Hell's Highway

Released Jun 27, 2003

1h 40m

Documentary

List

75%

Tomatometer

12 Reviews

64%

Audience Score

250+ Ratings

Bret Wood chronicles the use of films in driver's education courses.

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Nick Schager

Lessons of Darkness

Winds up functioning no differently than the disgraceful, despicable films it scrutinizes.

Rated: C

May 4, 2005

Full Review

Janice Page

Boston Globe

Maybe the next best thing to putting 'Deadman's Curve' on the turntable and cranking up the volume.

Rated: 3/4

Sep 12, 2003

Full Review

A.O. Scott

New York Times

Someday, perhaps, someone will make a documentary of Volvo commercials and Consumers Union test-drive videos, but I doubt it will be as unnerving -- or as much fun -- as Hell's Highway.

Rated: 3/5

Jun 28, 2003

Full Review

David Sterritt

Christian Science Monitor

The interviews with Prelinger are especially smart, discussing the ideological agendas frequently lurking in 'educational' materials.

Rated: 4/4

Aug 5, 2004

Full Review

MaryAnn Johanson

Flick Filosopher

Wood delights in exposing the rubbernecking roots of these lurid films...

Nov 11, 2003

Full Review

Jake Euker

PopMatters

The real highlights in Hell's Highway are the driver's ed scare films themselves, and [director] Wood has presented a generous sampling of often flabbergasting clips.

Oct 17, 2003

Full Review

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Audience Member

Very interesting, thought-provoking look at one of the more infamous points in education-film history, and some of the dark secrets of the company that pioneered these shocking movies.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

01/22/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Gory! Luckily I was too young to see these films because I know I would have been severely scarred. But I did love those cars we sat in for driver's ed training. Little did I know my school was just poor and had never bought new equipment. Ha!

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/19/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Gory! Luckily I was too young to see these films because I know I would have been severely scarred. But I did love those cars we sat in for driver's ed training. Little did I know my school was just poor and had never bought new equipment. Ha!

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

01/21/23

Full Review

Audience Member

A fascinating look at the Highway Safety Foundation, whose bloody educational films spawned a bizarre social phenomena that was commonplace in classrooms in the 1960s. Things get even stranger when it veers off into allegations of pornography, organized crime connections, and fraud. The filmmaking was a bit shoddy at times, but the subject matter more than made up for it.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

01/28/23

Full Review

Audience Member

A good documentary that really made me want to know a bit more about some of the personalities. A strange peak into the rather strange lives of some quite strange people.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

02/05/23

Full Review

Audience Member

pretty good doco about highway safety films, mostly about one organization from ohio who pioneered the blood on the highway genre.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/04/23

Full Review

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Synopsis

Bret Wood chronicles the use of films in driver's education courses.

Director: Bret Wood
Distributor: Kino Pictures
Production Co: Livin' Man Productions
Genre: Documentary
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Jun 27, 2003, Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Apr 21, 2017
Box Office (Gross USA): $1.2K
Runtime: 1h 40m

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