Here's a little quiz for you. How do you know if a slasher/gore flick is any good? If it starts with a lesbian couple getting slaughtered by a monster of a man with a big, nasty metal hook and there is no sparing of the gore. The red flies free and wild in DETOUR. I know what you're thinking. How dare they use the title from the film noir classic by Edgar Ulmer. The people who made this movie probably never saw the original. Nope, director Steve Taylor was more worried about how much blood he could splash on the screen. This film actually borrows liberally from THE HILLS HAVE EYES.

The basic premise gives us a group of youngsters recovering from a desert rave. Thanks to a rich parent they're traveling in style in one of the biggest RV's I've ever seen. The stereotypes are here in abundance. We get the constantly making out couple. The cool guy. The freaky girl. The even freakier guy that makes Vanilla Ice seem cool. You get the idea. Anyway, one of them heard from some stoner guy at the rave about this huge field of peyote. The plan is simple. Take a little detour, (Get it? That's where the title of the movie comes in. God, these people are clever!) pick a bushel of drugs and wing it back to the west coast to make a load of serious cash. I guess it's okay with daddy to use the recreational vehicle for something like a rave and drug trafficking, but he's a little cheap in the allowance department anyway.

Unbeknownst to our little group of ravers is that there's this abandoned chemical factory in the desert. In that factory resides a literal army of psychotic cannibals who want nothing more than ravers for breakfast. So, yes the RV does get stuck in the middle of nowhere. Big surprise there. And, yes they actually do split up to find a better signal for their cell phones and to see if the creepy gas station they had just passed has a tow truck.

This is the beauty of DETOUR. It never tries to be anything but what it is. A slasher film with a new millennium facelift. The situations are the same as a plethora of films from the eighties. The main group of characters are all easy on the eyes. we get the obligatory sex scene with the gorgeous blonde writhing under the studly guy. That particular scene even has a little homage to FRIDAY THE 13TH PART 2. You slasher freaks out there should be able to figure it out.

In the end, DETOUR is a great flick. By never straying from what has been given to us before, we get a film that delivers. The desert shots are gorgeous. The women are knockouts. The gore effects are well done and quite jarring in some places. Overall, this is a film that deserves better than what it will probably get. A short half life on the new release shelf at the video store before being regulated to the previously viewed bin for a quick sale. I envy the person who will pick this one up on a whim. They'll get what they never thought they would ... in spades!

If DETOUR had been a typical, shot on video production it would have failed miserably. Instead we are given a gorgeous film to enjoy. The oranges and yellows of the desert during it's many phases of the day are given a rich color that would make many major motion pictures green with envy. In a film filled with violent imagery the accompanying sound adds to the effect. Whether it's the eerie sound of flesh ripped by steel claws or the subtle music score that adds to the tense scenes of the group being hunted down by the maniacal cannibals. The film delivers on every level.

Now, as for the DVD extras. This is one of those 'screeners' and it only tells us what will be on the final pressing of the disc. This looks to be promising. We get the ordinary behind the scenes stuff as well as a commentary by the director and producer. But, there's something more. It promises us an extended opening scene. I'm not sure if this will go into more detail on the origins of the cannibals, which was hazy at best in the version I saw. Or if we'll be getting more of the lesbian couple bickering about their upcoming nuptials. Or perhaps, we might get a nice long, leisurely lovemaking scene between the aforementioned lesbians. Any of these would be good for the film and couldn't hurt it in anyway. Okay, I'm lying. This flick starts off out in the hot, arid desert. We get gorgeous women fighting this behemoth and getting their asses handed to them. It's well shot and brutal as Hell. Any other beginning of the film would be a shame. That is unless they extend what they've already got and make it even more brutal. Now that would be worth the price of the DVD alone.