Truck driver Pat Quid (Stacy Keach),transporting meat across Australia, believes a suspicious van driver he continually sees on his trip may be responsible for a series of hitchhiker murders. Along the way Quid picks up a hitchhiker (Jamie Lee Curtis) and tells her his suspicions. The two try to track the van driver while Quid becomes the police's number one suspect for the murders.

I think Richard Franklin is one of the more under-appreciated directors from the '80s. He made several interesting films before fading into mediocrity in the '90s, a fate that befell many '80s directors. There's a strong Hitchcock influence throughout Franklin's work, including this film, which should come as no surprise for the man who would go on to direct Psycho II. For his part, Stacy Keach carries the movie with ease. He reminds me of some of the protagonists from great Hitchcock thrillers who were normal, easy-going guys that were thrust into dangerous plots. This is easily the best performance I've seen from Keach. Jamie Lee Curtis is likable in her small part as the hitchhiker, a role similar to the one she played in The Fog the year before.

I've always enjoyed this movie. It's a fun, suspenseful thriller with a good cast and some dark humor. One of the better "killer on the road" movies I've seen.

Fans looking for standard slasher elements (i.e. nudity, gore, marauding and unstoppable killers) will undoubtedly be disappointed by this refreshingly different attempt at a serial killer film, which keeps the gore and violence to a minimum and mainly off screen (aside from the nasty but cheesy 'shock' scene at the film's close). Instead this is a film which concentrates on a battle of minds between the protagonist - taking the form of truck driver Quid - and the killer, played by a mysterious, little seen man in a green van. Franklin throws lots of ambiguity into his film, forever asking whether or not the green van man is the killer, and keeps us guessing right up until the end. It's one of those films where the protagonist ends up being blamed for the crimes and chased by the police, a plot element always overused but handled nicely here.

With most Australian films I've seen, there has always been an element of quirky humour, and ROAD GAMES is no different. It's positively bursting with humour, most of it stemming from Stacy Keach's droll hero and his encounters with various bizarre folk on the road. I've always enjoyed Keach's performances and he gets to shine with a meaty role here, as the befuddled, yet obsessed truck driving hero, and he enjoys some fine interplay both with Jamie Lee Curtis, his pet dingo, and himself, chattering away on long distances of empty road. Keach's performance makes the film and cannot be undervalued. Curtis, on the other hand, only appears somewhat briefly in the movie, for about half an hour at most, and although her performance is as strong as always, her character is somewhat light on development. The film does have its fair share of plot holes and slow stretches, but the suspense, the script and the atmosphere keep it together nicely.

Director Richard Franklin is obviously a big Hitchcock fan (no surprise that he made PSYCHO II a couple of years later) and litters his movie with Hitchcockian devices and references, which can be slightly overwhelming at times but which are for the most part entertaining. The set-piece that concludes the film, which sees Keach's truck, the villain and a police car driving into smaller and smaller roads before getting stuck, is ingenious and wildly different to anything else I've seen in a while, so it deserves kudos. Viewers who can get past the off beat humour and who can appreciate the mix between dark thrills and light-heartedness will enjoy this thriller, which is always good if not a great piece of entertainment. I for one thoroughly enjoyed it.

Truck driver Pat Quid (Stacy Keach) notices the various vehicles around him in the Australian outback. One of those vehicles is a mysterious green van which raises his suspicions. There is a serial killer on the loose leaving behind body parts. Madeline Day forces him to stop and grabs a ride. He thinks the van driver is the serial killer but she does not. She leaves him and he picks up a hitchhiker (Jamie Lee Curtis) who he has encountered several times.

This is best described as Rear Window on the highway. There is a good sense of Hitchcock including a magazine cover of Hitchcock. There are a few instances of manufactured tension which cheapens any homage to the legend. The cliff top is ridiculously close to the edge. It's played like Day didn't notice the land falling off even though she's facing the endless ocean. It would have worked better at night. The boat is a head-scratching. I don't know why the guy is swerving all over the road. He's also walking into danger without a weapon. He's a trucker. He should at least have a tire iron. Despite the minor missteps, it still has enough Hitchcockian tension especially in the final act. The character does get a bit irrational but one can excuse it due to the intensity.