Freeway (1996)

Little Red Riding Hood, in all its iterations, is a warning to young girls about going out on their own.  It is one of the most famous fairy tales long before Jacob Grimm started compiling his versions of the stories.  Although often used as an easy Halloween costume or sexy cosplay gag the relevance of the tale remains. Despite literal wolves posing a threat in medieval Europe there was always the metaphorical wolf hanging about hoping to do with what he, or in some cases she, will with a defenseless young girl when no one else is around.

As with most modern retellings of such stories the girl is not as defenseless as she looks.  Grimm, who usually kept the cautionary endings intact, added the part where Red is rescued after cutting open the wolf's stomach as he swallowed her whole, while in the original things don't end so well for her.  In the 1990s it should be no surprise that things wouldn't end up so well for the wolf.

Vanessa Lutz (Reese Witherspoon) is a barely literate teenager with a prostitute for a mother and a drug-cooking stepfather who is way too hands-on.  When they are arrested and Vanessa is facing going back into the foster system she decides she wants to go live with her grandmother in Stockton.  Only problem is she is a long way from Stockton, and there is a serial killer prowling Interstate 5 that is killing young girls and prostitutes. 

When her car breaks down on the freeway she is seemingly rescued by a child therapist named Bob Wolverton (Kiefer Sutherland) who turns out to be not so friendly.  She gets the upper hand and shoots him, leaving him for dead and stealing his money.  However, despite his injuries, he manages to make it to a hospital and Vanessa is soon arrested.  While her attack on Wolverton becomes a cause celebre for trying juveniles as adults, Vanessa plots her escape from the detention center while Bob begins to plot his revenge. 

This is another one of those '90s films that have become a cult classic despite pretty much no one seeing it.  It was a minor hit on video, and a staple in the rental stores, and I did see it not too long after it came out.  I didn't care for it much and figured no one else would either as it didn't get the best reviews.  I know a good bit of that is because of how ridiculous and over-the-top Witherspoon's performance is.  In addition to updating the story writer and director Matthew Bright also slipped in some commentary on how the media swings stories in certain directions and how the public makes snap judgments based on someone's past mistakes.  

The overacting and sometimes disjointed story telling can be a bit of a barrier but this fits right in with a number of hyperviolent '90s films that seem to exist in a strange universe apart from ours.  The main problem with Freeway, though, is it takes a while to get going.  While Kiefer Sutherland does a subtle job of introducing Bob Wolverton, the movie is clear from the title credits that this is Little Red Riding Hood and the name is obvious, with heavy foreshadowing from a news report featuring Dan Hedaya as a county sheriff hunting for the I-5 Killer.  The whole point is she is going to run into him and way too much time is spent getting to that point. 

Despite these issues I understand why this has become a cult film.  It is one of those '90s flicks that hasn't been overplayed or idealized and fans of it seem to like it, faults and all.  It is still edgy in a way only '90s movies can be, touching on, and even laughing at, a number of taboo subjects such as child molestation and underage prostitution.  At least Witherspoon was of age at the time this was made unlike Alicia Silverstone in The Crush, which feels sleazier than this film.  It is too bad Witherspoon got shoehorned into stuff like Legally Blonde as her career went on as this shows she had more range than just a bimbo or manic pixie dream girl. 

Freeway (1986)

Time: 104 minutes

Starring: Reese Witherspoon, Kiefer Sutherland

Director: Matthew Bright