Review of Rest Stop: Don't Look Back (2008) by Patrick E — 30 Aug 2010

The original Rest Stop film was a direct to DVD effort that had real potential but completely lost its way with a muddled and confusing ending. With such negative reviews for the original I was amazed when this sequel was green lighted but it actually turns out to be a better film than the first and also manages to explain much of the confusion surrounding the originals ending.

Following on from roughly where the original ended, the plot in this sequel is based around Tom, the brother of the Jesse character that was kidnapped in the first film. Tom is a soldier and is convinced that Jesse is still alive so, along with the help of his girlfriend and geeky best friend, sets out across country to find his brother. After a run in with a strange gas attendant, they unsurprisingly end up at the same rest stop as his brother and his girlfriend Nicole did in the original. Our mysterious driver from the original shows up and kidnaps Tom which leads to all sorts of ghostly happenings and torture.

Iâ??m not going to say anymore as it will give the plot away but suffice to say it is actually a rather interesting story about restless ghosts. Yes this is a low budget direct to DVD effort to a rather poor original film of the same distribution level but it still manages to be quite an entertaining little film. It could have played out as a simple slasher type film but you have to give the writers credit for at least attempting to come up with a twist on the tired old formula. There are plot holes here but a reasonably ambiguous ending will get you thinking about just what happened previously. There isnâ??t much gore but when there is it is handled well. The direction is quite good but the acting is pretty awful but never distractingly so.

Maybe it was the fact that I had almost zero expectations for this film but I ended up enjoying it for what it is. It takes the muddled story of the original and fleshes it out into a much more coherent plot involving a stalker and the ghosts of previous victims. If you donâ??t expect too much you may be surprised.