Nicole (Jaimie Alexander) and Jess (Joey Mendicino) are two young lovers who have decided to leave their quiet hometown for the busy life of L.A. But when the couple stop off at a desolate rest area after almost being run off the road by an old yellow truck, things start to get strange. For one, when Nicole comes out of the nasty bathroom, Jess and his car are nowhere to be seen. And thus starts Nicole's psychological torture.
Most scenes have only Nicole in frame as she cowers in a corner fearing for her life as she is tormented by the man in the yellow truck or various ghosts that haunt the rest stop. Several times throughout the movie, she will encounter people that she tries to help (like a woman locked in the closet), but when she finally gets to them, they are nothing but apparitions.
Nicole even meets an unusual family that lives in a Winnebago parked at the rest stop. The parents are obviously very religious while the children are just downright creepy, and the feeling of both the decorations and people seem to be a throwback to the 70's.
This Uncut edition also comes with three alternate endings that are each slight variations of each other, but are radically different than the ending that was actually used. Quite frankly, I liked the ending that was chosen. The ones abandoned fit into the horror template all too well, while the one used actually causes the movie to stand out a little. The special features also include a short video clip of family activities that Scotty (Mikey Post), the Winnebago family's youngest, recorded over the years that helps to reveal a bit about the yellow trucker's history as well as the family's.
While there are enough scenes in Rest Stop full of gore to easily classify it as a slasher (especially when we see what the killer does to those he takes back to his bus), most of the film consists of mind games being played on Nicole, which actually pulls it away from the slasher genre to the more standard horror line. That being said, the amount of gore could still turn off quite a few viewers.
