"Halfway." The group of students is heading to the annual Zone 52 music festival, held in a desert area far from major settlements. An unexpected malfunction of the car forces friends to stop at a roadside motel, so in time turned up on their way. At first glance, a functioning hotel turns out to be lifeless and free from guests and employees, thereby laying in the minds of visitors a little apprehension. The only correct solution is to stay in rooms, because transport, like all types of telecommunications, is defective; and only the freeway is the source of the necessary assistance. But “Halfway” and the adjacent wasteland conceals terrible secrets revealed to eyewitnesses in the light of the moon.
Not having time to reach the initial coverage of the persons involved in the work, the unceremonious Reeker literally splashes a bucket of fake blood on the audience and acts out a scene of ruthless murder of inattentive travelers, subsequently replacing the sudden introduction to the familiar motifs of youth comedy. The heartfelt conversations about the purpose of the trip and the details of the pastime as part of the holiday party boil down to praising "a song released in August 1977 by British performer Ian Dury." A positive attitude, anticipating unrestrained fun in the company of chilled drinks and uplifting lovely strangers, takes the form of frivolous dialogues filled with humorous, barbed and ironic notes. The endless conversation offers to relax and plunge into the observed journey; and at some point in time, and at all, to envy the heroes, inexorably fast rushing to entertainment on a grand scale, but only until the nearest star to the Earth disappears from the sky.
Subsequent events, the screenwriter Dave Payne hides under the cover of night, inflaming the imagination of viewers with behind-the-scenes rustle, shadows flashing in the distance of unknown origin, and quite real participants in the incident, disappearing from sight and appearing under strange circumstances. Jumping between a deadly danger threatening one member of society and a serene environment entangling another allowed the director to capture attention focused on unraveling a mystical and carefully concealed reality.
The abrupt ending of the story at first leads to confusion, but overnight puts everything in place: meaningless phrases from the void, images that suddenly appear and safely disappear to nowhere, materialize, acquiring the appearance of clues placed along the course of the narrative and trying from behind the scenes to help unravel the idea, carefully scattered on the colored faces of the Rubik’s Cube.
7 out of 10