Octane

Casting an eye around the human flotsam and jetsam at a late-night roadside diner, travel-weary mother (Stowe) and rebellious teenage daughter (Barton) are right to wonder 'Who are these people?' With the same oddball individuals turning up at a series of car smashes and a sinister recovery man haunting the scene, this particular stretch of the Middle American highway is a decidedly eerie place. At first the stressed-out mom puts it all down to fatigue, but when her daughter goes missing after an encounter with a hippie-chick hiker (Phillips), it looks as if her maternal fears are real. This second feature from the director of the schlocky Long Time Dead flickers with promise in the opening reel. Orbital's unsettling electro score sets the scene nicely and the direction takes its time establishing a mood of enigmatic menace lurking behind the everyday. An hour later and it's all gone down the pan. When it comes to delivering answers, the movie stalls for as long as it can before staggering in confusion over the exact nature of the evil-doers plaguing the roads, merrily tossing aside plot coherence and basic credibility as frazzled Stowe turns indestructible superwoman in a pumped-up action finale.