My wife and I
tried to watch Toad Road. We did some fast forwarding. We did not enjoy it.
Netflix described the movie:
Feeling
he’s living a meaningless life in a small town, disaffected junkie James jumps
at the chance to escort newcomer Sara to Toad Road – and risk whatever may happen
as they pass seven wooden gates that lead toward hell.
I would respect the makers of this
movie more if they would have not mentioned Toad Road at all, it is such a
miniscule part of the actual movie that I believe the sole purpose of even
mentioning it in the movie’s description is to make this movie seem more
interesting than it really is.
I read somewhere on the internet
that the movie was kind of a nod to Gus Van Sant movies, and had I known that I
much more likely would not have watched this movie. I am not a Gus Van Sant
fan, so the idea of someone trying to be like him and mimic his style of gritty
and in your face picture of reality sounds even more not-my-thing.
All of that aside, I knew none of
that. My wife and I, going off the description, were expecting a horror movie.
To be fair, Netflix does not have this as a horror but an independent
experimental thriller, which we may have glossed over, choosing to center more
on the gates of hell aspect of the movie. That would be our bad, but again,
that’s the joy of Netflix; not sure about the movie, just give it a try, no
good? Move on to the next one.
We watched maybe 20 or 30 minutes of
the beginning. Nothing but drug addicted young people living on their own,
partying! Awesome!
Ever been to a party where you don’t
know anyone? That’s what this was like, there’s no getting to know these
people. You see the main character guy at a therapy session but you learn
nothing about him. We don’t know any of these people (and maybe that’s because in
our own lives we’ve never known people like this, maybe your younger drug
addicted doppelgangers would like and understand the people in this movie and
in turn enjoy the movie) so we don’t care about them.
Still, the idea of watching this guy
and girl who we do not care about or particularly like make their way towards
Hell was entertaining.
Unfortunately, like the rest of the
movie, it was not. At all.
The first minute they started eating
mushrooms I knew the movie would have no pay off. I felt it. The rest of the
movie would be a meandering mess of weird visions and “is this real?” type of
situations with flashes of the main characters covered in blood and just all
around images that are meant to disturb but were only dull.
As I said, I read some information
on the movie and found out that the main female character passed away not long
after the film was completed.
Sara Anne Jones was 24 years old
when she died on September 4, 2012. Knowing this makes me think about possibly
going back and watching more of the movie. I could easily believe that had she
moved away from “gritty” movies like this her career would have been a major
one, especially with her also being a writer. She seemed like a cool enough
kid, although the sort of people she was hanging out with – who may be
perfectly nice – were maybe just not the right people for her to be spending
time with.
I could see how someone somewhere
would enjoy this movie, but for me, I find it interesting only in the fact that
it could have really started the career of Sara Anne Jones, and it’s worth
watching just for her and how comfortable she was in front of the camera, and
how she expressed so much emotion through her eyes and face.
The movie is more of a drama, with
no thrills or horror, just a sad highlight of a group of kids lost among
themselves and their own more powerful demons, and all of it done in such a way
that we can not relate to any of them, which may be the saddest part of all.
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