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Toad Road

Play trailer Poster for Toad Road Released Oct 18, 2013 1h 16m Horror Mystery & Thriller Play Trailer Watchlist
Watchlist Tomatometer Popcornmeter
67% Tomatometer 9 Reviews 49% Popcornmeter 250+ Ratings
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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Toad Road

Critics Reviews

View All (9) Critics Reviews
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 Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

View All (27) audience reviews
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 Read all reviews
Toad Road

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Cast & Crew

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Movie Info

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
Jason Banker, Elizabeth Levine, Adrian Salpeter
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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