Homicidal maniac Arthur (James Jude Courtney) escapes from the psychiatric hospital where he has been a patient since a child (when he murdered his mother and her lover for recreating the table-top shag scene from The Postman Always Rings Twice) and makes his way to the desert where aspiring model/actress Linda (sexy blonde Loren Winters) is filming her debut movie, the woman having escaped the killer's clutches the last time he broke free (security is not the institution's strong point, but the patients do get a daily smoke break with free cigarettes).
Low budget slasher The Freeway Maniac is knowingly dumb, as evidenced by the schlocky z-grade sci-fi movie that Linda is starring in and the fact that Arthur knows how to drive a rig despite being locked up for almost all of his life; as such, it is quite a lot of brainless fun, Arthur more than living up to his title of maniac, the man killing virtually everyone he meets, howling at the moon, and snacking on the rattlers and ants that he catches in the desert. In addition to the movie's many murders, writer/director Paul Winters features lots of crazy stunt-work, with impressive vehicular action, a full body burn gag, and an explosion, all of which keeps the film trundling along at a decent lick.
Unfortunately, the kills in the film are largely free of gore despite Arthur's weapons including claw-hammer and chainsaw - more blood and guts would definitely have helped to make this one a more memorable bona fide trash classic - and the ending, in which Arthur poses as an actor to get near to Linda, is a total mess, the film closing in an unsatisfactory manner with the maniac still at large. Also, it would be remiss of me if I failed to mention that the very lovely Winters doesn't have a shower scene, although there is a strip routine by one of the supporting actresses.
5.5, rounded up to 6/10 for IMDb.
