrong vehicle to try and sneak away and hide themselves and none the great American desert, right. You would think if they were going for subtlety, he would take the pizzeria logo off the top of the car. One thing I

got to say about the diner. I love when restaurants used to have big signs for Vienna Sausages on the walls. This diner there at the beginning does yeah, was was that ever a selling point for restaurants? I don't know, but there was a restaurant here in Atlanta I went to one time that had one of those big vintage vintages and the sausages posters. Yeah, some people would buy them in a store, I guess, being a sausage and we're talking about the same thing like this sort of

like reconstituted. Yeah. I don't know, it's quality, I guess um. But so yeah, Anyway, they hit the highway and when they're out on the freeway that they noticed the motorcycle cop who was playing the arcade game and the diner is still behind them, and uh, and Chad Lowe is paranoid.

So Charlie thinks they're being followed. Rachel doesn't, but Chad's afraid, so he gets off on a dark exit called Black Canyon Road to see if the cople do the same, and the cop does not get off after them, so they're they're just you know, off there in the dark, and he's like, I actually, we're okay. But then Charlie has a great idea. He's like, I know, let's take this dark, unfamiliar back road to Vegas instead of the freeway absolutely and through the desert in a questionable automobile

like you do. And I was wondering, are there back roads to Vegas? I'm not really familiar with Las Vegas, so I looked on Google Maps and maybe sort of. I mean, there are a bunch of different freeways and highways going in. There's one sort of back ish looking road that I think goes through the Lake Mead recreational area. So I don't know if that's what they had in mind, or maybe, uh, maybe the person who wrote this wasn't

all that familiar with Agacy either. I don't know. Yeah, I ultimately it's the horror movie trope of let's let's go on the back road, let's let's get off the main path, and surely nothing bad will happen to us, right, So off they go into the darkness, and they end up pulling up at a service station called the Last Chance Service Station, and there's an old man hanging out there in a rocking chair, and Rob, I don't know if if if I'm reaching here, but if you notice

that the old man's rocking chair has a rear view mirror on it, just like a truck would. Is this an orpheus and euridicy thing about, like the theme of looking back behind you? Because we ultimately find out that this old man his his sweetheart was lost in the underworld and he never retrieved her. I didn't really put it together like that when I rewatched the film, but I think you might your right. So anyway, they get the tank filled up and and this is the scene

I was describing earlier. That's actually very funny because the old man's cleaning the windows in an ominous manner, and the coffee station has these chilling music stings. I'm not quite sure why they decided to do that, but I thought it was funny. Um, And before they leave, the old man warns them he's, like, you know, are you heading for Vegas? And Charlie says why he asked, and he says, well, it's an old road. It needs a lot of repair. You'd be a lot safer on the interstate.

But of course, you know, being kids, they ignore him until the car won't start, and so then when when they can't get it started, Rachel has to go open the hood and fix it. And here we find out she knows stuff about cars. She took auto shop in high school, so she can repair it. And that will come up again later. But the old man seems concerned. He offers to let them stay in his extra cabin, uh, and they ignore him. So when they're leaving, he says,

you keep an eye out for two Joshua trees. If you get sleepy, don't pull over until you pass the second one. So I like that. That's a sort of you know that that has a convincing ring to it. And plus it's what this this portion of the film too, is I found especially well shot because it's shot at night. So it's night in the desert, uh, you know, out

in the middle of nowhere. Uh. So I feel like I was really getting a strong, ominous feeling from all of this and granted, you know, some of it is you know, familiar tropes, the old man warning you about the dangerous to come and the road ahead, and of course the kids aren't going to listen to him, but it's but it's well presented, right, And so out on the road, um, Charlie is monologueing about how much he loves her and and he's saying, you know, sweet sappy stuff.

And then he realizes she's asleep and hasn't been listening to him, and then he tries to talk to his dog, and then also realizes the dog is asleep, which was funny. And then we see ominously a Joshua tree. Uh. And then, of course, as you might imagine, after he passes the Joshua tree, Charlie starts to get very sleepy while he's driving and starts to nod off. Anytime that happens in a movie, I always feel like I get the yeah, I don't know, that's the kind of scene that that

gets me. And as he's falling asleep, he suddenly swerves while driving and is immediately confronted by a highway patrol car on this this dangerous section of the road. And we said, as we see the officer get out of the car and immediately something is wrong. His boot sizzles on the pavement when he steps out, like a hot iron pressing into meat. And you see him holster his gun and it looks like something out of RoboCop. And then you see his handcuffs, which are not really cuffs,

they are actually hands. They're like these rotten zombie hands that are chained together. Oh my god. And the I mean, all of this is is just is perfectly executed to like this is the point of the film where everything is just working perfectly. So like the boot sizzling looks great, the robot RoboCop revolver it it really like weird you out when you see it because you're not expecting that.

And then the handcuffs made of actual hands, um, they're they're articulated in a way that really feels lifelike and ghastly. So even if the idea sounds goofy and it is, you know, handcuffs that are hands like, they look ghastly and bizarre, and you know that you're this is not a good place to be and this is not the cop you want pulling you over, right, So he approaches them menacingly. He shines his flashlight in their eyes, and then we get the face reveal on hell cop and

he looks ghastly. There is writing covering his face all along his jawline and on his cheek bones, and on his cheeks and his forehead and his lips. Um. It's it looks it looks mad and satanic. And I'm I couldn't quite read what the writing said. I don't know if you caught any words in there. I couldn't. I mean, I see something about eyes, uh, and you know, I can make out a few other little words here and there.

According to IMDb, his chin has the letters s J plus l Q, which is us to stand for Steve Johnson, the makeup artist who already mentioned, and his wife at the time, Leanna Quigley, who of course is a Scream Queen icon herself. But looking at this close up, I'm I'm having trouble finding those letters. But supposedly they're there. M oh. But beyond that, so he has sunglasses like

a lot of scary cops in movies do that. This is actually a I don't know if this is something that's been written about anywhere, but I think this is a recurring trope that you know that uh, scary abusive

authority figures in films. You know, dictators or abusive cops or whatever often have these sunglasses that hide their eyes that sort of make them less human or don't allow you to see where they're looking, which adds a kind of panopticon effect, or don't allow you to read their emotions, and and so this cop, it is it plays into that, especially by having him not just wearing totally opaque sunglasses, but the sunglasses are actually riveted to his temples, so

they're not like, you know, just resting on his ears. Yeah, hell Coop is wonderful and I feel like the sort of energies converging here. You have kind of a hell Raiser cinembi quality to the character. Um also reminds me a little bit of the zombies from Shock Waves, the Nazi zombies. But then the sunglasses. You're bit about the sunglasses is absolutely correct. I feel I feel like there's a strong homage here to the Man with No Eyes

from Cool Hand Luke. Remember the chain gang boss that has those gleaming sunglasses and if you will remember in Cool Hand Luke, uh, the man with no eyes is never actually like defeated, but there is a scene where he gets his sunglasses knocked off, you know, and that's kind of, uh, you know, a slight victory for the characters who've suffered under them. And indeed, in this film we find out much later in the film that the hell Cops weakness it happens to be the sunglasses and

if you destroy his sunglasses, you destroy him. Yeah. I thought that was a really nice touch. So so yeah, and in the end that is how Rachel, in fact, it defeats him by by shooting him right in the sunglasses with the with the magic gun that Charlie will be given in a bit. But all of this with Hellcop just even approaching the car, you know, all of

these elements are present there. But also you're doing this this thing that always works well in the harm if you're taking a real world frightening and potentially life threatening experience and then you know, which is being pulled over on the highway, and then you're twisting that into this slasher horror direction with a cop that is uh, you know, beyond you know, the dangers of a human cop. They are essentially like a hellish Michael Myers character. Uh, you

know it just stalking up to your vehicle. Uh. So, it just exceptionally well done. I feel like I feel like Hellcop could have been his own film. You know. Yes, though I think Hellcop might be less fun in a movie that tried to push him in a more serious horror direction. True, Like, I feel like Hellcop lives very, very comfortably in this sort of comedy vision of Hell

that's otherwise populated with all these zany characters. True. Yeah, yeah, it might be hard harder to pull off it, but ultimately I think it's It's one of those where like the makeup alone and the performance, I'll give the performance some credit. Um, it also elevates it, to you, above the comedy to a certain extent. So yeah, I'm not sure it would it would necessarily work outside of the comedy environment, but oh it does feel legitimately creepy in

this film. Yeah, I agreed. Oh, a couple more details about him, I forgot to make he his his name tag reads Sergeant Bedlam and he uh, and he's got a badge that is just a pentagram of course. But so anyway, we get this confrontation where hell Coop kidnaps Rachel. He takes her to his car and then he does like evil magic spells on the car that essentially that

like eliminate the back door. He like puts her into the car and then the car has no door for her to get out of um and then he and then he drives off through a portal into another dimension. And the patrol car that he's in it's kind of like a spaceship too, Like it's a really souped up feeling vehicle. So that adds this extra kind of like sci fi magic feel to it where you're just left asking, like what is hell cop? Like, it's you know, it's it's it's crazy. He's he's like he's from Hell. But

he also has a RoboCop gun that shoots portals. It's it's it's wonderful. Yeah, it's kind of a combat buggy in a way. His car is Oh and of course the license played on it reads damned. But anyway, so, uh, Charlie and Ben the Dog are are left behind after Rachel has been kidnapped, and and he's like, oh no, what are we gonna do? So he he freaks out.

He drives back to the service station and explains things to the old Man, and it turns out, what do you know, this is a herring problem of people getting disappearing on the highway. Here somewhere between the two Joshua trees, there is just a road that leads straight into Hell and this has happened before. And uh. And then there's there's a really great moment where Charlie asked to use his phone and Richard Farnsworth says, you can't phone Hell. Boy.

You can drive there, but you can't phone Hell. Yes, it's such a great line, but that Farnsworth brings it to life. Yeah. And so it turns out that the hell Cops m O is generally that he kidnaps beautiful women off the highway and so uh. The the the old Man tells his story about how his sweetheart Clara was in fact kidnapped by the hell cop ages ago, and then he he starts to reveal the magical, the special items, the supernatural aid that he's going to give

to Charlie before he goes on his journey. So he pulls out this special gun. It's kind of a holy boomstick. It is a handheld shot gun with silver clam shells embossed on the stock. Yeah, major doom vibes here with the Holy Demon sling shotgun. Yeah, I thought the same thing. And this was funny because it made me think, what if the premise because the story is that, in fact, Clara, the old Man's sweetheart, she made him this gun, or

at least she, I get. I don't know if she made it from scratch, but she at least put all the special decorations on it. And it makes me wonder what if the premise of Doom had been that doom guy's sweetheart made him his shotgun. But anyway, so the old Man gives Charlie the holy shotgun and he gives him a special holy car. What's the deal with the car? Well, the old Man doesn't explain. He just says that there's something special in there that'll that will help you. Something

in the car, something special. Is there payoff for that? Because I don't remember payoff for that? Yes, yes, there is. Right in the conclusion, we're they're trying to escape Hell at the end and they're racing the Hell cop and then Rachel discovers the nitro booster and that's the special Okay, got you. I don't know if this old man is into drag racing or something. I'm not sure, but he might have been back in the day. He was in the original The Fast and the Furious, the one from

the sixties. You know, this is the thing. They could do a prequel to Highway to Hell, prequel to Hell, and you have, like the Young Sam the original story of of the Encounter with Hell coup. So eventually Charlie does get into Hell. I think he's told that to get there he has to drive back and forth between the two Joshua trees and believe that's the thing, And so he's yelling like I believe, and eventually it works

and he goes straight into Hell. And what I thought was interesting is they don't make Hell a really supernatural looking place. It's just the Mojave Desert. Yeah, it's just like an alternate version of the American desert, in which all the typical American desert kind of like you know, Root sixty six kind of stuff. Uh. It just has a Satanic element to it or or you know, sometimes more of a Greek underworld element to it, depending on

where they're drawing from. Yeah, yeah, exactly. So it's just the mundane Mojave desert, but filled with undead people and demons. Like they decided not to spice it up with flames in the sky or anything. And you know, I guess I can get behind that choice. Yeah, yeah, I mean they had they clearly had the desert to work with, which is an evocative setting in and of itself. And and then they ultimately make a lot of really fun and interesting choices in kind of beetlejuicing up the desert.

So you know, it ranges from you know, diners that are occupied by zombies too. I loved this because this I don't understand what this means, but you had whole like roadside garbage cleanup cruise, but they were all Andy Warhol and instead of since it's Hell, everything's backwards, I guess, so instead of picking trash up from the side of the road, they're emptying trash onto the side of the road. Yeah. I guess that one sort of went over my head.

I don't know if it was a joke about about pop art or I don't know, but but it it feels appropriate for Again, this is the kind of thing you couldn't get away with in a serious Hell movie. If it's serious Hell movie, then you know, I guess you've got to have, you know, something like like Legend, you know where it feels like like you're in some sort of a torture inferno pit. But but here, you know, in the vibe of this film, you're like, okay, this

makes sense. Of course they're you know, gangs of of Andy Warhol's garbaging up the street. Okay, well, what stops along the way do we want to highlight from from this journey? Because so it's sort of a zig zagging weird adventure here. Who just it has a bunch of little vignettes. Um, I guess we should mention Pluto's cafe, right, this is the one where where Ben Stiller's working as the cook, cooking food on the sidewalk outside and the dinner is full of undead cops covered in cobwebs. And

there was one thing here because that I liked. Because so we see hell Coop taking Rachel too this uh diner, and he handcuffs her to the to the to the counter while he's I don't know, getting coffee in a donut. I guess, uh, he's occupied doing something. I think he's shooting Jerry Stiller with the gun that sends him to another dimension. And meanwhile Rachel escapes by scalding the hand handcuffs with hot coffee. Uh you also you included in

our notes a screenshot from it. Um. I had not noticed this, But there's something wonderful going on with the donuts. Oh well, it's so this is a diner in Heald. It's full of undead cops and there is a glass display case full of donuts, but it's chained shut. Ah. Perfect, perfect. Now Here we get a bunch of different run ins that we get run ins with these desert bikers we mentioned earlier. I don't know if there's a whole lot interesting to say about them now. They were, like I said,

kind of the least interesting part of the film for me. Yeah. Then we get some mad Max style road battles between Charlie and his old manmobile and hell Cop in his battle buggy. And of course Charlie does not win this

road battle, and he eventually gets his car wrecked. And um, and when his car is wrecked, Oh, there's one part I did like where he walks up to a telephone in the desert that he picks it up and you know, there's an operator who's like motorist aid and he's like, yeah, my car is wrecked, I need help, and then the operators just like sounds like you're walking gig. Yeah, there

are a lot of fun touches like that. There's a lot of media in Hell, a lot of commercials and and uh, you know, TV and radio commercials a lot of times aims specifically at the character who's listening to them, um,

you know, to to taunt them. One of my favorite things in the whole movie was the Sticks Beer commercial that it's so the Hell Cops car has a TV in it, and so Rachel is riding in the back of the car while the Hell Coops taking her somewhere and uh and and she looks at the t V and it's this announcer like holding a beer mug, and he goes, when I come home from a long day in Hell, there's nothing I'd rather reach for than a fine brewed bottle of Sticks Beer, made from the filthiest

waters from our own river. Sticks. Sticks beer is a third more toxic than any other regular beer. The worst beer, the filthiest beer, the deadliest beer. It's Sticks beer. Yeah, it's pretty great. There there's also one later where um what, Rachel is taunted with a vision of herself having to work in a pizza restaurant whilst caring for like a whole bunch of children, a whole bunch of infants. That's pretty fun as well. Now after his car's reactually, Charlie

is aided by beazl. The guy who seems very nice and helpful at first. This is Patrick Bergen. We eventually find out that he is the devil himself. Um. There there is one more scene I wanted to mention though in Hell before we go onto anything else, which is the Good Intentions Paving Company scene. Oh yeah, I thought this was very good. Uh so's I guess getting quite literal with with with this saying, you know, the road

to Hell is paved with good intentions. So there is there's like an asphalt paving truck called Good Intentions Paving Company. And then it's all these people explaining why the bad thing they did had a good reason behind it, and then they just get chucked into the mixer and then and then their their body parts are used to pave the road to Hell. Yeah, this, but this part was pretty great. And I think now that I'm thinking about it like, this feels like a gag from a Mad magazine,

and ultimately this whole movie feels like an extended Mad Magazine. Uh. Did you know, even right down to the fact that that Hell coop is scary and that a lot of the monsters that we see look really cool Because I remember reading, especially like parodies of films and Mad Magazine, and a lot of times like the illustrations were really good. You know, It's like these were artists that we're creating me.

So I remember like a RoboCop RoboCop to parody in Mad Magazine, and I remember as a kid maybe sort of catching the jokes, but also being like, oh yeah, those robots look really cool, you know, so strong Mad Magazine energy in this film. There's another thing this movie does,

which I think I've realized. It's an obligatory type of joke that every Hell comedy has to do, and the joke structure works like this, You criticize a merely annoying public figure or celebrity by situating them in Hell amongst evil dictators and murderers. So there's like one part, there's one scene here where there's like a table, uh, and it has a bunch of names that says like seats,

it'says reserved for and I can't remember the name. The rest of the names of the table are like dictators and killers and stuff, and then one of them just says Jerry Lewis. I think literally every like Simpson's Hell Thing has had a joke of that structure. It's it's always there now. Eventually in the film we go to Hell City and there's there's some fun to be had there as well. There's some we increasingly get out of the desert and into more interesting set pieces when we

get into Hell City. So there's some some weird stuff with like mannequin people that explode into plaster when they're blasted with the Holy Shotgun. There is a a fake Rachel who then transforms into a like a hideous minotaur woman and um and of course, as with Hellcop the minute, our woman looks very real and very frightening um uh,

though is ultimately more of a comic threat. Ultimately, there's one part where the Devil tries to tempt Rachel into staying in Hell with him instead of leaving, and the way he tries to tempt her is saying, like you could have everything, but the the example of her having everything is being able to play the violin. Remember that, yep, yep? Like was that her dream? I don't, I don't. I don't remember anything about that. It's it's also like that.

There's another point in the film too, where he he makes an offer, this time to Charlie and he's like, uh, something to his sports like you could own a particular sports team. But he chooses the wrong sports team. So he's really not that great at tempting people. Um that's he's like, you could be the um, you could be the quarterback of the of the Dallas Cowboys or something, and he's like, I might have done it if you've said the Niners. But yeah, he's put on the Niners cap. Yeah.

So it's it's weird. This is one of those films where Okay, so Patrick Bergen, of course very charismatic, and and you know, they put a lot of energy into creating this this Satan character for him, and I kind of got the feeling that towards the end of the movie, the movie falls in love with Patrick Bergen Satan and so the final moments of the film seem to be more about Satan than anything else, like there's these scenes

of Satan. First of all, we'll go ahead and say, like it all comes down to a drag race, Like you guys want to escape Hell, Well you got to do a drag race with Hell cop and if you win, you get to leave Hell. And so Satan's watching this from from a hillside. He's smoking a cigar that like

one of his minions lights with their own burning finger. Um. And and like when we end up closing the out the movie, they start playing this song um it is maybe the next Time, performed by Deborah Crandell Parson, which is kind of catchy, but it's like such a weird vibe, like is this about Satan or we just like like now the film has situated the devil as its central character. I thought it was about these kids trying to escape Hell.

That's a very good point. I think. I think some Batman movies or sometimes like this, where the actor playing the villain is so much more fun that it really kind of becomes about the villain. Yeah. Yeah, I did want to mention that there's a payoff to the earlier thing where where Rachel is said to have taken auto shop, because and I think this is supposed to make sense. She hot wires hell Coop's car for them to escape in it. Uh, And I was like, do they teach

you to hot wire cars and auto shop? Maybe it was an extra credit project. I don't know, but then of course, yeah, they make it out of Hell and then hell Coop comes out with them and basically they have one last showed showdown with hell Coop, which I think is fitting because like, hell Coop is the real physical threat, he's not the tempter and uh, you know mastermind that the satanic character is. So you get that one last battle with hell Coop and she blasts the

glasses off of him and he's defeated. He like explodes like a stick of dynamite and yeah, light shoots out of his eyes and then it's like dynamite and gasoline. Amazing. Yeah that's high Way to Hell, folks. Yeah. So it's a yeah, it's it's fun flick. I feel like it. It holds up. It's not not tremendously offensive or anything.

Um you know, it's uh, we were talking about this like it's got a few like it's got a little bit of nudity in it and maybe a little bit of language, but nothing that isn't like easily removed for cable airing. Um, because again I inevitably saw this on cable back in the day. Oh yeah, that's that's the point you were making that it's strange for the concept being hell, that it's actually a relatively mild r Yeah yeah, but but also it's not like it's not like it

would otherwise be a kids movie. I don't know, it's just this strange it's this strange film with this this vibe, all of it, all of its all its own. That's like a little bit Beetlejuice, a little bit um Dante's Inferno, a little bit Mad Max and uh you know um uh you know Death Race uh thrown in there as well. It's a it's it's a wild movie that seems to be going on a number of different directions, and at times it really works. Well. I wish i'd seen it on USA up all night when I like it have

its part of my brain for my whole life. Well, if you want to see it now, Luckily, it seems to be pretty widely available digitally. I think I watched it on Amazon Prime just like concluded, you know, without a subscription to another channel. Um and I think it's been made available on DVD and perhaps Blu ray in the past as well. But yeah, if you're looking for Highway to Hell you'll be able to find it. It's out there. Um and yeah, I think it it holds

up pretty well. Uh. Like I said, it's it's worth watching, you know, for stuff like Hell Cop and the weird performance by Patrick Bergen. Uh. Yeah, there's a lot of fun. Okay, one last question. We find out in the epilogue that, uh that dude dude goes on to make health themed video games. Uh Rachel goes on to do health themed pizzeria's, and the dog goes on to starring dog food commercials, but they're not healthymed dog food commercials. What's up with

that asymmetry? Yeah? Yeah, because if it was healthy and then then at least you can say, well, the experience of Hell inspired all of them, or perhaps the devil really did give them all some sort of a blessing for the for to take with them, you know. There there he's still actually controlling them all. Yeah, my dog's a little hell raiser, only the best for him. I did notice in the credits. I guess this is pretty standard.

But you had one dog actor playing the dog, but then you also had a stunt dog actor, so that's nice. I didn't know the dog was named Rags. You remember that, Yeah, but I forget the name of the dog that was the stunt dog. The dog did a very good job of peeing on command in the scene where he faces a Cerberus. You remember that. Yes, Oh goodness, there's a

stop motion Cerberus in this and we didn't. We almost got out of the episode without mentioning that this film also features a practical effects like stop motion three headed dog and it's a it's a lot of fun. Yeah, And it has a confrontation with the cute little dog Ben and they just sort of like regard each other and then Ben pas on a rock and yeah, purely

for comedy, and it's and it works. Yeah, all right, we're gonna go and close it out here, But if you want to check out other episodes of Weird How Cinema It airs every Friday, and the Stuff to Blow your Mind podcast feed were primarily you know, science and culture type podcast, but on Friday's we put most of that aside and just discuss a weird film like Highway to hell, huge things. As always to our wonderful audio

producer Seth Nicholas Johnson. If you would like to get in touch with us with feedback on this episode or any other, to suggest a topic for the future, just to say hello, you can email us at contact at Stuff to Blow Your Mind dot com. Stuff to Blow Your Mind. It's production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.