The great Stacy Keach died this week, so I thought I’d write about this terrific little Australian horror in his honor. He plays Patrick Quid, a truck driver. He’s the kid of a guy who quotes poetry, talks out loud to himself about the people he sees driving down the road, and keeps a dingo as a pet.
We meet him as he pulls into a hotel for the night. He comments on the good-looking hitchhiker he sees walking into the hotel with some guy in an old green van. He mentions how he almost picked the girl himself. When the No Vacancy sign lights up, he grumbles that the guy in the van got both the girl and the room.
Early the next morning, he’s awoken by some garbage trucks. He lets the dingo, called Boswell, out to use the toilet. He starts rummaging through one of the garbage bags as if there is something meaty inside. He notices the guy in the van looking out his window intently at the garbage.
The film shows us that the van driver strangles the hitchhiker with a guitar string, but Quid doesn’t know this.
Quid picks up a load ot pig carcasses and is told to take them halfway across the country to Perth. Along his route, he encounters numerous oddball characters, including a man with a car full of sports balls, a cautious dude with a boat who doesn’t want anyone to pass him, and an elderly couple with a kid in the back dressed up like a member of KISS. He’ll also pass the same hitchhiker multiple times.
While taking a detour down some backroads, he notices that green van parked off to the side of the road. He seems to be burying some garbage bags and has a strange little cooler sitting next to him. When the driver notices him, he puts his stuff back into the van and peels out of there.
On the radio, there are reports of some gruesome killings. Body parts have been found in trash bags. Quid naturally suspects the man in the van of being the killer. After seeing that same hitchhiker again, he finally picks her up. She’s Pamela (Jamie Lee Curtis), but he calls her “Hitch.” She’s the daughter of an ambassador, more or less running away from home. They form a quick friendship and have fun trying to decide if the man in the van is actually the killer and why he’s doing it.
There is a laid-back feeling to much of this film. It spends quite a bit of time just hanging out with Quid. Sometimes by himself, sometimes with Hitch, and one other time he picks up an older lady when she literally gets in his way. He’s a good guy. There are lots of little details that point to his natural niceness. Probably the best example of this is how he treats Hitch. He’s much bigger than her and could easily have his way with her, but he never hits on her. And he goes out of his way to make sure she feels at ease.
Keach and Curtis have a natural rapport. They are so good together I wish she was in it longer. He picks her up a good half hour into the film, and then she disappears for much of the back half.
But there are thrills, too. Though we know the guy in the van is the killer, the film has a lot of fun toying with Quid as he tries to figure it out. There is some tension built when the police start thinking Quid might be the killer. The film is by no means a nail-biter, but it provides some nicely thrilling moments. It is often compared to Hitchcock’s Rear Window, and I can dig that comparison.
This was my second viewing, and I liked it even more this time. It is a great way to celebrate a great actor.