Roadkill

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Johannes Roberts directs. Peter Robertson behind the camera. Ray Harman scores. Tony Kearns cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Produced in Ireland, United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

• 188 minutes exactly — the "classic feature" runtime most directors aim for.
• 2Shot for just $1.6M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.
• 3Released 15 years ago.
• 4International production across 2 countries: Ireland, United States of America.
• 5Part of the "Maneater Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.
• 6Lean credit list — fewer than 30 people officially credited.
• 7Directed by Johannes Roberts, shot by Peter Robertson. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
• 8Original score by Ray Harman. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
• 9Editor Tony Kearns shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
• 10Kacey Barnfield and Stephen Rea and Eliza Bennett carry the top of the cast.
• 11Marketing tagline: "Teenage snack!".
• 12IMDB entry: tt1637713 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
• 13Only 80 TMDB ratings — you're getting ahead of the curve on this one.

The technical file

Cinematography

Peter Robertson

Original score

Ray Harman

Editing

Tony Kearns

Runtime

88 min · 1h 28m

Status

Released

Budget

$1,600,000

Original language

EN

Certification (US)

R

IMDB

Roadkill (2011) ↗

Part of

Maneater Collection

Maneater Series is the name, logo and line look given to a series of made-for-television natural horror films on DVD produced by RHI Entertainment for the Syfy Channel, and distributed by Vivendi Entertainment. The Maneater Series logo and line look were created under the direction of Danny Tubbs, the executive director of creative services of Vivendi Entertainment. The deal, made in October 2006, stipulated that the first ten films would premiere on the US-based channel in 2007, but due to a pre-licensing agreement, the first six actually premiered in Canada on the video on demand channel Movie Central on Demand. Most of the early films in the series were filmed in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.

• 
  Grizzly Rage

  2007
• 
  Maneater

  2007
• 
  Hybrid

  2007
• 
  In the Spider's Web

  2007
• 
  Croc

  2007
• 
  Blood Monkey

  2007
• 
  Something Beneath

  2007
• 
  Black Swarm

  2007
• 
  Eye of the Beast

  2007
• 
  The Hive

  2008
• 
  Shark Swarm

  2008
• 
  Sea Beast

  2008
• 
  Swamp Devil

  2008
• 
  Vipers

  2008
• 
  Yeti: Curse of the Snow Demon

  2008
• 
  Wyvern

  2009
• 
  Carny

  2009
• 
  Rise of the Gargoyles

  2009
• 
  Sand Serpents

  2009
• 
  Hellhounds

  2009
• 
  Malibu Shark Attack

  2009
• 
  High Plains Invaders

  2009
• 
  Behemoth

  2011
• 
  Ferocious Planet

  2011
• 
  Roadkill

  2011 · this one
• 
  Scarecrow

  2013
• 
  Shark Killer

  2015
• 
  The Hollow

  2015

Also by

Johannes Roberts

• 
  Primate

  2026 · ★ 6.5
• 
  F

  2010 · ★ 6.1
• 
  Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City

  2021 · ★ 5.9
• 
  V/H/S/99

  2022 · ★ 5.8
• 
  47 Meters Down

  2017 · ★ 5.8
• 
  The Strangers: Prey at Night

  2018 · ★ 5.7

Community reviews

What people are saying

• John Chard2014-07-03
  ★ 3/10

  Sinbad and the Eye of The Roc. Roadkill is a telefilm directed by Johannes Roberts and written by Rick Suvalle. It stars Oliver James, Eliza Bennett, Kacey Barnfield, Ned Dennehy, Diarmuid Noyes, Roisin Murphy and Eve Macklin. Music is by Ray Harman and cinematography by Peter Robertson. A bunch of young friends are travelling around Ireland in an RV when they stop off at a bric-a-brac store. Getting into a dispute with one of the crotchety shop inhabitants, the youths are forced to flee and knock down an old Romany lady with their RV. Whilst trying to aid the old woman, she gasps her last breaths whilst issuing a curse on all involved in her killing… Once in a while you stumble upon a telefilm that really entertains and holds you for its duration, sadly Roadkill is not one of them. Low expectations always help with these sort of productions, they are after all knocked up by aspiring directors who are just happy to have a film shown on the SyFy channel, but thee’s not a lot to write home about here. In its favour is the appearance of Ned Dennehy, who is always good value for a bit of scuzzy characterisation, and Stephen Rea even pops in for a cameo, but both actors are clearly slumming it and working for food. The group of handsome youngsters are the usual roll call of nice legs, nice cleavage, nice pecs, supplemented by the dim one, the annoying one who says dude a lot and etc, each to be picked off by a rather crummy CGI mythical beast from Sinbad lore. Will any of them survive? Just what is the secret of the medallion that Dennehy’s dirty army are so keen to get back? The answers to these questions will of course provide the backbone of the story, leading to an unintentionally funny moment when “lead girl” turns into Chuck Norris. The acting isn’t awful and it’s nice to have some genuine Irish countryside as the backdrop to a story set in Ireland, but it all comes off as pointless TV schedule filler. And unadventurous filler at that. 3/10

  Read full review ↓

Production companies

Who made it

• PA

  Parallel Films

  IE

• 

  Syfy

  US

• MN

  MNG Films

  IE

• 

  RHI Entertainment

  US

Key crew

• ProducerAdrian Sturges
• EditorTony Kearns

Release history · US

When it landed

• Theatrical2011-04-23R

Also known as

International titles

• A Fúria de SimurocBR
• 公路列车CN