The Revisited series takes a look back at Richard Franklin’s Road Games with Stacy Keach and Jamie Lee Curtis
When looking at the true legacy of a scream queen, there are a lot of options to choose from. But when looking at the top of the heap? I would argue that there is really only one option. Jamie Lee Curtis has made horror films in 6 different decades and while many of these are directly tied to her most famous franchise, with 7 of her horror films being in the Halloween series, there is so much more. In fact, its run from 1978 to 1981 includes, among other things, Halloween 1 and 2, The Fog, Terror TrainAnd Prom. ALL of these films have now been remade and are considered classics, but there is one that is not talked about enough, that was a flop when it was released, but gets better with time. While Halloween II came out in 1981 and stole the show, Street games (Watch HERE) has only gotten better over the 40+ years it’s been around, and while it could probably be on a list of the best horror movies you’ve never seen, I want to revisit it and show why it’s so good after so many years.
Street games is an example of Ozploitation and honestly one of the best and most accessible. The term Ozploitation refers to the boom of films made in Australia from the early 70s to the late 80s as a heyday, with some still happening in the 90s and 2000s, and is honestly one of my favourite types of films. It also encompasses multiple genres such as comedy, action, sci-fi and of course horror. Some of the other examples include bigger names like Mad Max and its sequels, RazorbackAnd Turkey shooting but there are also some real gems like Close relatives wake up in horrorAnd The Return of Captain Invincible to name a few. It is worth seeking out as many as possible, especially their horror films, and watching the documentary Not quite Hollywood for a better context and more suggestions. Director of Street games Richard Franklin could have later directed Psycho II, Link, And Cloak and dagger (RIP Dabney Coleman), but his first big success was another well-known Ozploitation horror film in Patrick.
During the production of this film, Franklin gave his author Everett De Roche a copy of rear window and asked him to develop a similar film but shoot it in a moving vehicle. The film did not do well in Australia or the US, and did not come anywhere close to its $1.75 million budget. It ran afoul of the Australian actors’ union Actors Equity, and Jamie Lee Curtis was even approached by people on set asking how it felt to put Australians out of work. Jamie Lee Curtis was not the original choice, but Franklin was an old USC friend of John Carpenter’s and visited him on the set of The fog where he could use their services. Avco Embassy was the American production company for this film, just as they had helped The fog for Carpenter. Stacey Keach wasn’t the first choice either, as Franklin wanted to reach for the stars and cast Sean Connery in the lead role of Quid, but they didn’t have the budget for that, so Keach got the part. Look, I love Sean Connery as much as the next guy, but this role is my favorite Keach performance and I really couldn’t imagine it with anyone else in the role.
The film was shot on the Nullarbor Plain and in Melbourne and the footage is incredible. Razorback has an almost existential music video character, which gives cinematographer Vincent Monton Street games a flair you don’t see. From the 360 degree wide shot as Quid tries to report things on the phone to the long driving shots and beautiful scenes of city lights, it’s just a great film. He really didn’t do much else but this film will stand the test of time for generations to come. The film itself is seen as a pastiche on Hitchcock and it certainly has its merits. The scene where Keech and Curtis talk about the serial killer and who he is or how he gets away with it feels a lot like a dialogue between two characters from one of the master’s many films. The character Curtis plays has a name that we learn later but we know her for a while as “Hitch” and that is both her name as a hitchhiker but could also be a reference to the man.
The film opens with our beloved truck driver Pat Quid and his best friend, a dingo named Bosworth. Almost everything you need to know about the film is revealed in the first 7 minutes of the film. We have our main protagonist Quid, our hitman in a hotel killing a victim, and a long monologue from Stacey Keatch. This murder scene brings me to my first opinion about the film: it is not Hitchcock. The film’s dialogue is certainly inspired by Hitchcock, but I would argue that the film is much more of an Ozploitation giallo influenced by Brian DePalma’s catalog of the late 70s and 80s. Sure, it is seen as a modern Hitchcock, with things like Blow Out, Dressed to Kill, Doppelganger, and even Snake-eyes but even Deadly Garments seems to be more closely associated with the American Giallo genre.
This first murder clearly shows that giallo is really involved. We have the typical killing weapon, the gloves, the lack of a real identity of the killer and what makes Lucio Fulci special: the close-up of the eyes. The only thing we lack to make it a real entry in the genre is the score by Goblin and the overly complicated reason for the murders. The answer to the last part, and I’m really OK with that, is that he’s just a guy who likes to kill women and dispose of them in sacks along the highway. Although the score isn’t by Italy’s preeminent synth group, it’s a catchy mix of western, ’60s WWII film and sometimes a suspenseful thriller and boy does it work. It’s by none other than Brian May. No, not the killer queen, but the guy’s name is Brian May and he had a great career, especially in Ozploitation, and is probably most famous for the Mad Max scores.
Keach is a renaissance man as Quid. His belief system, his speech rhythm and the rules he follows are all so incredibly unique. We also spend a lot of time with him and a large portion of that time is really just him. He plays games to keep himself entertained and occupied, is incredibly quick-witted and plays the harmonica. He believes in the cleanliness of dingoes over dogs. He may drive a truck but he is not a truck driver. He keeps pulling over the same hitchhiker who turns out to be Jamie Lee Curtis’ character Pamela or Hitch but ends up being another lady’s unwilling driver which is where we get some of the funniest things movies can do. Of course she thinks Quid is the killer they’re talking about on the news even when he sees the real killer and explains what he’s doing. Keach figures out the exact motives and reasons for the killer and it’s all punctuated by great shots and little humorous visual gags that both ease and heighten the tension.
I said before that we don’t know the killer’s identity, but we certainly see him. The film wisely chooses not to throw many red herrings about who the killer might be, at least for us, but the other characters in the film definitely question Quid’s motives and state of mind. At times he feels like he’s living and acting in an insane asylum, given how the other characters talk to him or act towards him. Only we as the audience and Quid as our avatar see the bigger picture clearly. Quid eventually takes Hitch with him and she’s the only other character on his level. They’re charming together and when they talk about the killer and his motives, it’s some of the best in the film. It even almost borders on the wacky, fast-talking screwball comedies of Howard Hawks. As soon as Curtis utters the line, “Looks like we’ll have to get him ourselves,” we’re right there with them.
The most suspenseful scene in the film is when they think they have caught the killer in the bathroom and are investigating his car. The alarm goes off in the background, we think he is really in the bathroom stall, and we also hear the ticking clock in the van as Hitch looks through it. In the scene it is a calming and suspenseful device, but when she pulls down the sleeping blanket and reveals the killer’s face, you realize it was an alarm that was literally waiting to go off. Although it is not suspenseful in the usual sense, my other favorite scene is after Hitch is kidnapped by the killer and Quid is left to his own dark thoughts. The visual cue of the setting sun and the sky getting just as dark as what is going through his mind is one of my favorite shots of all time. It fills you with wonder, just like the desert scene in Razorback does.
The final chase after a spooky exploration of Quid’s truck is accompanied by the upbeat “good guy” music that motivates us and him to stop this guy. Although there is no ticking clock like we’ve heard several times throughout the film, we feel every second ticking away as he is stuck at a weigh station. His impatience finally reaches its peak as he watches the killer fill up his van while talking to the police, knowing full well that his friend, who may not even be alive anymore, is in there. He puts the truck between the cops and the killer where neither can see the other, playing cat and mouse in the biggest coffin imaginable. The final battle looks like Quid will be framed as the murderer after he gets the upper hand and tries to strangle the real killer, but he is saved, with the pleasant surprise that Hitch hasn’t been killed and disposed of yet. She clears his name and points to Smith or Jones, who smiles and doesn’t say a word. The upbeat music and back-and-forth dialogue complete a wild ride and a hell of a game.
Street games was unfortunately not well received at all, but those who have seen it, critics or audiences, seem to love it. It was falsely marketed as a slasher film on both the poster and trailer, but that does it no favors and probably sent its box office numbers plummeting. It’s not a slasher and, while I like to call it one, it’s not exactly a giallo either. It’s a unique piece of cinema that has found all the right roles in front of and behind the camera and is running at full speed. The horror works in all the right ways, even if it’s not in the traditional way, and it’s thankfully now easy to find. There’s a wonderful Scream Factory disc, but it’s also often streamed on Tubi. Whether you want to venture into the realms of Ozploitation, top-notch Hitchcock knockoffs, or get a taste of the giallo section of cinema, Street games is a great time.
Two previous episodes of Reconsidered can be seen below. To see more of our shows, head over to the JoBlo Horror Originals channel – and subscribe while you’re at it!
