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.

Unfortunately, among the talking heads, the instructional film archivist Rick Prelinger has a rather dry screen presence and sounds excessively inclined towards the brand of leftism that was trendy among academics at the time of the film’s production. Conversely, Mike Vraney (of Something Weird video) has the cred and cult film sensibility to put these films in the proper context.

Regardless, the Foundation’s extreme aesthetic and bizarre fate are definitely productive documentary fodder. There are sequences that almost play like mockumentary parody. Wood unspools the weirdness with a sure hand, keeping viewers amused and intrigued. Highly recommended, Hell’s Highway screens this Wednesday (8/5) in New York at the Alamo Liberty—and returns 9/16 for a full engagement at the Roxy Cinema.