Toad Road

Released Oct 18, 2013

1h 16m

Horror

Mystery & Thriller

List

67%

9 Reviews

Tomatometer

49%

250+ Ratings

Audience Score

Sara talks James into taking her to Toad Road, a place that is rumored to be a doorway to the Seven Gates of Hell.

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Anthony V

This movie is terrible sorry , was very interested, but just a tease the whole time

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

07/15/23

Full Review

Audience Member

As a psychedelic, (and extremely abridged), take on Dante's Divine Comedy "Inferno," you might need to take as many mushrooms as our main characters in order to connect those dots coherently; However, I recall the first time I saw this movie back in 2012 that there was something indescribably powerful captured somewhere in the chaos of the film's aggressive detachment from conventional narrative format, and upon recently re-watching it I think I was on to something. This movie uses its modest budget, premise, and run time to construct more of a 1 act play that signals from its opening scenes — without ambiguity — where it is about to take us: a cavernous, anxiety-addled part of our minds that we don't like to even acknowledge the existence of. Or put simply, this movie only wants to remind you that even the most basic fundamental truths we assume are objective for everyone else on the planet, (ex: "the sky is, at least some times, the color blue"), may not be as universal or obvious as you've always believed. What is up for one person may be backwards for another, or perhaps not even another direction to anywhere, (you see how this gets very chaotic VERY quickly?) When this film first came out 8 remember some detractors writing about how it's supposed to be "a cautionary tale in recreational drug use," and if that's what some critics thought Toad Road was saying then I'd agree with them with the notion that as a campaign for the war on drugs or whatever it doesn't come close to really getting that message across...BUT REDUCING ANY/ALL MEANING FROM THIS FILM INTO A "DON'T DO DRUGS" ADVERTISEMENT WOULD BE MISSING THE POINT BY A COUNTRY MILE. Toad Road wants us to glimpse, very briefly, at a simple reality that is true for everyone no matter who you are or where you come from: the reality that there are fates worse than death, and you don't have to be clinically insane or suffering from the effects of highly potent mind-altering substances. In fact, what hurts our anti-hero the most in the end *is NOT* the fact that he may go to prison for a crime he didn't commit, or that he doesn't understand how he got from point A to point B in the story — no! He's broken to the very core of his soul because HE MISSES THE ONLY PERSON IN HIS LIFE THAT UNDERSTOOD HIM AND CARED ABOUT HIM. This is a very familiar story in every human civilization dating as far back as you can find, one about the indescribable mental agony that comes with losing someone you love, someone who loved you, and the brutal fact that what's done is done — even if you don't (and will never) fully understand where they went or why they are gone.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/05/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Pointless. This movie is short in actual duration, but felt like a 3 hour film. The only scary part of this "horror" film is simply that people this idiotic actually exist.

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

01/13/23

Full Review

Audience Member

had me reviewing these 'gates of hell.' very creepy film!

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/09/23

Full Review

Audience Member

In the vein of Larry Clark, this film chronicles a group of 20 somethings who indulge in many drugs, trying everything to get that ultimate high but where this differs from Clark's debauchery is that there is an urban legend that one girl, Sara, wants to debunk, Toad Road, a spot deep in the forest that is the home to the Seven Gates of Hell. She talks James into joining her, as he is about to try and leave the lifestyle. He awakes to find she is missing, no memory of what happened the night before. The police and their friends want to know what has happened to Sara but he has no answers except to tell them all what Sara was seeking. This film is so-so, a lot of talking, drug taking and casual sex. No horror per say but a sense of slight dread. It is well made and the 'actors' do their best with what they have in front of them. The director might do better with a bit of a budget so I'm not writing him off just yet. Interesting for sure.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

02/06/23

Full Review

Audience Member

This is horror? really? Not the slightest bit scary. Just a bunch of druggies bumming around.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

01/27/23

Full Review

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Jason Banker

Director

Sara Anne Jones

Sara

James Davidson

James

Jim Driscoll

Detective

Andy Martin

Psychiatrist

Whitleigh Higuera

Whitleigh

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Jeannette Catsoulis

New York Times

Mr. Banker teases us with a dizzy, dislocating shooting style that throws up a succession of eerily arresting images. Even so, his film never overcomes the fact that watching drugged-out wastrels is rarely interesting ...

Rated: 2.5/5

Oct 24, 2013

Full Review

Chuck Bowen

Slant Magazine

Director Jason banker finds the ironic beauty that arises from his characters' self-contemptuous and misplaced acts of destruction.

Rated: 2.5/4

Oct 21, 2013

Full Review

Martin Tsai

Los Angeles Times

Think of it as the CliffsNotes version of Dante Alighieri's "Inferno."

Oct 17, 2013

Full Review

Nicholas Bell

IONCINEMA.com

Unfocused, it can only ever hint at the chills it wishes to evoke, its lack of characterization meaning we never quite care who these people are or why they're acting so irresponsibly.

Rated: 2/5

Nov 12, 2020

Full Review

C.J. Prince

Way Too Indie

What starts out as an utterly strange horror film turns into a brutally raw and unflinching look at aimless youth.

Jun 22, 2019

Full Review

Deirdre Crimmins

Film Thrills

Toad Road is not a success and I must continue to fantasize about how great the film could have been.

Aug 21, 2018

Full Review

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Synopsis

Sara talks James into taking her to Toad Road, a place that is rumored to be a doorway to the Seven Gates of Hell.

Director: Jason Banker
Producer: Daniel Noah, Josh C. Waller, Elijah Wood
Screenwriter: Jason Banker
Distributor: Artsploitation Films
Production Co: Random Bench Productions, SpectreVision
Genre: Horror, Mystery & Thriller
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Oct 18, 2013, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Sep 1, 2016
Runtime: 1h 16m

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