[Five Across The Eyes]
Plot:Five girls face the ultimate experience of terror on the way back from a football game. Finding themselves lost, they stop at a desolate store to find directions, but unfortunately instead are involved in a hit and run leaving the driver of an SUV one headlight short. Inexperienced and frightened the girls flee the accident and speed away down the dark and unfamiliar roads. Shortly after they are joined on their blind journey by the pursuit of the one lone headlight, an event that will scar them for life; one mistake made while lost will cost them their innocence and possibly their lives.

Cast:Jennifer Barnett, Angela Brunda, Veronica Garcia, Dave Jarnigan, Danielle Lilley, Sandra Paduch, Keith Smith, Jane Swinson, Abby Vessell, Mia Yi.

My Thoughts:Good slasher movie due to it's total out-of-bounds nature.

Review:While some B horror movies fail on every level at everything they attempt to do. And others are doomed from the second they leave the starting gate due to an abhorent number of flaws...Greg Swinson and Ryan Thiessen's "Five Across The Eyes" isn't the best looking slasher film from a production values point of view, but it's a fun ride because of it's outside-the-box approach. The film follows a group of five girls on their way from a college ball game who accidentally sideswipe a parked vehicle when they stop at a store on the side of the road. The girls keep going and forget about it, but the driver is none too pleased by this infraction.

She, a psychotic soccer-mom-looking type who is more than a few fries short of a happy meal...tails the girls with the intent to kill, and eventually thrusts them into a fight for their lives. Make no mistake, this movie is not a film where a group of annoying teenagers are hunted down and killed systematically by a mysterious knife wielding guy in a slicker, or trenchcoat. It takes a more realistic approach to the entire situation of predator versus prey. The psycho woman is the type of woman you see in every day life. Only she's insane, and wields a shotgun to boot.

And the girls, are your normal, typical looking teenagers...which adds a very realistic dynamic to the whole situation. There's nothing far-reaching, or unrealistic about the film from a story standpoint. It presents a situation which could actually happen in real life, in the dark backroads of the deep south. Some crazed redneck woman with a gun, taking gross exception to an honest accident, and then pursuing the guilty parties with bloodlust in her eyes and heart. The actresses playing the five girls are certainly going to have a future in acting, their on-screen chemistry is great, and their reactions to the stories situation are very real and impactful.

Normally in a film like this, the acting is so bad that it distracts you from being able to concentrate on anything happening in the movie, but these girls were good. As was the actress playing the psycho SUV woman who pursues the group to hell and back. Her motives are never fully known however. While the smashed tailight is an assumed operating motive...during her physical confrontations with the girls (of which there are many)...she rants, raves, and screams about many different things which, along with a scene which takes place late in the movies final act....eventually lead the viewer to believe she's just a typical rural area nut.

Now I've bashed alot of killer-redneck or killer-hillbilly films that have come to dvd lately because they all have the same plot. City kids in the wilderness, who are preyed upon by psycho hicks. But this movie puts a few new twists, and tweaks on things...which really is all it takes to set a film that might or might not fall into the "Wrong Turn", "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" subgenre...apart from those very movies. Blood and gore are not scarce in this film, people are stabbed, shot, drug, beaten down...and there's also a few barf scenes thrown in for good measure. As far as violence is concerned, pretty much everything is present here.

Gunplay, fisticuffs, beatings, homicide by fire, attempted vehicular homicide, stabbings, and corpses on display. Suspense is also big in this movie, with writers Greg Swinson and Marshall Hicks putting their unlikely heroines in many dangerous situations and keeping the viewer on the edge of his or her seat with the possibility that the teens might or might not die during their violent encounter with this crazed woman. Fans of the horror/thriller genre should find this movie pretty easy to keep up with as well, considering it's not a thinking movie but rather a fun popcorn movie.

The psycho SUV chick pursues the five-girl group throughout the movie with relentless precision. All of this set to the backdrop of pitchblack, rural highways and roads, and just as much action takes place inside their vehicles as outside of their vehicles. Leading to an extremely intense final act which finishes off the movie in glowing fashion. If this movie had a large or modest studio budget like lets say, what 2001's "Joyride" got, with the same actors and script, it could've been one of 2008's better and unique mainstream slasher entries. Instead, it's one of this years better straight-to-dvd efforts.

Positives:Good performances by all, unique storyline, strong horror elements. A terrifice ending.

Negatives:There are a few moments where the girls do not fight back, despite being provided with many opportunities to do so. It gets a tad bit annoying sometimes. Especially considering they outnumber this woman five to 1.

Overall:Three stars out of four.





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