This one is from the legendary Cannon studios: kid stabs mom and her lover and ends up in mental institution. Decades later Arthur has grown into a tall muscular dude and starts a massacre while breaking out. He hides in the desert and runs into car-troubled Linda, a model and aspiring actress. Linda has her own problems as she just caught her boyfriend cheating on her and now she's stranded at some gas station with greasy employees making sleazy remarks. Linda becomes Arthur's obsession as she reminds him of his mother, but the young actress is able to escape from the clutches of the madman and Arthur is put into a mental institution again. Meanwhile Linda becomes famous because of the incident and is hired to star in a low budget sci-fi movie. Arthur on the other hand is able to escape yet again and heads to Linda's shooting location leaving behind a trail of dead bodies ...
On the surface
Freeway Maniac appears to be a dumb Z-grade slasher however, the movie is also fully aware of its no budget limits and doesn't shy making fun of it - but not in a self-aware smart-ass kind of way. Besides that you'll find a few horror movie references, unique kills when not off-screen, insanely high body count, catchy soundtrack, fist fights galore, decent car stunts and oddly enough a male cast of beefy bodybuilder types. Which puts
Freeway Maniac right next to steroid-driven slasher fare like
Home Sweet Home (1981),
Killer Workout (1987) and
Posed for Murder (1989). Rating:
4/5
