User reviews

I have to say that this is one of the most horrible movies I have ever seen. Now, I understand that low-budget movies are not usually as good as a big-budget movie, but this was just bad. The main guy, Greg, was portrayed by an actor that did a horrible job of showing any of the emotions that he should have been showing throughout the movie. There was absolutely no explanation for what was happened except for some cryptic comments made by Yumi. On Yumi, while she is a very attractive woman, she doesn't possess the language skills necessary to pull off the role. Somebody left a comment that this movie is like "The Ring." The only way you could compare this to "The Ring" is to say that they both are horror movies with Japanese people in them. "The Ring" kept you guessing what was happening, this movie had me guessing how much longer I had to suffer through it.

...because this is the biggest turkey i have ever seen in my life. This doesn't even hit the heights of the old b horror movies from the 50's...come to think of it, it doesn't even rate as high as the Z movies from that era. The plot was one of the weakest i have ever seen. The acting didn't just stink, it reeked of the worst sewage to the power of 10. The only good acting was of the corpse, and i am sure that most of the time that was a dummy. The special effects were non existent, and the most expensive thing i can see they spent out of the budget was perhaps for the rental cars they may have used. Let me save you time and money..don't go see this. You will never have those 90 odd minutes back, and there are far greater things you could do with your time, like cleaning out the kitty litter box, having a root canal for fun, or how about plucking nose hairs? Any of these will be far more gratifying than seeing this bomb. This movie isn't even worth seeing for free.

I think it's a shame that there isn't a minus rating on here because it would have gotten the highest (or is that lowest) minus rating i could give it.

Actually..i would tell you all what i really think of this movie if it weren't for the fact that what i would have to say would get the post deleted.

The photographer Greg Ross (Rand Gamble) has an argument with his wife Amanda (Laura Putney) about his affair with the Japanese model Yumi (Hinano Yoshikawa) and he accidentally kills her. He decides to get rid off Amanda's body dumping it in the Black Lake. While driving in a road during the night, Greg recalls moments of his relationship with Amanda and Yumi and is haunted by their ghosts, driving him insane with a tragic conclusion.

The feature "Death Ride" is a long and boring journey to insanity through the guilty complex of a character that becomes delusional, blending reality and imagination. The eerie story could be a good short, but the director used a slow pace to make the movie last 84 minutes running time; as the consequence, I found it too long and repetitive, apparently going nowhere for a long time. In addition, the accent of Hinano Yoshikawa is terrible. My vote is three.

Title (Brazil): "De Carona Com a Morte" ("Riding with Death")

When I first decided to see this movie I wasn't expecting much, I have to admit. But I wasn't expecting something as bad either! The movie makes no sense, it has no real plot, it gets boring from the very beginning and the acting...Oh, the acting! The situations the characters get into make no real sense and worst of all (as it is supposed to be a horror movie) it is not one bit scary. Stay away from this one, use your time and money for something else. Even siting down on a chair and staring at the wall in front of you will be more rewarding then watching this. I have seen some bad movie but I haven't seen one as bad as this one in some time!

You'd better prepare to be driven insane because that's what this movie will leave you feeling...INSANE... and angry that you began watching it in the first place. Based on the summary of this movie, I was expecting cults, witches and the like but no such luck. I sat there for an hour and a half waiting on the 'good stuff'...well, it never happened. What a waste. Not even enough about the plot of the movie to comment on it without telling the the premise of the movie and spoiling what little is left for future viewers to balk at. I would, though, advise against anyone else suffering through this movie and its long, drawn-out, thinly veiled attempt at horror. I gave it 3 stars simply because, well, it tried. But try it might, it failed. Watch this if you must but remember, that'll be 90 minutes you can never get back.

From the beginning till the end of the movie no feeling of fear from horror and no good action scenes. It is one of the worse movies i have ever seen. The whole time plays the movie in the car of the killer. a little bit outside the car action things. I will forget this movie fast. Also the end is prediction to standard movies you will see. Overall feelings about this film is very bad that is also the reason i gave a '1' (awful) for this movie. Go see the movie and agree with me ;) This is my first comment for a movie. but 10 lines of comment is very much to give about this bad movie.I hope that my comment was useful.

After accidentally killing his wife (whom he's cheating on), a photographer puts her body in the trunk and brings her to Black Lake. But along the way he gets visions of his dead wife and encounters other obstacles (mentally unstable men, police officers, etc.) and will have to battle to retain his sanity.

Before I say anything else, I want to give a huge round of applause to the band Maximum Indifference. When I saw their name in the opening credits, I was confused -- what is a "maximum indifference"? Aren't you either indifferent or not? But they provided the music for this film, and it is fantastic. I strongly suggest you check out their web site and if you're a filmmaker consider hiring them to make some music for you. They are specifically prepared to help with movie background tunes, and I can't say I've ever heard better. If there was a strong point to the film, it was them.

Now, I also have to defend this movie. I have seen other reviews that say the acting is horrible and that all negative comments are understatements. Yes, the acting is not the greatest. But it's not the worst I've seen. And some other qualities about this film cannot be ignored. I found some of it to be quite creepy: a dark road, middle of the night, strange occurrences... with camera shots trapping us in to see only what comes into the light at the last second. I never knew what would jump out next.

The suspense and tension were well done. When the cops visit him (more than once) I wasn't sure if he was going to be busted, or if he wasn't how he was going to get out of it. I enjoyed the blood splatter. There was a lot going for this film, especially if you consider the fact everyone involved is a fresh face. Also, despite starring Americans, this film had more of an Asian feel -- if you judge it as an Asian film, it was actually much better (as I've said in other reviews -- I believe "Dream Cruise", for example -- Asian films have an element of the supernatural that would seem cheesy or stupid in American films but works for them).

What made this film fail, besides the less than stellar acting, was the fact there really was no story. Time was filled with extra shots of his driving, we see some repeated things (lighting cigarettes, similar road scenes). Most if not all of the flashbacks told nothing crucial or helpful to the story. In short, this film could have been a 30-minute television feature. Compare this to the "thanks for the ride, lady" sequence from "Creepshow 2". That was only about 15 minutes and got the point across. This could have been done in the same way... it never should have been a full-length film.

When the film wasn't giving me bad acting or boring me to death, it was a good film. I cannot make something like this myself (well, probably not). 2006 saw more horror DVD releases than any time in world history (or at least it seems that way), so unless you're watching as many as I do, you'll never find this one floating to the top of your must-see list. I guess the Japanese girl is sort of cute, but not cute enough to really sell this film. Sorry, "Haunted Highway", you're a dead end.

This pathetic excuse for a horror flick makes my teeth itch, and my hair hurt. Trust me, you do not want to be another victim of possibly being emotionally scarred for life. This is by far, "The WORST Movie" that has ever been put into my DVD player. All of the negative comments left here for this piece of trash are all complete understatements.

The worst thing about it is: All of the months that i waited, and as much as i couldn't wait to get my hands on this movie, and the pure excitement of finally getting it..... will now take many sessions of therapy & medication to remove such *beep* out of my head. I have truly seen better acting on cheap porn. (Really Cheap porn)

There are no words to begin to describe how God awful this 'movie' is! From the very first opening frame to the final black screen it screams AMATEURS WITH VIDEO CAMERAS. Everyone involved in the making of this rot should be rounded up and branded, making them easily identifiable and all should forever more be prohibited from owning and/or operating ANY equipment capable of capturing an image! Also, anyone who rented this tripe should automatically be given a refund and a free trip to a park of their choice for the 84 minutes of their life that was stolen by the morons who made this. Surely the 'crew' has seen a movie before? Perhaps not. Sure looks this way. I want to know how they get this stuff into circulation. This way, we can all shoot a movie with our camcorders and rake in the cash. Anyone know how I can get my home movies of my dog catching sticks on DVD and into Blockbuster? Oh, I could call it 'horror' as it would be a lot scarier than this movie. Anyone who watches more than 30 minutes of this junk seriously needs a life, or is a die-hard movie masochist. The entire production crew should be criminally charged with; 1. Impersonating a movie, 2. Stealing the public's life timer, 3. Conning the innocent public out of movie rental fees, and 4. Operating a body without a brain. The 'plot'? None. The acting? BARF! Direction? I wish. As movie cameras become smaller, we are going to see an increase in this kind of drivel as movies can now be churned out by a couple of kids with camcorders. Who is backing these movies is what I want to know, and who is performing the bulk lobotomies on the crews?

This is a low budget film with no frills and lacks any scary content whatsoever that would justify the title Haunted Highway. For any movie fan looking for horror stay well away from this. The only scary thing about this film is that someone stumped up the money for this turkey to be made! The plot is wafer thin and holds no surprises and you'll ultimately be left wondering - what was the point? I guess if you're afraid of the dark (or your own shadow) then there may be something in this film for you, otherwise leave this well alone. My advice to anyone thinking of watching this film would be to go watch the proverbial paint dry - 'cos that'll be more entertaining!

Even though the movie got off to a terrible start, I think a big chunk of this movie is very watchable. In fact I think if it were done better, it would be a personal favorite of mine. However, the movie had some serious problems. Particularly the flashbacks are just hard to watch, badly acted and even poorly scripted. I really liked the idea behind the movie, it's too bad certain aspects took a lot of wind out of it's own sails. Low production values didn't help but the effects weren't horrible and the movie was overall pretty scary.

It's important to keep in mind that this is a very low budget, independent horror movie. Rent it one night if you can't find anything else, it's better than a lot of "movies" currently hitting the DTV market.

6/10

i give this movie a one only because you can't put zeros or halves if i could i would sue the writer, director, actors, and everyone else involved in this film's production for the time in my life this movie took away. I could (and am working on)write much better and I can act much better than them too. I have nothing against low budget movies but this movie isn't low budged, it's nonexistent budget. No blood, no gore, no plot, no meaningful dialouge, no acting that doesn't suck more than anything i've ever seen (and i've seen some really bad acting), no climax, no anything at all which makes a movie bearable.

I would've stopped watching it by halfway through but I thought it might improve by the end, it didn't and it sucked through

This is truly a horror movie...but not in a good way, the horror is in the fact that it was actually made and you are watching it

I don't understand all the hatred toward this film. Yes, it stars people you've never heard of and will probably never see again, but it's better than a lot of other movies ... and I rent a lot of them! At the very least, you can appreciate that: the Lead Actor was GORGEOUS; the Japanese lady Yumi? was gorgeous; scenery was pretty; car was cool -- makes me want to upgrade from my Camry to a Lexus. I was actually surprised when Yumi appeared crawling up the driver's window while he was driving -- I thought that was cool. Oh and her apartment, with the green and purple walls, and the zen like -feng shu furnishings ... I just thought this was a very nice movie to look at, at least. I liked it better than that piece of crap THE SIXTH SENSE, don't get me started on that!

This movie, thankfully, was rented on DVD and I only had to pay a rental fee. Really bad acting, very stupid storyline and overall just poor. If you must see this film, luckily you'll get to rent it. I just wish Hollywood would come up with a great horror/ghost movie that will be worthwhile and not so poorly made. Movies like the Others and the Sixth Sense were pretty good. This movie had nothing to do with a real "highway" just a country road leading to a lake. The guy-"Greg" kept looking over his shoulder while driving (stupid) I don't know about you, but driving country roads is bad enough when you pay attention, somehow he kept the car going straight the whole time and didn't miss a beat. The only good actors in this film were the two African American cops-they actually tried to do a good job. Overall, skip this one and enjoy something else!!

This film makes Ed Wood, Coleman Francis, Bert I. Gordon, and Roger Corman all look like Oscar-winning producers and directors. At least the films these guys produced usually fell into the 'so-bad-they-are-good' category and provided hours of unintentional humorous entertainment. "Haunted Highway" is simply 'so-bad' it is not even funny. Bad story, bad acting, bad cinematography, bad lighting, bad everything. I bet even the crew at Mystery Science Theater 3000 would have passed on the chance to riff this bomb.

As everyone else has said.... don't waste your time on this film. It might induce brain rot.

Haunted Highway tries to use acting to make up for what it lacks in style and originality. While the acting is passable, the editing is terrible. Long dramatic pauses where none were needed and camera angles that are just too close up in most cases. The camera work could have been better, but it was not too bad. The story revolves around an unstable creepy guy who makes a series of bad decisions and winds up paying for them by being haunted along a stretch of highway while trying to hide his dirty deeds. The highway was more like a rural side street, and obviously gave the viewer problems as the car took a right angle turn, according to the arterial signs, at 80mph. There was nothing endearing about any of the characters, so there was no emotional attachment to anyone. I'm sure all this would go over really well in Japan, but not in America. Watch it if you have some time to kill.

As I sit here, trying to think of something positive, I draw only a blank. Well, wait a minute, the movie did end. I guess that could be a positive. This movie had many titles. "Death Ride" was changed to "Haunted Highway" and could have been changed again to "Driving. The Movie". This movie was like the many driving scenes. Pointless. The Japanese Horror Gods must have been looking the other way and not been able to stop this movie from coming out.

And then there was the acting...or lack thereof. The main character apparently had no way to show emotion on his face so they used makeup to help him out. And I'm guessing that Hinano Yoshikawa either spoke no English or broken English, so they dub her voice for one that is worse? It would have been better if she spoke her native language and they just had subtitles. Now, it wouldn't have made any sense in the movie, being as the main character probably wouldn't understand her but hey, if you've seen the movie, why try to make sense of it.

This movie fails at getting any scares. The scare shots are so predictable that you are sitting there waiting for them to just get it over with. If you want to see a low budget but well made movie, go out and rent "Dead End". It will make "Death Haunted Highway Ride" look like it was made by pre-schoolers.

Greg is a fashion photographer who's having an affair with an Japanese model and when his wife confronts him about it. Thinking that she knew nothing of it. They get into a tussle and her head accidentally hits the ground, incidentally killing her. He dumps the body in the car drunk and heads to Black Lake to hopefully dump the body, but his nocturnal journey there, turns into one nightmarish ride.

Wow this Indie flick does seem to cop a real slapping?! Sure it's kinda derivative of a 2003 independent horror feature (you might call it a poorer man's version of it) and shares plenty in common with its modern Asian horror counterparts. Since it's directed by Junichi Suzuki and he co-wrote it with Koji Steven Sakai. But c'mon, it's not one of the worst. Okay it's far from good, but honestly there are more awful low-end horror flicks out there and really I found this to be quite watchable, strangely enough.

"Death Ride" is a creaky story that likes to play around with the disorientating nature of blurring the line between reality and imagination. It's not that successful in doing so and the repetitive actions and images can start to irritate. While it rapidly gets right into it, most of the premise involves around the protagonist's driving his car to a destination that we feel we'll never get to. Then to spice up the trip we get to listen to the radio and just watch him go slowly off the boil. A sense that it doesn't seem to go anywhere, digs itself right into the material and the execution can come across as lightweight. It's all about the oddly creepy occurrences with such little structure coming from its paper thin plot and contrived build ups. Within the narrative are meandering flashbacks, but anyhow they are essential to what's going on. The hint-laced script is rather tight because they kept the dialogues fairly sparse and keeps things pretty serious with a few dabs of pitch black humour. Moody camera-work along with an effectively shuddery music score helps build an quietly dreary atmosphere from it's eerily lifeless highway settings. Suzuki directs in an exhaustingly edgy style and works in some neatly weird visuals and few moments of tension (which don't involve strangeness), but also he does his fair share of poor attempts of chills and unnecessarily pads it out. Rand Gamble's performance as Greg is credibly good and rest of the cast are sub-par. Although, Hinano Yoshikawa is rather stilted with her dialogue and wooden in her turn as the model Greg's seeing.

I wouldn't recommend it, but I found it to be an admirable effort that knew what it wanted to achieve. Expect very little and you might find something worthwhile with it. However I'm one of a few who didn't find it to be "extremely" awful. Can you take the chance?