Hell’s Highway: The True Story of Highway Safety Films

Thanks to Mystery Science Theater 3,000, thousands of viewers gained a weird new appreciation of educational films, from their riffing on Jam Handy shorts. However, when it comes to traffic safety films, Jam Handy’s clean-cut dabbling compare to the films produced by the Highway Safety Foundation as Ed Wood’s corny Bela Lugosi movies do to the explicit Saw and Hostel franchises in the horror genre. Yet, despite the Foundation’s gorier approach, their cautionary films were widely screened in classrooms. Decades later, some former viewers still claim they were traumatized by what they saw, while others collect their films out of eccentric nostalgia. Filmmaker Bret Wood chronicles the non-profit and their blood-splattered output in Hell’s Highway: The True Story of Highway Safety Films, which screens this Wednesday night in theaters across the nation, freshly restored in 2K.

Richard Wayman was the brains behind the Foundation, working closely with Phyllis Vaughn. In fact, the Foundation was headquartered in her house. They usually contracted the production to others, including Mansfield Ohio reporter John R. Domer, who often moonlighted shooting video at the grisly auto accidents that he covered for his official outlet.

Even at the time, the Foundation gained a reputation for the disturbing video and audio they incorporated into their films. However, a whole lot of drivers ed teachers clearly approved, assuming they would have a “scared straight” impact. Ironically, their productions outside their core genre eventually led to trouble. Apparently, their film exposing “sexual predators” in a Mansfield public men’s room (the nature of which you can probably guess) led to rumors the Foundation was secretly producing adult films. There was also a disastrous telethon hosted by Sammy Davis Jr.

This is a pretty crazy story that features several unlikely cameos. For instance, Sonny Bono hosted their anti-marijuana film. Also, John P. Butler, the former Mansfield police chief, who became a Foundation VP, recalls the meeting he booked with Jimmy Hoffa to pitch their long-haul trucking safety film, Carrier Killer.

Of course, a film like this has to be driven by the visuals that made the Foundation’s reputation. Viewers should be either assured or forewarned that there are an awful lot bloody and mangled bodies in Hell’s Highway. Wood is never coy with regards to the subject matter and he certainly can’t be accused of over-promising and under-delivering. There is more than enough to judge the Foundation’s films, ethically and psychologically.

ClownTown: Getting Psycho in Ohio

They are like the Drayton family in the Texas Chainsaw films, but they have floppier feet and they can all fit in the same compact car. This pack of psychos likes to don clown makeup and kill unsuspecting motorists. Granted, the nights are pretty quiet in southern Ohio, but can’t they just get drunk like everyone else? The killer clowns rule the roost in Tom Nagel’s ClownTown (trailer here), which opens this Friday in Los Angeles.

This used to be a nice, quiet town to settle down in, until Little Ricky started hacking up his babysitters. Jamie will be the next victim, but at least he will give her time for a brief nude scene first. Her death will coincide with an infamous train derailment that will precipitate a profound economic downturn for the town (sort of like what that highway bypass did to the Bates Motel). As slasher backstories go, that’s a decent start, but Nagel never really takes it anywhere.

Flashing forward two decades, two fun loving couples are driving through what sure looks like Clark County to get to a concert in Columbus. Brad is even planning to propose to Sarah, which really annoys his best bud Mike, because it will make him look bad in front his less serious girlfriend Jill. Unfortunately, they will have more pressing concerns when an ill-advised detour takes them to a nearly abandoned town terrorized by a feral gang of clowns.

So yeah, that is pretty much the long and the short of it. Everything follows strictly according to the numbers from this point forward—just one running and cowering scene followed by another. Frankly, Brad and Sarah seem unusually bad at hiding when the clowns start stalking them. Perhaps most disappointing, the villainous clowns are all rather bland, despite their flamboyant makeup. Instead, all the flair, such as it is, comes from Andrew Staton and Katie Keene as the comparatively attitudinal Mike and Jill.

How sad is it that a grisly no-budget film like ClownTown is more fun than 31, Rob Zombie’s forthcoming film? That doesn’t mean it is necessarily passable, but it doesn’t leave viewers feeling so unclean. Yet, it must be said, the fearful, mind-your-own-business southern Ohio of the film does not match the Clark Country of my experience. Not really recommended, but whatever—ClownTown opens today (9/30) in LA at the Arena Cinema.

DWF ’13: Forever’s End

Is it the end of the world, or is it just Ohio?  Sarah White might be the last girl on Earth and the last man might have found his way to her doorstep.  Yet, that does not necessarily mean what you probably think in J.C. Schroder’s Forever’s End (trailer here), which screens tomorrow as part of Dances With Films.

White apparently survived a violent attack when the apocalypse broke out.  For the last six years, she has lived completely isolated in her family’s farmhouse, convinced she is Armageddon’s sole survivor.  When several stragglers mysteriously arrive in rapid succession, she is confused, frightened, and perhaps a little hopeful.  However, deciding who she should trust is difficult for the traumatized young woman.

Serious cult cinema connoisseurs will have a general idea where Forever is heading, but Schroder still keeps viewers wondering just how exactly the pieces will finally fit together.  The writer-director-editor-cinematographer establishes an eerie vibe that keeps viewers off-balance, getting a key assist from his Ohio and Kentucky locations, where the apocalypse could happen tomorrow, but you’d never notice. (FYI, I joke because I attended a Lutheran liberal arts college not far from where the film was shot.)

Charity Farrell’s Sarah White is convincingly vulnerable and emotionally troubled, but in an engaging rather than showy kind of way.  Lili Reinhart has the perfect look for her sisterly protector, projecting all kinds of menace and resentment.  Conversely, Warren Bryson’s understatement helps sell his character’s revelations.

A strange hybrid of apocalyptic cinema and the psychological thriller, Forever’s End is a fine example of how an evocative mood and rich mise-en-scène can fortify an inconsistent narrative.  Despite its challenging budget constraints, Forever’s End is an impressive looking production.  A promising first feature, it is worth checking out when it screens tomorrow (6/7) as part of the “Sweet Sixteen” Dances With Films, in Hollywood, California.

New Filmmakers: North Dixie Drive

The very name is contradictory. Dayton, Ohio’s North Dixie Drive used to circumscribe a bustling business district, but it has fallen on hard times. Always hardworking and sometimes eccentric, the diverse group of Ohioans scratching out their livings on the commercial loop are profiled in Eric Mahoney’s North Dixie Drive (trailer here), which screens this coming Tuesday as part of the NYC New Filmmakers series at the Anthology Film Archives.

The once bustling Dixie Donuts is now eerily empty. As goes the donut shop, so goes the neighborhood. Times are tough indeed, but there is still money to be made on North Dixie, at least for some. The strippers clear decent tips and two enterprising men have carved out a profitable niche as automotive repo-men. Scrupulously professional yet philosophical about a business dependent on others’ misfortunes, Adam Sampson and Lando Lakes are two of the film’s more intriguing figures. Of course, there are also the colorful types like Gary Hull, an eccentric folksinger (for lack of a better term).

Amidst this racially and ethnically mixed neighborhood, Zeke Levi emerges as the film’s protagonist (he is also the director’s father-in-law). An Iraqi-Israeli immigrant, Zeke and his wife Iris appear to have maintained the Traffic Circle Tire Center as a going concern, despite the inhospitable economic climate. Remembering their early hardships, they often extend a helping hand to their neighbors, including their manager, Herbert Agee, Jr. In fact, NDD might be the most sympathetic portrayal of Israelis to hit New York screens so far this year.

While Agee’s scenes are surprisingly touching, NDD occasionally hints at a mocking impulse that is a bit problematic. However, the scenes of the low-rent IPWA wrestling matches, featuring some of the whitest men in the world as supposed Middle Eastern terrorists, make one wonder if it is all just a gag at Mahoney’s expense.

For those of us with roots in Ohio (mighty Springfield half an hour east on I-70), NDD will bring it all rushing back. At its best, it captures the generous spirit and work ethic of Middle America. Those who dig the song stylings of Gary Hull should also be advised to stay for the stinger when NDD screens next Tuesday (4/5) at the Anthology Film Archives.