Thirty-One Days O’Horror: Freeway (1988)

Let’s Ride #26!

We’re barreling down the highway to the end of October and Thirty-One Days O’Horror! Today’s post takes a peek at 1988’s Freeway starring Darlanne Fluegel, Richard Belzer, James Russo, and Billy Drago. The movie was written by Deanne Barkley, Francis Delia, and Darrell Fetty. Delia also directed the film.

Fluegel stars as Sunny Harper in the film. Roughly one year after her own husband’s unsolved murder on the highway, Sunny sets out on a quest to find the culprit in a new string of violent gun deaths on the highways of Los Angeles. Helping her are a rogue cop turned bounty hunter named Quinn (Russo), and a local talk radio psychiatrist named Dr. Lazarus (Belzer). Drago appears in the film as the murderer who drives a black 1969 Lincoln Continental and when he realizes that Sunny is on his tail, he decides to eliminate her. Does Sunny survive? Will she finally get justice for her husband? Is the killer a psychotic priest? Check out Freeway and see what happens!

Drago’s Bible-quoting killer steals the show in this film. He does a great job in his role. Belzer and Russo also give solid performances. Fluegel is very convincing as a young woman hellbent on finding her husband’s killer. The rest of the cast is also impressive.

To be completely honest, this film could have passed for a Made-For-TV film. Sure, there’s a bit of strong language and some brief nudity, but these moments could have easily been edited. Considering the fact that Deanne Barkley wrote a lot for television and Delia directed a number of music videos and television episodes, it’s not a big stretch to see Freeway playing on a Saturday night on NBC or one of the other major networks.

The film has a number of excellent action sequences involving vehicles. Sunny drives around in a beautiful 1967 Pontiac Firebird that she acquires from Clint Howard’s creepy body shop worker named Ronnie. There’s also some cool bazooka work in the movie and, hey, it wouldn’t be the 1980’s without sweet rides and the occasional bazooka, right?

Freeway screams late 1980’s action thriller and it’s the perfect movie to watch on a rainy afternoon. While there are definitely better highway killer flicks out there, it’s definitely worth a look.

Thanks for checking out my review.