Indie revenge road movie Roadkill delivers lots of twists and turns on its blood-spattered tour through the backroads of small-town eighties America. The film adopts the sensibilities of the trashier action films from that same decade and the superficial style of characterisation that often goes along with it. But, if you’re prepared to come along for the ride, it’s a diverting enough journey which whizzes by in 90 minutes.

A male drifter with a troubled past is picked up on the roadside by the young female driver of a bright red Chevrolet. She’s confident, coquettish and outgoing, while her passenger is withdrawn and introverted. As the unlikely pair head south, local police are alerted to the first in a series of murders along the route. As the cops begin their pursuit, the body count rises, dark secrets come to the surface, and the investigation into who’s responsible for the killings takes a left turn.

Writer-director Warren Fast, who also appears as irascible Sheriff John Teagan, clearly loves his throwback B-movie motifs and must-have road movie moments. But the retro grindhouse preoccupations of the script mean that some themes that deserve careful handling – especially those involving physical childhood trauma – are introduced only to provide justification for misdirected payback by damaged adults. Yet, in Fast’s defence, the genre he’s paying homage to is rarely celebrated for its psychological depth. In the role of the accidental hitchhiker, Ryan Knudson keeps things brooding and introspective while, as the seemingly carefree driver, Caitlin Carmichael makes for a beguiling young femme fatale. The strained and strange dynamic between them keeps things unnerving before Fast hits the accelerator for a car-crash finale.

ROADKILL is released on streaming platforms in the US on January 5th, 2024