This is one of the myriad titles that came and went in the eighties with little if any fanfare. That's a shame because it is a taut little thriller. Director Richard Franklin is a devout Hitchcock fan and it shows. There are elements of 39 STEPS, PSYCHO and the whole thing plays like REAR WINDOW in a moving semi.

The plot is deceptively simple and straight forward. Stacy Keach plays a trucker named Quid. Although he will be quick to point out that just because he drives a truck this doesn't necessarily make him a truck driver. With his faithful Dingo as his traveling companion he has to make a shipment of pork across the outback. Seems there's a butchers strike or something that makes this particular shipment more important than most. Unfortunately, other things pop up to make his trip a little less than pleasant. First, the hot girl hitchhiker he was going to pick up is snagged by a mysterious stranger who also takes the last motel room for miles. He also murders the girl by garotte. Along the way Quid runs into a series of colorful characters that help give him important information about a serial killer who is trying to pin as much of his murderous activities on Quid as possible.

To complicate matters he picks up a girl he immediately nicknames Hitch (Jamie Lee Curtis). She is as curious as he is about the serial killer and joins Quid on his journey to discover who the killer is and get his meat to the market on time. Road Games was played up as a slasher film when it was first released. It didn't help that Jamie Lee Curtis had just come off a year with three horror films under her belt. THE FOG (1980), PROM NIGHT (1980) and TERROR TRAIN (1980) respectively. Avco Embassy played this up to maximum effect. That was a shame because when you go to see Jamie Lee Curtis in a slasher flick there are certain expectations. ROAD GAMES is more of a Hitchcockian character study. The killer element is actually downplayed considerably with the one onscreen murder played bloodless. In the commentary and the accompanying documentary, Richard Franklin voices his distaste for bloodletting in film so this comes as no surprise.

The documentary KANGAROO HITCHCOCK: THE MAKING OF ROAD GAMES is a wonderful piece of work, covering a film that is rapidly approaching it's 25th anniversary. We also get a lot of information form Stacy Keach. It seems that he got so into his part that he literally drove the semi for most of the film. With sixteen gears and driving on the wrong side of the road, it must have been quite a chore to master that particular skill.

This film is a solid piece of work, probably one of Franklin's better films. The actors bring depth to their characters that help make the movie better than average. Really the only thing that doesn't work for me is the constant references to Alfred Hitchcock. It's one thing to have a directorial hero, Hitchcock being an excellent choice. But, there has to be originality even in a homage to the master of suspense. Hitchcock tends to overshadow the entire project putting a lot of hard work in a dim light. Pretty good trick for a guy who had been dead for a year.

In addition to the documentary the DVD is loaded with extras including a poster and still gallery, original storyboards, theatrical trailer, talent bios and if you have the DVD-ROM option you can read the screenplay as well. A nice little package for a film that really never went anywhere on it's initial release.