Roadkill: The Last Days of John Martin

1994

Action / Horror

6
IMDb Rating 6.0/10 10 438 438

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Plot summary

A man named John Martin offers a couple with a broken-down car a ride to the nearest gas station, little do they know he’s actually taking them back to his place for dinner.


Uploaded by: FREEMAN
November 17, 2018 at 08:51 PM

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720p.BLU 1080p.BLU
116.66 MB
968*720
English 2.0
NR
23.976 fps
12 hr 15 min
Seeds ...
228.92 MB
1440*1072
English 2.0
NR
23.976 fps
12 hr 15 min
Seeds 3

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by I_Ailurophile 1 / 10

Boring schlock

"If you can't say something nice, then don't say anything at all," right? Okay, so here's something nice: I think the blood and gore effects are well done, including the appearance of the body parts lying around John Martin's humble abode.

However.

With occasional exceptions, the most important aspect of horror, as a genre, is its ability to elicit a visceral reaction from viewers by one means or another. Whether that response is acute fright, disgust, dread, terror, rising disquiet, or a more general sense of thrills - if the average horror feature can't make its audience feel something, then it has failed.

'Roadkill: The last days of John Martin' pointedly misses the mark on that one essential requirement. By shoving blood and gore in our faces from the very beginning, it has severely limited itself. There's nowhere else to go, much like how one can't have an earnest conversation through yelling, as it limits the all important variation in vocal inflection. With that element that should provoke a reaction being immediate, and pervasive, its narrative purpose is negated.

Remove the squandered blood and gore from the short film, and all one has left is 1) gratuitous nudity, 2) a brief scene of a man attacking a stranded couple after he gives them a ride, and 3) a man screaming, annoyingly, at his television.

Now, to be fair, those three story beats are ideas one could work with - in a very different type of tale. Not in a horror feature where wasted blood and gore is the focus of its would-be shock value.

Adding final insult to injury, 'Roadkill' is still more well done than the other short film, 'My sweet Satan,' that it is paired with.

Yawn.

Reviewed by Horst_In_Translation 6 / 10

Meat is murder

"Roadkill: The Last Days of John Martin" is an American 15-minute horror short film from 1994, but I've seen earlier dates too, so not too sure about that, maybe it took a while to get released. Anyway, this one is in the English language,, but dialogues are so non-existent basically and irrelevant that you can watch it without subtitles, even if you don't understand a work of English. This means you won't understand this review too right? The editor and director here is Jim Van Bebber and he wrote the script together with his lead actor performer Mark Gillespie. This is the story of a man who loves his meat raw, first of all he eats a little predator animal, but we find out soon enough that he also has a soft spot for human meat. First half of the film is a one man show while in the second half the victims enter the picture. The car scene is as brutal as it is fun. It may be very gory, but still it is very entertaining, almost comedic at times. Not in a bad way though as Gillespie really does very well with making the protagonist memorable and the film stands and falls with that. Actually stands. The way he portrays these mannerisms is really good stuff almost all of the time, the severe psychological disorders he has in terms of mood swings changing from one second to the next. A really good watch for genre lovers and this film proves that creative ideas are more important than a big budget. This film here makes good use of familiar (non-supernatural) horror film elements overall and it is a success. I give it a thumbs-up and recommend checking it out. Watch this charming man. The only question that remains is why are these his final days.

Reviewed by Coventry 7 / 10

Absolutely repulsive & grim horror short

This "portrait" of a serial killer is extremely short, but nevertheless long & detailed enough to make your stomach turn inside out! Jim Van Bebber ("The Manson Family") and Mark Gillespie introduce a fictional cannibalistic psychopath who spends his days grinding and devouring raw animals he picked up from the streets and yelling at the most stupid programs on TV. His living room is a total mess, with blood stains on every wall and flesh-leftovers in every filthy cover. Martin then goes on the road and picks up a young couple whose car broke down. Shortly after, the girl is locked up in a cage while the boy lies on a nasty operating table, waiting for his head to get cut off. The movie ends with images clearly indicating John Martin prepared his victims for evening TV-dinner. "Roadkill" is truly repulsive, with Van Bebber's camera zooming in on all the graphic details. It would normally be a pretty forgettable short feature, but somehow Van Bebber & Gillespie manage to create a solid morbid atmosphere that makes "Roadkill" much more effective and petrifying that most serial-killer flicks. The tone and filming style are indescribably nihilistic and raw, while Mark Gillespie scares the hell out of you as the titular madman. The music exciting and the filthy set-pieces are awesome. I didn't really care for "The Manson Family" or "Deadbeat at Dawn", but Van Bebber's insane short films are total winners.

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