Psychotic Arthur Miller(James Courtney), who butchered his mother and her lover, escapes an insane asylum(yawn)and becomes the titular character after executing the institutions' many staff members. Beautiful model, Linda(Loren Winters) returns from a trip to find her boyfriend, Mannie(Frank Jasper) screwing around, infuriatingly taking to the road for a spin, getting lost in the country, her car breaking down. Coming in contact with the maniac at an auto shop, Linda narrowly escapes certain death, responsible for his recapture when she hits him with her car, sending him plunging forward. While being transported to a maximum security facility in San Diego, Arthur gets free yet again, this time setting his sights on Linda for revenge. Meanwhile, outside of LA, Linda is participating in a terrible, cheap sci-fi movie called ASSTRONAUTS, which the killer will obviously interrupt. Linda doesn't know that Arthur is on the loose because the director, writer, and her agent conceal this information from her. Arthur pretty much kills everything in sight, those he comes in contact with in the desert while trying to find Linda. Bottom of the barrel slasher flick has thrill-less off-screen kills by way of chainsaw, hammer, and punches among other means for Arthur to dispose of his many victims. Arthur even pounds rattler with a stone, devouring the snake meat! Probably the best scenes are vehicular deaths as one victim is run over by a truck, another by motorcycle. Dull and pointless, I can't see why anyone other than fans of rancid cinema would want to waste quality time on this turkey. Acting and dialogue are good for some laughs. The ending as Arthur finally has Linda in his clutches is as clumsily staged as they come.
Review of The Freeway Maniac
