Weirdhouse Cinema: Highway to Hell

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind production of My
Heart Radio. Hey, welcome to Weird House Cinema. This is
Rob Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick. And today we're looking
at a movie that, uh, well, I think with the
idea of it is that somebody said, what if we

(00:24):
made a film adaptation of Orpheus and Euridice, except in
the sort of early nineties highway horror style of a
movie you might expect to see to come on at
like one am on T and T after the credits
roll from a previous showing of Psycho three. Yes, yes,
we're talking about the film Highway to Hell, which I'm

(00:50):
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

(01:13):
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

(01:34):
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

(01:56):
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

(02:21):
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

(02:43):
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,

(03:05):
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

(03:26):
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

(03:49):
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,

(04:12):
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

(04:34):
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.

(04:57):
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

(05:17):
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

(05:40):
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

(06:00):
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

(06:20):
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

(06:40):
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

(07:02):
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

(07:22):
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

(07:43):
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,

(08:03):
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,

(08:27):
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

(08:47):
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,

(09:09):
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,

(09:32):
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

(09:54):
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,

(10:14):
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

(10:35):
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,

(10:56):
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

(11:18):
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

(11:40):
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.

(12:11):
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

(12:32):
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

(12:54):
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

(13:15):
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

(13:36):
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,

(13:57):
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

(14:20):
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

(14:41):
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.

(15:03):
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,

(15:23):
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

(15:45):
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

(16:07):
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

(16:28):
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

(16:49):
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

(17:12):
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,

(17:33):
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

(17:55):
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

(18:20):
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

(18:44):
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

(19:05):
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.

(19:27):
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

(19:50):
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,

(20:14):
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

(20:35):
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

(20:57):
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,

(21:17):
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

(21:39):
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

(22:02):
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.

(22:23):
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.

(22:46):
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

(23:08):
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

(23:33):
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,

(23:55):
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

(24:16):
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

(24:37):
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

(24:58):
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

(25:19):
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

(25:41):
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

(26:05):
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

(26:25):
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.

(26:46):
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

(27:08):
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,

(27:29):
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,

(27:50):
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

(28:14):
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,

(28:36):
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,

(28:56):
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

(29:20):
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

(29:42):
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

(30:03):
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

(30:23):
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.

(30:45):
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,

(31:05):
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

(31:26):
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.

(31:47):
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

(32:10):
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

(32:34):
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,

(32:59):
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

(33:19):
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.

(33:45):
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

(34:07):
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

(34:27):
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

(34:51):
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

(35:12):
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

(35:36):
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,

(35:58):
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

(36:19):
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

(36:42):
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

(37:05):
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

(37:28):
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

(37:53):
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.

(38:13):
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

(38:34):
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

(38:57):
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

(39:18):
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.

(39:40):
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

(40:03):
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

(40:26):
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

(40:49):
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

(41:11):
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

(41:32):
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,

(41:56):
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.

(42:18):
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

(42:40):
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,

(43:00):
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

(43:24):
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,

(43:45):
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

(44:08):
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,

(44:30):
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

(44:50):
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,

(45:16):
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

(45:39):
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.

(46:02):
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

(46:25):
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

(46:47):
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

(47:08):
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

(47:29):
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,

(47:51):
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

(48:13):
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

(48:34):
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

(48:55):
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

(49:19):
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,

(49:39):
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,

(50:00):
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

(50:21):
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

(50:43):
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

(51:03):
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

(51:25):
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.

(51:45):
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

(52:07):
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

(52:29):
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

(52:52):
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

(53:13):
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

(53:35):
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

(53:57):
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

(54:18):
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.

(54:43):
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

(55:05):
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

(55:26):
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

(55:47):
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,

(56:08):
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

(56:30):
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

(56:50):
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

(57:11):
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

(57:34):
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,

(57:55):
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

(58:18):
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

(58:41):
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,

(59:02):
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

(59:23):
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,

(59:46):
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

(01:00:08):
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

(01:00:31):
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

(01:00:51):
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

(01:01:11):
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,

(01:01:45):
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,

(01:02:06):
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

(01:02:28):
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

(01:02:48):
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.

(01:03:09):
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

(01:03:33):
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

(01:03:54):
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,

(01:04:16):
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

(01:04:37):
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

(01:04:59):
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

(01:05:21):
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

(01:05:41):
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.

(01:06:02):
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,

(01:06:23):
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,

(01:06:45):
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

(01:07:05):
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

(01:07:27):
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

(01:07:48):
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,

(01:08:10):
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

(01:08:30):
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

(01:08:50):
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

(01:09:11):
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

(01:09:32):
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

(01:09:52):
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.

(01:10:16):
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.

(01:10:40):
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

(01:11:02):
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

(01:11:24):
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,

(01:11:45):
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

(01:12:06):
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

(01:12:28):
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

(01:12:49):
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,

(01:13:12):
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.

(01:13:34):
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

(01:13:55):
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

(01:14:18):
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.

(01:14:39):
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.

(01:14:59):
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

(01:15:22):
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.

(01:15:43):
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

(01:16:06):
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

(01:16:26):
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

(01:16:46):
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

(01:17:08):
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

(01:17:28):
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

(01:17:53):
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

(01:18:16):
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

(01:18:38):
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,

(01:19:00):
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

(01:19:20):
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

(01:19:40):
podcasts my heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

All Episodes

Episode Transcript

Stuff To Blow Your Mind News

Follow Us On

Hosts And Creators

Robert Lamb

Joe McCormick

Show Links

Popular Podcasts

Stuff You Should Know

Dateline NBC

Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Weirdhouse Cinema: Highway to Hell