Motor Home From Hell (2009) - By Joshua LeSuer

Film Reviews: Motor Home From Hell (2009) - By Joshua LeSuer
Posted on Thursday, July 02, 2009 @ 05:20:52 Mountain Daylight Time by Duane

Description (From the film's website): The mysterious fortune teller, Madame X, had a psychic vision of a 1975 recreational vehicle packed with vampires and zombies, driven by the Devil. Phil Philby, parapsychological PI and ex-C.I.A. hit man, took the case. A Cajun meth cooker, a sadistic country sheriff, sinister government agents, and a pricey Indian medicine man are only a few of their problems. Can they stop this horrific challenge to Homeland Security before the evil RV triggers the apocalypse? Hell-on-wheels takes on a horrific — and hilarious — new meaning. It’s a wicked political satire that resonates with the weirdness of today’s news. Motor Home From Hell rolls on axles of evil, powered by an infernal combustion engine of explosive, subversive humor.

I think, as a rule, all horror shot on a sliver of a budget should be done in B&W, heavy sepia or severe desaturation, with an incredibly distorted soundtrack, lots of close-ups, crazy angles, very "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" (that being the original).

See, the point is to create a sense of atmosphere. And since most low-budgeters can't splash CGI across the screen or hire Tak Fujimoto, they need to be as old school as possible. A prime, but slightly overcooked, example would be E.E. Merhige's "Begotten". Home videos have more financial backing, but it's the one horror piece I've had to forcibly suppress all memory of. It's too, too much. And it does it all with a heavily organic soundtrack, extraordinarily long takes and a wicked use of chiarascuro. Sick, sick stuff. But brilliant.

"Motor Home From Hell" has so much going for it, a bubonic sense of humor being high on the list. I mean, how can we not applaud a film which features a man chowing down on a shrimp sandwich, the shrimp being very much real and very much alive? Of course, the scene flaunts the film's Achille's heel: It's just not shot in an interesting way. No gooey close-ups, no attempt to accentuate the oogie-ness through cinematic language. It just looks like an outtake from "Jackass".

Too much of the film features on-location sound and very weak camera work. Shame, because given the right cinematography, this flick would've roared, instead of faintly hissing and snarling.

One more beef: If a film's going to go around stamped with a moniker like "Motor Home From Hell," then what little budget there be should be channeled into making the titular motor home as hellish as possible.

Because, sadly, the demonic farm truck from "Jeepers Creepers," it isn't.

If you'd like to find out more about this film, you can check out the film's website at http://www.rifflepictures.com.