Background
Terror Tract is an independent movie released in 2000. It shares two directors, the first, Lance W. Dressen's latest work was in 2010 and he stuck with independent films up to then. The latest for Clint Hutchinson was an editing gig for a wrestling documentary in 2013. While the film doesn't have any notable directors, the same can't be said for its roster of actors. The film primarily contains actors who're rooted in television.
What star power does this film have in this case? They got Buff Bagwell, a wrestler who acts on the side. They got Coop from MegasXLR, They got Wade Williams, one of the principal actors on Prison Break, not doing it for you? Well, they got John Ritter of all people as the headliner, and they got Bryan Cranston too. I'm not kidding, and I have no idea how they got those actors, then again they were probably hungry for work at the time, this was well before Walter White Bryan Cranston. The film was produced with an estimated budget of one million dollars and was filmed within 36 days, and as of now, it has a respectable 6.0 on IMDb.
Per company information, the film was produced by Giant Leap Entertainment and distributed by Tomorrow Film Corporation. The former seems to be a one-off studio, but there's actually plenty more on the latter. Tomorrow Film Corporation served as the principal distributor, though you won't see their credit on most prints. Interestingly, their website is still up, though it hasn't been updated since 2005. Lo and behold, there's a page on the film, which has little else that'll be made known beyond alternative titles to the segments.
Here's the page if you're curious: https://www.tomorrowfilms.com/features/terror.htm
Now right off the bat, I'm a sucker for anthologies, I love Tales from the Darkside, I do like most of the 80s Twilight Zone and I love the cheesy dialogue associated with it. How well does this movie pull off scares, how hard can it make you laugh? Well it's also classified as a black comedy so I guess they got me there. At least it'll be better than XX.
Plot
The film wastes no time displaying how far it'll go. In the beginning we get some survival of the fittest shit where a worm gets eaten by a bird, then the bird gets eaten by a cat and then the cat is chased onto the road where it's ran over and eaten by a dog, but thanks to the car belonging to our protagonists, I guess I can't call this some forced inclusion.
The framework of the film involves John Ritter attempting to sell a house to a couple. But, he is confounded by his need to be upfront about everything. Luckily, that's where the anthology element comes into play. We're given tales related to the houses they visit and the people who previously lived there. Not much happens until the end here, so for now I'll focus on the stories.
Nightmare (yes that's what it's called)
Louis, a businessman, leaves to attend a business trip. Sarah, his whore of a wife awaits the arrival of her sparing partner Frank. After some laughable soft-core nudity, we discover that Louis has not only lied about leaving, but is a bit of a psycho. He intends to kill Frank and frame Sarah for it while hanging her. The two overpower him with scissors of all things and after a fairly decent fake-out, finish him off with a shotgun blast to the back.
The two decide to dump the body in the lake, and while that does sound cliche and a bullet dodge for calling the police, they actually give a good explanation, it seems too suspicious and black widows exist. From there, Sarah has a number of nightmares where her husband comes back from the dead, and it culminates in Frank dealing with another issue, the fact that he failed to get rid of a telltale car. While setting out, we get a decent jump-scare, only for it to be ruined by Louis seemingly coming back to life. I say ruined because in a later scene, Sarah seemingly has another nightmare and shoots through the door, only to kill Frank.
Think about it, Sarah is driven by paranoia over her husband returning, and said paranoia drives her to kill someone who had a hand in getting the events going. Also a nice jump-scare. Doesn't that sound a bit better? Anyway, the police return and find Sarah has hung herself and it's implied that Louis was behind it. Okay...? I would prefer if guilt got her in the end but to each their own.
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| Though I can't fault the scare factor of Louis here. |
I'll give it this, some dialogue in the beginning actually foreshadows the end pretty well. 9/10, still an A in my book.
Bobo
I'm just going to admit this, this movie struck a nerve with me. I have a dog and I don't get along well with it. It barks at me every time I enter the room and gives me a burdensome impression. This sorta ties into that.
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| In the meantime, hooray for Bryan Cranston. |
This is the part where Bryan Cranston comes in, and he gives that signature charm Hal gives on Malcolm in the Middle, toned down a bit of course. Anyway, Ron, Cranston's character's bitch of a daughter discovers a monkey in a tree and demands she keeps it as a pet. In spite of his reluctance, Ron takes it in, where it immediately causes trouble.
For one, his daughter takes a bizarre fondness over it, and it all goes batshit from here. The monkey begins killing people, from the dog to an animal control guy to Ron's wife, all in elaborate ways. Ron can take anymore of it and comes out guns a blazing to kill the bastard, but when the gun winds up in his daughter's hands, we get a cutaway and a gunshot.
I know I glazed through the plot pretty quickly, but that's because I have a lot of issues with this story. For one, this movie defeats the initiative to make up your own conclusions. We could've left the end a mystery, did she shoot Ron? Did she shoot the monkey? Nope, she shot the dad and was confined to an insane asylum.
But I'm not done yet, this could've easily been a good tale about jealousy and how Ron went crazy, killing people and pinning the blame on the monkey which could either be harmless or not real. Maybe the monkey business could've been made up as a coping mechanism or an excuse to defend her father because in the beginning, the two are close to the point of it being incestuous.
What I'm saying is, there were so many missed opportunities to make something provocative from this story. Or maybe they should've put some Peter Gabriel in the mix.
Come to Granny
At this point for me, there's nowhere for this movie to go but up, and quite frankly, they actually saved the best for last.
Sean Goodwin is a psychic teenager who visits a therapist over visions of a serial killer donning a grandmother mask killing people. Nice to see this movie going back to the basics of cheap slashers. Personally, I like the concept of the Granny killer, could've made for a decent 80s flick. Has the simplicity of Michael Myers, mixed with the hilarity of Freddy Krueger.
Anyway, these visions have harmed Sean's social life. When he has them, to some it looks like he's having a fit. This led to him losing his girlfriend, and by extension his friends since they're friends with her. Sean reveals that he came to her because she was going to be killed next. The therapist appropriately believes that Sean must be the killer and flees to the elevator as Sean staggers to her.
But...
While calling for the elevator and after a cliche waiting in vein for the doors to open, it turns out that the Granny Killer is present and that Sean was in fact trying to save her. Take a wild guess where this leads.
I like this segment, it had decent acting, a nice buildup, a good creepy atmosphere and a nice twist at the end. It's much better than the previous segment by far.
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| Come to Granny |
Conclusion
Horrified by the tales, the couple turns down all three. This is especially bad to John Ritter who fails to meet a deadline and may lose his wife and son. Ritter breaks down and stabs the husband to death, and here's where things get awesome.
The wife fleas and happens upon the neighborhood who's enveloped in chaos. We have a man running a lawnmower over his cat, Bobo returning in a jumpscare, the batshit insane Ritter continuing to try and sell a house, a stabbed body in an inflatable pool, someone's wife shooting her husband (unless it's a reverse "Nightmare"), a dead body in a garbage bin as an old woman nonchalantly waves, a guy getting run over (which could be the drunk driver the IMDb trivia section was alluding to) and an explosion.
It's perfect in that it sums up how batshit the movie is, and I love it for that. Not to mention the film captures the batshit insanity of California. This was shot in Santa Clarita, which itself is part of Los Angeles, the crazier part of Southern California fyi.
Overall
This movie won't impress everyone. The film has numerous weak links, but I'll admit, it kept my interest long enough and it encouraged me to make my own conclusions. John Ritter pulls off the horror schtick pretty well and it's a shame that he was three years away from his eventual death.
I guess in a way, this film is an acquired taste. If you have a taste for batshit insanity and actors going out of their comfort zone slightly, or if you just hate Hollywood movies like I do and would gladly take anything with the slightest hint of independence with open arms, this could be a handy time waster.
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