Octane
Tags: brainwashing, psychedelic, sadist

Plot synopsis:
Single mother Senga (Stowe) and her 15-year-old daughter Nat (Barton) are on a six-hour drive home, following a visit to Marek, Nat's father, for her birthday. After the occurrence of several eerie incidents, Senga decides to stop at a highway diner.
There, Nat meets The Backpacker (Bijou Phillips) and offers her a ride. Senga is visibly disturbed by The Backpacker and the strange ambient CD she plays in the car. They drop her at a picnic area and when they return seconds later to return the CD she left in the car, she seems to have disappeared.
Shortly after, Nat convinces her mother to return to the diner, so that she can get her birthday present from her father. Already stressed from the long drive, Senga is furious when she discovers that Marek has bought Nat tickets to a concert that she has refused to allow her to attend. After a heated argument, Nat gets into an RV with The Backpacker and a strange couple.
Senga solicits the assistance of a police officer, but when she seems unhelpful, goes after the RV herself, tailing the officer who had just left the diner. The police office meets up with the inhabitants of the RV. Senga breaks into their RV and discovers a number of strange and horrifying things, including thermoses full of blood and videos of young girls talking about their past lives. She escapes the RV before anyone returns, but once back on the road, The Backpacker reveals herself to be hiding in the backseat. She strangles Senga, causing her to crash.
In the back of an oil tanker, Nat parties with The Backpacker and a young man, who tell her about their group and their enigmatic leader.
Senga is woken by The Recovery Man (Norman Reedus), a disturbed drifter who cruises highways in his tow truck, who insists that Senga come with him. In his car, she finds a picture of a girl she saw in a video in the RV. The Recovery Man informs Senga that the girl is Christine, his dead sister.
Senga is taken to a police station, where she reports Nat's disappearance. The police are less than helpful, and, in frustration, Senga asks them to call Marek. The man who answers Marek's mobile tells the police that Senga is on medication, and that Nat has been with him all weekend.
After a series of outbursts and hallucinations, Senga encounters three of the cult members and follows them to an abandoned research facility. Here, she encounters the Recovery Man again.
While Nat meets the Father, The Recovery Man sets off one of his bombs, killing most of the cult members. Before The Father can initiate Nat, Senga attacks him. Mother and daughter flee in different directions, with Senga being pursued by The Backpacker and Nat being placated by The Father, who uses a loudspeaker to talk to her. During the fight, The Father reveals that Senga wanted to have an abortion when she discovered she was pregnant with Nat. The shock of this revelation leaves Senga in a near catatonic state.
The Recovery Man pulls her out of her stupor by showing her Marek's body. Senga uses this information to try to demonstrate to Nat how evil her new friends are. While mother and daughter try to escape, The Recovery Man and The Father wrestle; when The Father bites The Recovery Man's tongue and spits it out, Senga detonates his last bomb, killing them both.
Mother and daughter continue their drive home, but when they stop at a gas station, they return to their car to find razor blades — The Father's calling card — attached to the rear view mirror.

Review: Shifting the perspective from Stow's character to the daughter's (Micha Barton) removes all weight and tension from the story since Barton's character is as fluffy and foolish as any MTV V-Jay. Why should we root for the mother when the heroin-chic daughter would so obviously be more happy partying with Bijou Phillips' vacuous hitchhiker?Jonathan Rhys Meyers uses his trademark sensuality to good effect here, but his character, "The Father," is given such short-shrift that he never becomes more than a caricature.
While driving back home with her spoiled and arrogant teenager daughter Natasha Wilson (Mischa Barton), the divorced and pills addicted Senga Wilson (Madeleine Stowe) stops in a restaurant on the road for a coffee break.
"Octane" is a bizarre movie, having an excellent and intriguing beginning (the first fifty or sixty minutes), but ending in a complete mess.
I do not know what is recently happening with the writers of screenplay of horror movies: they create good plots with intriguing idea, but the conclusions are horrible.
While a lot of people are going to disagree with me, I think "Octane" (aka "Pulse") is an underrated horror movie.
We are then introduced to Senga Wilson (Madleine Stowe) and her teenage daughter, Natalie (Mischa Barton), who are on a late-night road trip on their way back home.
Now it's up to Senga to get her daughter back from the blood-letting cult, with the help of a truck-driver (Norman Reedus) who also is aware of the psychotic blood-drinkers.The whole film's idea and premise is intriguing, albeit a little strange.
While this film may seem like a clichéd horror flick, "Octane", also known as "Pulse" from the video release, has a lot more going for it.
The entire thing almost seems like one big bad dream that you can't escape, and I think that is what made this film so interesting to me.
The movie was nicely shot and has some really eerie sequences tied into the plot, mostly Senga's encounters with the bizarre, extensive group of cult members that seem to run the entire area, mostly in the strange little off-road truck stops along the way.
Madeleine Stowe and Mischa Barton have surprisingly good chemistry, and play their roles as the troubled single-mother and the rebellious, bratty teenage daughter.
The rest of the cast gives good performances also, nothing I saw was necessarily bad.Although "Octane" has a few minor flaws (mostly some of the semi-confusing material that the plot revolves around and leaves unexplained), the film is done with a distinct surreal style, and uses some great imagery and a haunting score.
This definitely isn't something I'd watch on TV, just because I probably ended up skipping through an hour of this hour and forty five minute long movie.Another problem was actually -and I hate to say it- Norman Reedus's character of the 'Recovery Man'.
So now that I've seen Octane, I have to say it's far better then most people say, but I also agree that this movie could've benefited from some kind of explainable narrative.
the acting is good, visually the movie is worth watching (some fresh ideas and nice shots), the soundtrack is terrific and the overall mood is just the way I like it.
This movie appears to be a good example of what happens when someone has a vague idea of a film story but doesn't bother to hash it out on paper before turning the cameras on.
They are not your typical "vampires," they drink blood but they don't grow fangs or have black eyes.Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, who steals the movie (even though he is only in about 15 minutes of it) plays The Father.
You are left wanting to know more about The Father, and wish they would have spent more time on what he was doing throughout the whole film.
He is a symbol for sexuality and because it looks so good on him one roots for Barton to accept his advances and ditch her mother's increasingly silly attempts to save her.Essentially it is a story about a mother and daughter, and how the daughter is feeling sexual energy for the first time and moving away from her mother.
I wonder if she herself regrets the glorious days of "China Moon", "Blink" and "Unlawful Entry" are gone forever, especially now that she has to appear in below par and allegedly 'hip' new horror movies like this dreadfully irritating "Octane".
Stephen Volk's screenplay is truly unimaginative, borrowing even elements from 70's chillers like "Race With The Devil", Marcus Adams' direction is totally uninspired (not at all stylish, like some reviews I encountered dare to proclaim) and you know you're in trouble when someone without charisma like Jonathan Rhys Meyers is supposed to play an evil personified type of character referred to as The Father.
"Octane" is a pretentious, pitiable and miserable excuse for a thriller, and if you have idea what good film-making is about you'll stay the hell away from it..
The cast suggested quality - Madeline Stowe as the estranged mother, Bijou Phillips as the kidnapped daughter and John Rhys-Myers as the cult leader.
A very different horror/thriller starring Mischa Barton, Madeleine Stowe and Jonathan Rhys Meyers.
Jonathan did a great job as The Father (aka the devil) and should continue playing the villain role in films :) I was surprised when I found out that this movie was made by the same people that gave us feardotcom (one of the worst horror movies ever existing) because this film was actually decent, different on a lot of levels as far as the direction went and the acting was actually good.
This is without no doubt the worst movie I ever seen...For the life of me I can't understand why I could watch it entirely but maybe I was in an very very good mood....The plot is: A mother tries to save her daughter from a road killer cult....and that's about all you can make out of this movie...the rest is so stupid you have nothing to describe anymore....Watching it reminded me of the Van Helsing screenplay which I thought at that time was the worst of all...Well prepare to be happy: the screenplay for Octane beats it by far in stupidity and nonsense...The only thing that could keep you busy thinking at this movie is: Who was drunk/out of his mind ?
There is not any answer for these questions I have never watched any movie like this before and I never want to too.
In the end there is a Gillette on the front mirror of the car :) I think director making movie more interesting and mystique but I think he is again making bullshit :) I didn't like any scene of these film.Think the worst things come together and this movie is created ...
Madeleine Stowe is fantastically intense as Senga Wilson, a single mother driving across country through the night with her daughter Natasha (Mischa Barton).
She's led on a dark odyssey with an unearthly feel, coming across dead ends, red herrings and psychos galore including a vampiric cult leader (Jonathan Rhys Meyers).
No wonder it isn't famous or didn't do to well despite the talent.Mischa Barton at her prettiest, Madeleine Stowe post lip job but still lovely, Jonathan Rhys Meyers at his most way off.
It's a strange mix of thriller horror cult with vampire like blood stuff going on.A mother and daughter are on the road but get mixed up in strange cult led by JRM.
Things don't really add up to much or come together well.Only worth watching if you are want to see the main stars in an obscure movie..
Out of Gas. With such actors as Johnathan Rhys Meyers, and Madeleine Stowe one initially might think reviews giving this movie the thumbs down might be a bit harsh.
If you like vampire movies and decide to see the film, be forewarned that it has many problems that will keep your interest wavering.
True, the story does rap up a little too fast at the ending and this movie is definitely not a horror, but a thriller.
I thought this movie was good, but maybe a little too confusing and strange.
It was a movie full of symbolism and most people complain about how it doesn't make sense and all but still i made sense of most things, the important things.The acting for one was very good and Madeleine Stowe did a hell of a good job with her role, she was very credible and may i say she was a great choice.
And for last Jonathan Rhys-Meyers was really scary and gave the character more intenseness.What i like most about this movie was that it was so stylish, and it looked great, especially in the scene where Jonathan Rhys-Meyers and Mischa Barton are in the car with the wind blowing their hair.
The ending felt unnecessary though, i mean i think we have seen it a lot of times in movies.
I mean the movie in some part felt damaged the movie a little for me because you see all of the movie it played really strangely and at the end it basically was really predictable.Octane still was a fun, strange, confusing, disturbing in some scenes horror/thriller movie and it had some scenes that had me at the edge of my seat..
(i.e. Don't get into cars with strangers, obey your parents, etc.)It's a subtle movie about hypnosis and vampires (I think) and sort of about what can happen to a person who gets involved with the wrong crowd.
Plus if you're a horror/psychological thriller fan who doesn't mind thinking a little while watching a movie, you probably wouldn't hate it.
Movies like this shouldn't be allowed to come out and make people lose time by getting them.
************ Spoiler Alert *****************The film started to become very interesting during the scene inside the tanker truck where the dark highway sequences suddenly blend into a lofty dreamlike club atmosphere with the Orbital soundtrack pounding away giving the impression that this cult is most at home when they're on the highway.It is true, as some of the other reviewers point out, that the only real let-down in the film was the ending.
If you like Mischa Barton, watch the O.C. not this movie.
The end left me and many others (as I can see from your postings) confused and disappointed that the bad guy didn't really get his comeuppance and that they might waste time with an even worse sequel to a lousy first movie (like with the Transporter).
It looks like it was written on the back of a napkin at a truck stop because music video director Adams took huge liberties with Stephen Volk's script, and many of these changes were literally made on the set during shooting.Rather than use the set in one of his music videos, Adams assembled a cast and shot a movie long on style and short on intelligence and substance.
The how and why of the "Pulse" title remains a mystery, there is a hint about vampires but any explanation must have been on a napkin which was accidentally left behind at the truck stop.Close viewing of "Octane" will also be an inspirational experience for aspiring editors as most high school video students are ahead of the movie's post-production people.
If you're not the type of person that likes a film to be too complicated, then don't bother, you'll be able to catch the storyline if you pay pretty good attention, but, there is one plot hole that kind of stuck with me, that being, how did the main villain {the father} know all those things about Senga?
That was the only thing that kept running through my head while watching it, otherwise it was a good film with a well done tone, and some creepy moments that might give you the chills if you picture someone actually doing them in real life.Overall, it pulls of the blur between what's real and what's not thing very well, and will hold your interest from start to finish, but I don't recommend it to anyone who doesn't like a movie that confuses them to much..
Then, well, not a lot really happens for what seems like an eternity, followed by an obligatory police station scene, a few dance video interludes, and, at long last, a final showdown, where a character who, unless I missed something (and I may well have done, I was dozing off by this point), has barely been in the movie up to now, suddenly appears to blow stuff up and save the day.
In particular, part-way through the movie we're very effectively brought to question whether Overprotective Mother is just hallucinating all this, and it actually gets interesting for a bit...
The "Young-er" actors are just as good Madeleine Stowe who - plays the struggling mother.Grown up Mischa Barton (Lawn Dogs, Pups) looks gorgeous while playing the rebellious heavy-rap-music-fan daughter yet sweet teen, whilst Bijou Phillips is excellent as the Hippie hiker.
Also look out for the creepy Norman Reedus (Gossip) who can be seen throughout the entire movie, despite the viewer not knowing just why he's driving a tow-truck around roads, photographing disturbing accidents.*Possible spoiler -V Look out for the crazily cool scene of Mischa, Bijou and a random guy in a cement like truck partying.
There's not much dialogue and sometimes i had to force myself to pay attention to the movie., When it finally gets interesting, when the girl comes to the cult leader, there's still the annoying mother trying to be the hero of the day.
Bijou Phillips and Jonathon Rhys Meyers provide sufficient eye candy for whatever your preference is, but both are wasted as are Stowe and Mischa Barton, who broods her way through the film.
The one good thing about this movie is that it ends, which almost makes up for the fact that it began..
Kinda sad that nobody seems to really get this movie XD it does make a lot of sense - I'd even say its the clear try of making some sort of "realistic" Vampire Story: Spoiler: My Explanation...
in that way the girl always was some sort of "undead" ---> thats why she was chosen by the Vampire Figure called "The Father" to become a Vampire =) it is very necessary that the mother is some sort of mad, because of that she is an easy victim - shes colleric hysteric and tends to panic - nobody believes her - and it makes the people close to her easily convincable too...in the end when the weird blade suddenly hangs on the mirror in the car it seems clear to me, that the daughter wasn't supposed to be killed =P but to be made a vampire...
I've seen the movie and I don't know and, frankly, I think that makes it even better.
Madelaine Stowe, easily the best actor in the movie, did her best with a muddled script and a potentially interesting character.
Jonathan Rhys Meyers is an okay actor but too pretty boy to convince in most roles, Mischa Barton was fine at playing the same character she plays in the O.C. Bijou Phillips isn't a good actor but looks the part as a screwed up killer.
In summation this movie felt like a great script ruined by an inexperienced music video director who has a good visual eye but no talent for characterisation..
Octane starts late one night as Senga Wilson (Madeleine Stowe) is driving her daughter Natasha (Mischa Barton) home, en-route they have a big argument at a rest stop & Natasha storms off in a mood with some people in a camper-van.
The whole film feels like it's only half finished, there are some good ideas here which are just either left hanging in the air or never expanded upon in any satisfactory way.
It's a bit of a mess but it's a mess I quite liked, had all the ideas been fleshed out better in a more coherent script Octane could have been great but as it is it isn't.Director Adams films with style & Octane looks good but he should have spent a bit more time on sorting his script out so it made sense.
The acting is alright, Stowe is particularly good in this.Octane is probably one of those love it or hate it films for most people, it will either capture your imagination & you will love it or it will leave you so frustrated & annoyed you'll hate it.
In a film like this, where mystery and tension is the key to it's success, the scenes and elements within them have to be timed well and hell ...
Of course Near Dark is a far superior film especially for it's time and genre, but one of the great elements it had was that it never explicitly stated that the villains were vampires.
It tries to avoid many typical vampire clichés, although unable to avoid all – like, hyper-sexuality (which, I dig—in moderation) and blood-letting.I believe, that with some changes, this film could've become the cult classic (and beyond) that ND has, but unfortunately it became muddled and fizzled out halfway through the story.In the end, I'd say  catch it on it's free run at Hulu.
However, if you miss it there, it's worth giving it a shot on cable and if all else fails  rent it.I'd give it a 6 out of 10 Overall good acting by Stowe and Meyers, some interesting shots and tension for first half of film..
The way they potray the mother/daughter battle I thought was good they didn't try to do to much they didn't do to little and many people male and female alike can relate.
The movie makes you wonder if the mom is going crazy the end just leaves you questioning what happened.