Detour (2003)

(AKA Cannibal Detour: Hell's Highway)

"On the drive home from a deep desert rave, seven friends travel off the beaten path only to be trapped in a reality more horrible than any nightmare they could imagine. Cannibals roam this stretch of tortured land, feeding off unfortunate travellers. Now the friends must become as savage as their attackers if they are to escape the desert alive."

So it's just a even lower budget version of "Wrong Turn" and "The Hills Have Eyes" although actually made at the same time as the former and three years before the remake of the latter.

It looks good. Someone must have invested the majority of the budget in a decent camera. Shooting in the desert probably helped as all the colours are nice and bright.

Everyone (especially the girls) looks as if they've come from some kind of modelling agency. The trouble is that none of them can act and the dialogue is so cringeworthy that you'd be better off watching it with the sound switched off. One character is one of those annoying white guys who thinks he is some kind of gangsta/rapper. I'm not even going to bother analysing the other clichéd stereotypes that the rest of the cast aspire to be. If you watch this, look out for the number of times they change their clothes too. Continuity is not a strong point in this movie at all.

There is one quite erotic sex scene (involving Jessica Osfar) but nudity and gore are otherwise pretty sparse in "Detour". The blood effects are particularly weak, more like coloured red water than the usual corn syrup, and there is nothing scary here. You don't even get to see any cannibalism!

One scene that amused me in the wrong way was when one of the "cannibals" got impaled and the stake was so obviously two separate pieces. The bit sticking out of his chest moves all over the place of its own accord.

Big Spoiler
Why do they even go through all this when, at the end, the RV just starts again and they drive off?
End of Big Spoiler

I'd rate this as a possible 3 out of 10 but in comparison with the films it tries to copy it is only worth 2 out of 10 (if that!).