Octane (2003)

"Nobody in chains ever soared up to the sun"This film is a considerably underrated yet imperfect exercise in style filmmaking. The most important element in creating a film in this genre is how effectively the director can engineer the creepiness and mystery factor and IMO Adams definitely succeeds in pulling it off here. It's clear that he grafted some of the directoral techniques of David Lynch in many of the films early sequences....Madeline Stowe says as much in the actor interviews on the DVD. Much of the film's skillfully accomplished eeriness is greatly enhanced by the soundtrack which is a solid 10.Stowe was the perfect choice for the mother as much of her acting skill comes from her gifted ability to convey strong emotion nonverbally but merely through her facial expressions. Just watching her you truly believe this is a woman in a complete state of panic. Norman Reedus was also exceptional as the tow truck driver with a stoic icy demeanor who manipulates the audience into a context of uncertainty about his intentions. ************ Spoiler Alert *****************The film started to become very interesting during the scene inside the tanker truck where the dark highway sequences suddenly blend into a lofty dreamlike club atmosphere with the Orbital soundtrack pounding away giving the impression that this cult is most at home when they're on the highway.It is true, as some of the other reviewers point out, that the only real let-down in the film was the ending. It was too abrupt and should've been more developed. It would have been well served by an additional 10-15 minutes of good writing.The entire film was shot in Luxembourg so nothing about the highway sequences looks familiar.

Damn! I still can't get over it. I expected absolutely nothing from "Octane" and such a nice surprise it turned out to be! Madeleine Stowe plays a stressy mother whose teenage daughter disappears together with a hitch-hiking girl they picked up earlier. The police doesn't believe her (actually, they are misled), and she goes off in search for her daughter, discovering several disturbing things along the way. Creepy and suspenseful flick, with a high 'what the hell is going on here'-feeling. Don't expect everything nicely explained to you, but a lot of the clues are there. A lot of people didn't seem to like this one (often because they were left with too much questions and thought the film to be messy in structure). It really is a shame, because this is a good & intriguing modern-day horror/thriller and highly under-rated, if you ask me. Not everything is spelled out for you, and that's the way I sometimes like 'em. At least for this one it worked for me. Not all events are plausible, I admit, but hey, it's a horror movie. Not a gory one, but near the end there is quite a bit of bloodshed. Especially some bloody painful things are being done to people's tongues. Great musical score by Orbital too.

After reading some of the comments on Octane, i really was in doubt weather to watch the movie or not. But hey, it was Saturday night, nothing else to watch, so i gave it a try. I was prepared to get puzzled half through the movie, 'cause some comments explained the ending was hard to get.I did get the ending, but i don't get some of the comments. The movie doesn't explain everything into detail: it leaves a little of the plot to your own fantasy, but the story of the movie is pretty consistent.Overall the acting is doable, Madeleine Stowe is intriguing as always and the cinematographic shots and the editing give the movie a plus. True, the story does rap up a little too fast at the ending and this movie is definitely not a horror, but a thriller. For a late Saturday night a nice thriller to watch.

Totally sucked. Boring. Awful. Ridiculous. Stupid. Exercise in wasting celluloid. Waste of Jonathan Rhys Meyers. Barton - always horrible. Barton - talentless. Stowe - surprised she'd do such tripe. Tedius. Wanting of plot. Wanting of a story. Wanting of good writing. Wanting of good direction. Wanting of art direction. Wanting of anything good. WANTING. WANTING. Totally sucked. Boring. Awful. Ridiculous. Stupid. Exercise in wasting celluloid. Waste of Jonathan Rhys Meyers. Barton - always horrible. Barton - talentless. Stowe - surprised she'd do such tripe. Tedius. Wanting of plot. Wanting of a story. Wanting of good writing. Wanting of good direction. Wanting of art direction. Wanting of anything good. WANTING. WANTING.