- Directed by Jean-Baptiste Andrea, Fabrice Canepa
- Written by Jean-Baptiste Andrea, Fabrice Canepa
- Stars Ray Wise, Lin Shaye, Mick Cain
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 25 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_ihzCUh_k4
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
The lesson here is to never take a shortcut on a road trip. It’s suspense scary, with a lot of dark humor while being deadly serious at the same time. Ray Wise leads a strong cast giving performances that make you sympathize for people trapped in a hopeless situation.
Synopsis
Frank Harrington, with his wife Laura, son Richard, daughter Marion, and her fiancé Brad drive to her mother’s house for Christmas Eve. They make a joke about Marilyn Manson being a guy and then credits roll.
They drive the old country road in the dark, and Frank starts to nod off behind the wheel. They swerve, but don’t hit anything. Frank gets out and checks the car. Frank wanted to take the side roads for a change rather than the interstate. They all get on each other’s nerves after a while.
Richard sees a woman in white in the forest and slams on the brakes. The woman gets into the car with her baby, and Marion volunteers to get out and walk back to the cabin they just passed. They drive back to the little cabin, looking for a phone.
Richard walks off into the woods to masturbate to a poster he had hidden in his pants. Frank and Laura go into the shed and find a bunch of axes and weapons. Brad explains to the girl in white that he plans to propose to Marion; meanwhile, Marion is practicing her “breaking up “ speech on her walk.
The woman in white finally speaks, she explains that her baby’s name is Amy and she’s really cold. The baby is dead. He screams, and when everyone returns to the car, he’s gone.
Marion sees a black car on the road, and Brad’s trapped in the back. They all get in the car and pursue the car, but they can’t find it. They suddenly stop and Frank gets out of the car; Brad’s body is in the road. Richard picks up Brad’s cell phone, and it’s got Brad’s ear stuck to it. Laura tries to call 911, but there’s already someone on the phone screaming for help.
They soon figure out that they’re completely lost, heading toward the town of Marcott, which isn’t even on the map. Everyone’s watches and clocks stopped at 7:30. Richard suggests it’s all alien activity. The road goes on and on, it never seems to end.
They see a baby carriage in the road, and Richard goes to investigate. There’s a bay crying on the car radio. There’s more arguing about the family Christmas dinner. They get a blowout and Marion says she’s pregnant. They all get out of the car and split up once again while Frank fixes the tire.
Richard runs into the woman in white out in the woods. The black car drives by with Richard in the back seat. Once again, they can’t catch up. After a bit, they run over Richard’s body on the road – already very dead before they hit him. Laura reveals that Richard wasn’t Frank’s son. Regardless, they put him in the backseat and dump their gifts on the side of the road.
Marion opens up one of the gifts; it’s a shotgun. They drive on and see the Marcott sign again. Frank wonders if they’ll ever reach Marcott or if the woman in white is going to get them all. Frank tells a ghost story about a dead family.
Laura, on the other hand, eats everything in the car— until she has to puke. She cracks up and thinks the gun is a toy and points it at the other two. She shoots Frank in the leg. Marion patches him up and they drive on.
Laura starts seeing people in the woods that Frank and Marion don’t. She jumps out of the moving car. They can’t find the body, and sure enough, the black car approaches. Frank loads the shotgun, ready this time. He shoots the car, and it backs off. Laura walks up, and the back of her head is gone. She falls over, dead.
Marion and Frank drive on, but they’ve mostly given up hope by now. Frank suggests they park the car and walk through the woods; if the road is some kind of endless loop, that might be a way out. They park and start their walk. They hear voices and strange noises. They find a fence and crawl under. Somehow, they get back to their car, but from the other side of the road.
They stop in front of the very same cabin they did in the beginning. Frank runs into the woman in white inside the cabin, but fights her off. He punches Marion and knocks her out. He grabs his shotgun and chases the woman in white into the forest.
Marion wakes up in the back seat next to Laura’s body. There are shapes moving around outside, so she starts the car and drives away. Finally, she runs out of gas. She continues on foot. She passes bodies in body bags. Opening one, she finds Frank’s body. The woman in white and the black car appears; the woman says he’s not there for Marion, gets in, and rides off.
Marion wakes up in the hospital. A strange man in black visits to check on her, talking to the doctor. He says he’s the one who found the scene. All the others died in the accident when Frank fell asleep. They ran head-on into a car with a woman and her baby. He thanks Dr. Marcott and leaves, offering her a lift in his big, black car.
Commentary
That was a lot of screaming and arguing and airing of grievances. It’s a real Christmas movie! There’s a minimal amount of gore, but the scares here are more suspenseful than anything else.
It has a lot of dark humor and good comedic lines, but it’s all deadly serious. It’s pretty apparent what the deal is; that they’ve been dead from the start and stuck in a loop, but the fun is watching them figure it out. It gets bleaker and bleaker until the end.
It’s barely a Christmas movie, but I liked it a lot. The building tension and growing hopelessness is really well done. Plus it’s got Ray Wise, which is always a win.