Road Games (1981)

Plot of Road Games: Pat Quid is truck driver in Australia, who pulls up outside a motel, just missing the last room, so has to bunk in the truck. At five in the morning he notices a figure in a window checking on the dustbin men who are picking up plastic bags at the roadside. He goes to a meat factory and picks up a trailer full of carcases, and starts off from Melbourne towards Perth on a cliff top road. He comes across other travellers, a man on a motor cycle, a family in an estate car, a car full of balls, some newly weds, a man towing a boat and most importantly a green van. When Pat stops at the roadside he sees the green van man digging a hole, but on being seen the man packs up and drives away. Later Pat picks up a young woman, who he tells about his suspicions about the van man, which are that he could be a serial killer. At a later roadside stop they see the van, and thinking that van man is in the toilet, Hitch, the girl searches the van, while Pat guards the toilet. But it is someone else, and when Pat returns to the roadside the van, apparently with Hitch in it, is gone. Is green van man the killer, has Hitch gone with him willingly, how will it all pan out?

Content: No sex or nudity although in the preamble we see a naked young woman from the back as she is murdered with a guitar wire. No drinking or drug taking. As Pat drives along the highway he comes across the other travellers, and at one time destroys the boat being towed by a man who will not let him pass.  There are news items which identify the fact that there is a serial killer on the loose, and later that the woman Pat has picked up is an heiress. After he thinks that Pamela, the heiress has gone with the green van man willingly, he comes across the van, and on investigating the adjacent woodland hears sex taking place. We, the viewers, learn that actually it is the honeymoon couple, but Pat thinks otherwise. Later it begins to seem that he is the killer and is chased by the police in Perth, as he is chasing the van.

A View: This is a strange film, back in 1981, an expensive production. A lot is made of the fellow travellers on the road. Pat has a dog, which he seems to think is a dingo which is quite endearing. It appears to be mostly fed up, but was probably actually bored by the interminable filming. While it is a simple tale, easily acted by the stars, there is a sort of fascination with the environment and the fact that there are so few people on the road that they keep meeting. So if for no other reason, worth watching for its place in movie history.

Fun Fact: Said to be Quentin Tarantino’s favourite Australian film.