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I love this movie so much

Fresh and Exciting

A Masterpiece!

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

This film is for a small audience. Most people are going to grow bored and/or disgusted with this story 10 minutes in. For some of us though, this is the type of film that we love to stumble upon. It is a beautifully shot and acted indie picture featuring a unique and brutal story. As I watched Toad Road for the first time, I got the impression that the players and their performances were something more genuine than paid actors reciting a script. I have since then learned (from articles found online) that this film wasn't just thespians regurgitating lines. Many people involved played roles modeled after themselves. Most of the actors play characters of the same name and in a tragic turn of life imitating art, Sara Anne Jones who played the leading lady died of a drug overdose a couple weeks after the film's debut. If you like cut and dry story telling, this isn't for you. If you want something with all the blanks filled in, this isn't for you. But if you want something uncomfortably gritty and in your face, you need to check this out. I look forward to watching this again in the near future and I can't wait to check out other works by Writer/Director Jason Banker.

The film opens to a group of drug addicts having fun with each other while getting high or coming down. That's about the first 45 minutes worth of 75 minutes total.James and Sara go to Toad Road to see what's there. Supposedly there are seven gates, and if one goes through all seven, one gets entrance to hell.At the first gate, one can feel something pulling at you, and wanting you gone, but you cannot see them. At the second gate, one starts to hear things. Just after the third gate, one starts to see things; the voices become visible. Just after the fourth gate, things around you start to die; leaves start to fall and the like. Just after the fifth gate, everything gets cold, but you feel warm and powerful.At this point in the description by Sara, it had started snowing, and a CGI gate was visible. James catches up to Sara. The narration describing the gates continues. Time supposedly changes after passing through the fifth gate.At this point, James is separated from Sara. He looks for her a bit, and calls her name repeatedly. He gives up and takes a long walk home. His keys do not work. After some time he gets in touch with two of his druggie friends. They tell him that he has been gone for months. No one cares that he has been gone that long, but Sara is a different matter since she has roots with people and institutions that care about her.Do we see Sara again? Does James do anything to find her?-----Scores------Cinematography: 0/10 Bipolar, to say the least. On the one hand, some long stretches are hideously bad: fuzzy, poorly lit, poorly framed, overexposed and alternately underexposed, shaky. On the better side, sections of the film have fine focus, good depth of field, nice framing and no camera shake.Sound: 3/10 A real detriment.Acting: 0/10 Non-existent.Screenplay: 2/10 Next to worthless. There is about 90 seconds of plot here, yet the film drags on endlessly for 75 minutes. Filming drug addicts putting out their cigarettes in vomit is of no value whatsoever.

This was a really enthralling film, quite gripping, and I would disagree with those who have said it has no horror elements; it has them, but that isn't the focus on the film.Overall it leaves things unresolved and unsettles the viewer, but it also makes the viewer think, which is something these films typically don't do. It doesn't give any handy or quick answers as to whether or not 'drugs are bad', passes no real judgement on its characters, and seems to have at least some grasp on drugs and drug culture. Some of the aspects of the film were not entirely plausible for all the characters (which most viewers probably won't notice), and others seemed superfluous.As the film went on, it became difficult to distinguish what was actually happening, which was interesting enough; it seemed at times prosaic, but did that mean it actually occurred that way? You don't know, because neither does the main character. What happened in the woods? Are they really a gate to hell? You don't know. But something happened in those woods, and part of the horror is just that: you don't know.A very effective and bittersweet film, with horror elements that cannot be denied, this works very well because the characters are real and the situations seem to be very believable. It is definitely experimental...that's what I would call this...but it's an excellent film. It's worth watching, and it also makes some great statements about life. It's not a 'drug film', it's not a 'youth film'...it's a film about life and how we're all pretty much feeling our way through darkness to try and find some meaning and some vague destination that we really just don't know.

Possible Spoilers *but don't worry, the director spoiled this long before"This show was a God-awful waste of time. I can go watch unproductive losers perpetuate their downward spiral in any college town. That's not interesting. I was led to believe this was a supernatural thriller. Why? Well, you see, the movie description clearly implies that there is a supernatural element to this movie. There are about 47 seconds of the usual obscure filming with ominous music. Some people love the non-traditional indie film style. I do, if it's done well. This one was not done well. The majority of the movie was a collage of kids with no ambition, no direction and no common sense doing drugs that they can inexplicably afford without jobs. You don't care about any of the characters. You don't even feel sorry for them. You pretty much just assume that Darwinism will sort out most of these kids eventually.Supernatural you ask? There is a hint of a local urban legend. It takes forever for any characters to get around to encountering it. Again, it lasts a few seconds. That's it. No explanations of any kind whatsoever. Where did the legend originate? Nobody makes it past the 5th gate? How do you know? Someone said? What happened on the trail? How does it end? Well... do not expect any answers whatsoever. It's almost like someone said, "I have hours of footage of losers doing drugs... we could probably con people into watching it if we hint at the supernatural!" I mean, did NOBODY on the crew ask, "But... what HAPPENED?" The director must have said, "Eh, it's not important. We're going to end the movie right about there anyways. Just use your imagination." What truly boggles my mind is that people who had a vested interest in the success of this film looked at the first production version and said, "Yeah, that's perfect. People are gonna LOVE this!" If you decide to watch this film, don't say you haven't been warned.CWB