Death Street USA a.k.a Nightmare at Noon
(1988) Color, 96 min.
Rated: R
Country: USA / UK
Director: Nico Mastorakis
Starring: Wings Hauser, George Kennedy, Kimberly Beck, Bo Hopkins, Kimberly Ross
Links: IMDB | Wikipedia
Rating: ★☆☆☆☆
A water supply, a conspiracy and zombies.
Synopsis:
A small town’s water supply is poisoned turning any person who drinks it into a crazed monster with a green complexion and green blood. The town’s sheriff, Sheriff Hanks (Kennedy), his daughter Julia (Kimberly Ross), a hitchhiker named Reilly (Bo Hopkins), and tourist couple Ken & Cheri (Hauser & Beck) try to solve the mystery while avoiding getting killed by fellow crazed town people.
The movie opens on Reilly hitchhiking through the southwest desert town of Canyonland. Soon Cheri and Ken arrive in their RV in this sleepy town. Sleepy no more, however, as one of the deranged citizens starts shooting randomly at people. Sheriff Hank answers the call to check in on it urging his deputy not to use force. Meanwhile the green-skinned bearded man shoots his own son, the town’s deputy sheriff. After this Sheriff Hank has no choice but to shoot and kill the once beloved overall wearing guy.
Cheri is at the sheriff’s office when suddenly she turns into a monster and tries to attack Julia. Julia is shocked and doesn’t even try to fire her gun at Cheri who then tosses her across the room. Eventually the monster Cheri is thrown into a jail cell and medicated to keep her from harming herself and others.
The group guesses that the water must be contaminated since everyone who hasn’t drank water is not turning into a murderous fiend.
As the movie progresses sheriff Hanks lies about having drank water earlier and eventually turns into a monster, gets burned and collapses in the back of a van where he instantly causes the van to explode.
Reilly and Ken go into the desert along with Julia. They find a black van near the river and immediately decide not to investigate but to open fire on it shooting out all the window. This causes the van to inexplicably explode.
They follow a trail further into the desert on horseback. An albino man dressed in white and his henchmen exchange fire with Reilly and Ken, where Ken gets hit in the chest.
The albino man kills his henchmen and decides to go one-on-one with Reilly where he is shot in the kneecaps and tumbles down a steep hill. At the bottom, Reilly forces him to consume his own green poison.
Afterwards, our heroes meet in the town. Wife Cheri is, for unexplained reasons, cured of being a monster. Ken is 100% cured of his gunshot to the chest. Julia now wears her hair down and wants Reilly to stay in Canyonland with her, but instead Reilly returns to the road as a hitchhiker.
Review:
This movie has a bizarre obsession with exploding cars. You will see almost every single car explode whether they were hit with bullets or tumbling down the street. There are pyrotechnics aplenty. People burning to death and staggering into cars which also explode. People on burning motorcycles whose ass is also on fire. Despite all that action the poor pacing in this movie makes it dull. The action shifts from being an almost zombie-like horror to a chase scene in the wild west on horseback. There’s also a helicopter chase scene where two helicopters just chase each other around the canyons. There are no quips or one-liners. The script is as dull and flat as its characters. Though the bizarre amount of explosions might charm a few viewers, this film isn’t worth much more than that.
Rifftrax version:
Rifftrax has this film available for purchase. The jokes are fairly amusing but the endless chase scenes and inexplicable lack of dialog in the desert leave the guys making jokes at pretty much nothing, distracting themselves as they try to slog through the latter half of the film.
This movie is somewhat of a remake of “Mutant” A.K.A. Night Shadows which also starred Wings Hauser and Bo Hopkins. This film also has a Rifftrax version.
