What should be a seedy, lurid sleeper is sabotaged by two fatal flaws: a folksy drum-roll-and-harmonica score that makes it sounds like an upbeat sitcom and the overlying murder plotline is incidentally jettisoned to the sidelines for a downy, mawkish romance between Quid and Hitch. This cult classic is truly a monumental disappointment for director Frankin who surpassed Hitchcock with his magnificently heart-pumping and clever 'Psycho II'. In a vain effort to awaken the audience from their slumber, Franklin employs the creatively bankrupt use of loud jump scares with the whooshing sounds of traffic careening by. It is a very transparent ploy that Quid, who is ranting and raving about the killer's motivation and methodology to every passenger, is considered a suspect. Keach is adequate as Quid who is voyeuristic to a fault and his rapport with his dog is amusing in short spurts but Quid is too unhinged and frank to really engage our empathy. in one of his many idiotic decisions, Quid filibusters to complete strangers about strewing body parts throughout the desert wasteland. 'Road Games' is a weightless, derivative Hitchcock knockoff that doesn't generate spiky suspense insofar as the mystery aspect is a nonstarter and the protagonist is a lobotomized pawn for the killer.

Richard Franklin, the same aussie who took over the fairly decent sequel of Psycho, Attempts to rehash 'Rear Window' as a road movie, bringing to mind another even more brilliant hitchcockian exercise, Steven Spielberg's Duel, which had a simpler but even more intense outcome. Franklin's narrative pulse is stylish, and careful in execution, but If the plot was tighter, without losing its north/credibility -especially around the finale- the film would had been a lot better. Underrated Stacy Keach brings a lot of charisma and bravado to his part.