Roadkill: The Last Days of John Martin (Short 1994)

Roadkill: The Last Days of John Martin: Directed by Jim Van Bebber. With Mark Gillespie, Marc Pitman, Maureen Allisse. A man named John Martin offers a couple with a broken-down car a ride to the nearest gas station, little do they know he’s actually taking them back to his place for dinner.

“Jim Van Bebber must be the unluckiest filmmaker on earth. The original video distributor of u0026quot;Deadbeat At Dawnu0026quot; ripped him off, u0026quot;The Manson Familyu0026quot; was in movie limbo for a decade and this short was made with the intention of attracting investors for a full length feature film. In true Van Bebber style, no cash was forthcoming.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIt is incomprehensible to me that a visionary like Jim Van Bebber has to beg, borrow and steal to make a film, while every second loser in Hollywood gets a $30 million budget thrown at them to rape a 1970s horror classic, u0026quot;re-makingu0026quot; it into a steaming pile of commercial crap. Unfortunately, the joke is on us. Horror fans have missed out on what had the potential to be a phenomenal film.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eRoadkill focuses on serial killing cannibal called John Martin, who picks up stranded motorists on a deserted highway and then takes them home to be butchered. The result lies somewhere between u0026quot;Wolf Creeku0026quot;, u0026quot;Henry: Portrait Of A Serial Killeru0026quot; and u0026quot;Schrammu0026quot;. In other words, it is awesome. As with all of Van Bebberu0026#39;s work, the violence is gritty and realistic. The butchering of Johnu0026#39;s male victim is intense and his female victimu0026#39;s cries for mercy and ultimate fate are utterly grim. The filmu0026#39;s only real weakness is Mark Gillespieu0026#39;s performance as John, which lacks restraint and initially comes across as unintentionally funny. Iu0026#39;m also not sure why John spent so much time screaming at his television set. However, these faults do little to detract from the intensity and brutality of Van Bebberu0026#39;s short film.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eRoadkill is another example of Jim Van Bebberu0026#39;s unique style and considered approach to on-screen violence. What a shame that we only have 15 paltry minutes to savour.”