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Roadgames

Roadgames

Mystery · Thriller · Horror · 1981

A truck driver plays a cat-and-mouse game with a mysterious serial killer in a van who lures young female hitchhiker victims on a desolate Australian highway.

Movie details

Roadgames

“The truck driver plays games. The hitchhiker plays games. And the killer is playing the deadliest game of all!”

1981 Mystery · Thriller · Horror 1h 41m

Critical arithmetic

One number, for now.

TMDB

6.5 / 10

Community rating

A truck driver plays a cat-and-mouse game with a mysterious serial killer in a van who lures young female hitchhiker victims on a desolate Australian highway.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over Roadgames?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

Dust Devil

Dust Devil

Horror · 1992

A woman on the run from her abusive husband encounters a mysterious hitch-hiker.

Killing Ground

Killing Ground

Mystery · 2017

A couple's camping trip turns into a frightening ordeal when they stumble across the scene of a horrific crime.

The Signal

The Signal

Horror · 2007

A horror film told in three parts, from three perspectives, in which a mysterious transmission that turns people into killers invades every cell phone, radio, and television.

Wolf Creek 2

Wolf Creek 2

Horror · 2013

Lured by the promise of an Australian holiday, backpackers Rutger, Katarina and Paul visit the notorious Wolf Creek Crater. Their dream Outback adventure soon becomes a horrific reality when they encounter the site's most infamous local, the last man any traveller to the region ever wants to meet—Mick Taylor. As the backpackers flee, Mick pursues them on an epic white knuckled rampage across hostile wasteland.

Jeepers Creepers

Jeepers Creepers

Horror · 2001

On a desolate country highway, two homeward-bound teens are nearly run off the road by a maniac in a beat-up truck, and later spot him shoving what appears to be a body down a sewer pipe.

Wolf Creek

Wolf Creek

Horror · 2005

Three backpackers stranded in the Australian outback are plunged inside a hellish nightmare of insufferable torture by a sadistic psychopathic local.

Switchback

Switchback

Thriller · 1997

After FBI agent Frank Lacrosse believes his son was kidnapped by a notorious serial killer, he travels to Amarillo, Texas, where he believes the murderer is in hiding. Although officially taken off the case because of its personal significance to him, Frank continues to pursue the killer, causing concern for local sheriff Buck Olmstead. When another victim pops up at a nearby car garage, Frank knows that he is as close as he'll ever be to tracking down the elusive killer.

No One Lives

No One Lives

Horror · 2013

A gang of ruthless highway killers kidnap a wealthy couple traveling cross country only to shockingly discover that things are not what they seem.

The Hitcher

The Hitcher

Crime · 2007

While driving through the New Mexico Desert during a rainy night, college students Jim Halsey and his girlfriend Grace Andrews give a ride to a hitchhiker. While in their car, the stranger proves to be a psychopath threatening the young couple with a knife, but Jim successfully throws him out of the car. This sets off a chain of events that will change all of their lives forever.

Deranged

Deranged

Crime · 1974

A man living in rural Wisconsin takes care of his bed-ridden mother, who is very domineering and teaches him that all women are evil. After she dies, he misses her, and a year later digs her up and takes her home. He learns about taxidermy and begins robbing graves to get materials to patch her up, and inevitably begins looking for fresher sources of materials. Based loosely on the true story of Ed Gein.

Where it lives

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Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Richard Franklin

Written by

Everett De Roche

Stacy Keach

Stacy Keach

Patrick 'Pat' Quid

Jamie Lee Curtis

Jamie Lee Curtis

Pamela 'Hitch' Rushworth

M

Marion Edward

Madeleine 'Frita' Day

Grant Page

Grant Page

Smith or Jones

T

Thaddeus Smith

Policeman 'Abbott'

S

Steve Millichamp

Policeman 'Costello'

Alan Hopgood

Alan Hopgood

Lester

Court is in session

Put Roadgames on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Arthouse Gremlin

“Its refusal to behave is the point.”

The strange choices create the kind of friction that follows you out of the theatre and into the argument.

The prosecution The Popcorn Loyalist

“Oddness is not depth.”

A film can break every rule and still leave nothing behind but the memory of how hard it tried to be singular.