There’s very little to say about the film experiment that is Toad Road other than it’s unique and for that alone is worth a look-see. Basically about the frighteningly non-interesting lives of a young group of stoners, this film flirts with aspects of horror but never really delivers on genre elements it teases with. For example, in the beginning we are promised that this is about a Gateway to Hell. Okay. Then we find out there are like seven gates. Okay. Then we find out you can’t really see them. Okay. Unless it’s dark. Okay. And you’re on drugs. At this point I’m not okay.
Like so many films that fail, it’s not due to the product. This is an interesting documentary-style look at drug culture and bored youth. There is some philosophy stolen right from Dante’s Inferno along with some of the imagery, but I don’t mind that. If you’re gonna steal frightening images of hell…best start with Dante.
The odd beginning is sort of non-chronological loop that takes us right back to where we started by the end of the film. That’s why I’d like to talk about reliable narrators. James, the main male lead, begins face down in the woods. That’s also where he ends up at the end. He’s the one telling us this story and though at times we understand what is happening, once you realize James is wasted half the time, the reliability of everything he says comes into question. That is until the end when he says he has no idea what happens to Sara. He’s so wasted-we can actually believe this to be true. The troublesome fact remains that six months have gone unexplained and Sara, who went with James through the gates of hell at Toad Road is missing. The end roll credits. Yeah…unique, and for me ultimately unsatisfying.
The odd beginning is sort of non-chronological loop that takes us right back to where we started by the end of the film. That’s why I’d like to talk about reliable narrators. James, the main male lead, begins face down in the woods. That’s also where he ends up at the end. He’s the one telling us this story and though at times we understand what is happening, once you realize James is wasted half the time, the reliability of everything he says comes into question. That is until the end when he says he has no idea what happens to Sara. He’s so wasted-we can actually believe this to be true. The troublesome fact remains that six months have gone unexplained and Sara, who went with James through the gates of hell at Toad Road is missing. The end roll credits. Yeah…unique, and for me ultimately unsatisfying.
I have no problem with experimentation, and the actors are all pretty much nonprofessionals playing themselves. Sad side note is the girl who played Sara, the girl really interested in getting deeper and deeper into drugs for the experiences actually died of a drug overdose a few months after the film’s premier. Creepy.
James is our narrator and he is highly unreliable. The main problem is that he is not the one telling the beginning or end of the story…it’s Sara. And we don’t know what happened to her.
James is our narrator and he is highly unreliable. The main problem is that he is not the one telling the beginning or end of the story…it’s Sara. And we don’t know what happened to her.
William Riggan has categorized the different types of unreliable narrators as follows:
The Picaro: a narrator who like to brag or exaggerate.
The Madman: well, you know.
The Clown: Narrator who does not take his narration too seriously.
The Naif: A narrator whose experience is small and who may have a limited perspective.
The Liar: You know who you are!
The Picaro: a narrator who like to brag or exaggerate.
The Madman: well, you know.
The Clown: Narrator who does not take his narration too seriously.
The Naif: A narrator whose experience is small and who may have a limited perspective.
The Liar: You know who you are!
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