The sun drenched days of summer turn dark and ominous for hitchhiking duo Jack and Véronique when they become inexplicably entangled with a mysterious married couple and a local road kill collector in rural France.
Review
Road Games is a dark thriller, set in France with enough twists and turns to keep anyone guessing. The long and the short of it, is there is a mysterious serial killer murdering people at night in the local area, and hitchhikers Jack and Véronique hole up in a kindly couples house for the night - Grizard and Mary's.The setup is pretty obvious - one of the four of them is obviously going to turn out to be the killer, but which one?
In a film with little in the way of effects, it is driven by suspense, and that which is brought by the writing and the performances. The film was written and directed by Abner Pastoll (feature debut), who while competently directs, adds a sparkle with the writing. The performances are rock solid, too. Protagonist, Jack, is played by Andrew Simpson (The Survivalist) as the young-hero type well enough, and sultry travelling companion Véronique by Joséphine de La Baume (Johnny English Reborn). They play their characters well and have solid chemistry. The couple who own the house are played by Barbara Crampton (The Lords of Salem) and Frédéric Pierrot (Endangered Species), and they are both stunningly good.
The film is written to allow smart-asses like me to say definitively who the villain is not, because its a red herring, to only throw a spanner in the works as the third act begins with enough impact to make even me - a cynical seen-it-all movie fan - sit up and start paying more attention.
Gripping, and suspenseful. You won't see it coming, and you'll want to watch it twice. Good stuff.
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