Film Review: Expressway to Your Skull (2014)

SYNOPSIS:

Expressway To Your Skull is the story of Ed and Amy, a thrill-seeking couple in their 20’s desperately searching for a way to fix their strapped existence. With a stash of drugs, backpacks and half-cocked enthusiasm Ed and Amy hit the road… but as they arrive in the woods their idyllic 3-day trip slowly starts to turn into a nightmare.

REVIEW:

There is a saying that most people know that goes “You can’t judge a book by its cover.”  This is true of many books since the cover does not always truly represent what the book is.  The same could be said about movies and their titles.  The title is a representation of the movie in the same way that a cover is a representation of a book.  It gives a first impression to the potential audience but does not always give a true depiction of the material.  A good movie could have a bad name or a bad movie a good name.  In the end it is just a name and you must judge a movie based on its own individual merits.

One movie that has a name is Expressway to Your Skull.  This 2014 movie follows Ed (Paul S. Tracey) and Amy (Lindsay Atwood) as they take a trip into the woods to get away from their lives in the city.  The woods are home to a man named Charlie (Mark Aaron) who wants nothing more than to kidnap Amy and make her his wife.  There’s fighting involved in the situation and that’s about it.

There isn’t a lot of positive to say about Expressway to Your Skull.  It’s a rather dull experience.  The vast majority of the runtime follows Ed and Amy on their way to the woods as they talk about doing drugs or being in the woods and talking about doing drugs.  Their backstory in the city doesn’t really matter at all and is never really delved into outside of them needing to get away, probably because of a drug deal gone bad.  There is no weight behind it to make it feel like an important part of the story.  The biggest chore of the movie is getting through anything involving these two characters hanging out.

The other side of the movie follows Charlie, the maniacal character who lives in a shack in the woods.  His story is a little more interesting than the couple’s as it involves him kidnapping a hitchhiker and keeping her captive in his home.  He’s also a little bit insane so it makes him a little bit more entertaining to watch.  Mark Aaron did his best to fill the role he was given and stands out as the highlight of Expressway to Your Skull.  It would be extremely difficult to sit through the movie without his presence there to relieve some of the boredom.

About two thirds of the way through Expressway to Your Skull is when the two stories collide in a violent climax.  This is easily the best part of the movie as everything that happens matters.  It does not involve inconsequential story like the couple in the woods, and it turns Charlie up to eleven in terms of his lunacy.  Mark Aaron is able to go as crazy as he wants in the role and makes the final third into an entertaining half hour of the movie even if the rest of the movie is still bad.  There is no support around his performance to keep the movie afloat but he at least entertains what audience there may be.

There isn’t much left to say about Expressway to Your Skull.  It isn’t a good movie by any stretch of the imagination.  It just slogs along until it reaches the climactic moments, then it ends.  It isn’t memorable in any way and won’t light the horror genre on fire.  There are much better movies that are worth your time to seek out.  Watching this is only going to make you wonder why you chose to subject yourself to it.  Sure, the character of Charlie is at least entertaining but that doesn’t quite make up for the other half of the story which is boring and tiresome.  Stay away from Expressway to Your Skull.