23:14 Prolonged, and sometimes fruitless, search for quality horror pictures led me to a rather good project in 2011 called "Munger Road". The director and screenwriter of the film was a novice filmmaker Nicholas Smith, for whom this film became a full-fledged debut in the profession. Naturally, it is not easy for a green beginner to get interviews with major Hollywood bosses, but representatives of modest studios are often more supportive and ready for experiments for little money. And so came up with an exciting story, Smith turned to the bosses of the unknown studio Insomnia pictures, which was not afraid and invested $200,000 in the director. Of course, in our time, when quality horrors are filmed for ridiculous money, this amount of weight equally seems to be extremely modest, but in skilled hands and much less money brought incredible results. Let’s recall at least the first “Paranormal phenomenon”, shot for some 15 thousand. Of course, now, after several years from the premiere, we can safely say that “Munger Road” did not become a world-class hit, but the attention of respecting the genre of viewers deserved. One of the main attractive elements for viewing is the participation in the filming of the famous actor Bruce Davison, best known for the role of Senator Kelly from the first two parts of X-Men. And let his career look more than uneven and he plays at the box office, then in frank stamping, but the name of Davison somehow attracts the attention of viewers still. As for the rest of the cast, it consists mainly of young and not too star performers. Although each of them already has a supporting role in famous Hollywood projects, which suggests that their interest in “Munger Road” is not groundless.
So, the plot of the film tells about a small town, in the vicinity of which once there was a tragedy - a school bus suddenly stopped on the railway tracks was destroyed by a rapidly approaching train, which did not give the Kumu a chance to survive. Of course, this incident gave rise to the legend of the ghosts of the night highway guarding the ill-fated crossing. One night, a group of four friends in the person of Corey (Trevor Morgan, “Jurassic Park 3”), Joe (Brook Peeples, “Anger Management”), Scott (Hallos Bills, “Letters from Iwo Jima”) and Rachel (Lauren Storm, “24 Hours”) decides to go to the place of death of the children in order to capture paranormal activity on a video camera and become famous on one of the themed shows. Arriving at the place of the heroes, the car suddenly breaks down, and all the hours stop at 23:14. In parallel, the events describe the night patrol of police officers, Chief Kirkhoven (Davison) and his assistant Hendrix (Randall Batinkoff, “X-Men: First Class”), who on the eve of the impending carnival on their town receive information that the once-caught local serial maniac escapes from under the convoy and most likely will appear in his native places. Of course, the police begin to inspect all the iconic locations for the villain, along the way approaching the story of the guys with a video camera lost in the same night.
All the events of the film unfold during one sinister night. "Munger Road" is a quite good mystical thriller, the action of which is quite organically divided into two full parts, so if any of the characters you do not like. Don’t worry, it will soon switch to another plan. The most important, in my opinion, the value of “Munger Road” is the fascinating atmosphere of the night city and its surrounding areas. Beautifully lit buildings in the classical style of architecture, rarely passing cars, a lonely cafe, a peacefully sleeping luxury hotel, carnival rides frozen in one position and a couple of policemen exploring the city all alone. Plus, we add to this the classic story of a highway of ghosts and carefree heroes who are left with their problems one on one. In addition, it is worth noting the moment that Nicholas Smith managed to withstand a good intrigue of the narrative and we will until the end be lost in guesses about what is happening. Is there a mystery here? Is the maniac to blame and who is he really? What's the fate of the boys? Only here the final of the film can disappoint many, because it, in fact, is not! "Munger Road" ends with the phrase "Continuation should", which suggests that we see only the first part of the project, which only twists the plot, but does not bring it to its logical end. And since the premiere of the picture has been more than one year, and the sequel is not and is not, we can assume that “Munger Road” will remain an inferior half. And in this regard, a well-founded question arises – is it worth watching “Munger Road” at all? Personally, I think so, but only to those fans of the genre who have already reviewed all the best paintings.
Separately, I want to note that Nicholas Smith not only did not complete his project, but also saturated the first part with a mass of logical blunders. Imagine that around your car, whether ghosts or maniacs, your friends leave and do not return, and in the vicinity there is an ominous house. Will you go there? I think not, but not the heroes of the movie! Now we note the work of the police, the eldest of whom knows in detail the entire history of the maniac’s atrocities and tries to find him all over the city. But for some reason, the last on the inspection list is exactly the farm where the villain committed his main crimes. And these are only the most obvious claims that climb to the viewer’s eyes. Well, about such things as a suddenly lost connection, a broken car and endless squabbles, I think you should not talk in detail - of course, you already know all the laws of the genre of youth mystical slasher.
In the end, I want to say that "Munger Road" is a rather not bad, but criminally ill-conceived horror, which had all the makings to become a remarkable representative of the genre. And so we have an unfinished project, which was able to captivate the viewer with its atmosphere despite the mass of blunders, but disappointing by the lack of a full-fledged ending.
6 out of 10