I believe it's human nature to want to be in control of a situation. Confusion, of course indicates loss of control. This is why I believe that confusion is so closely linked with fear.
Consider a nightmare. You don’t understand why people you know are behaving in strange ways, you don’t understand why you can’t scream, why you can’t run. The confusion leaves you terrified. At least that’s how it works for me.
Movies that can utilize this link between confusion and fear have something going for them. While Rest Stop
had an itty bitty budget and showcased some pretty bad acting skills, it did manage to work the hell out of the confusion angle.
Our main characters Nicole and Jess stop at a rest stop in the middle of nowhere on an escape from home. Nicole heads in to use the facilities and when she comes back out Jess is nowhere to be found. All that’s left is one lone cigarette. As the astute viewer we already have a good idea that Jess has been snatched up by the yellow truck driving bad guy that tried to run the pair off the road earlier. Nicole, however, is left to wonder about the rest stop confused.
From here, the movie steamrolls ahead. While the madman in the yellow truck stalks Nicole she encounters a bloody girl, Tracy, in the bathroom closet. Our bloody, bruised friend tells Nicole of the bus where the madman tortures his victims. And, for the viewer, it’s the best kind of torture…. staples, and drills, and sewing needles, oh my! So our heroine decides that not only save herself and find out what happened to her boyfriend, but she’ll also jail break Tracy. Of course things don’t happen quite like that.
The progression of the movie also leads Nicole into the camper of what may have been the strangest family ever. One preachy father, one nut bag mother, two silent (and creepy looking) twins and Scotty the deformed youngster wielding a camera. I watched this movie twice and neither time did I understand exactly what the hell the whole camper/family thing was all about. Working the confusion angle again I suppose.
The last random character to show up amid all the confusion is Officer Deacon played by Joey Lawrence (go ahead, say “Woah”, you know you want to). His arrival and subsequent dismantling by the killer leads to the best part of the whole movie…. nope, not telling. But if you’ve already seen it I’m sure you’ve delighted in the fuckupness of it.
Rest Stop is an interesting act in patience. You spend most of the movie wondering what the fuck is going on only to find at the end it seems that you were supposed to be wondering what the fuck was going on. While I can’t say that it was terribly scary, I can say that I make it a point to avoid roadside rest stops. I’ll be popping into Mickey D’s to take a leak, thanks.
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