MOVIE REVIEW : ‘Highway to Hell’ Reworks Orpheus Legend

“Highway to Hell,� which opened Friday at the Vogue on Hollywood Boulevard, is no ordinary horror-comedy-action adventure, but a contemporary variation on the Greek legend of Orpheus, revved up “Mad Max�-style. Although ambitious, amusing and even romantic, replete with lots of striking sets and jazzy special effects, its humor is not sophisticated enough to attract the wide audiences of a “Beetlejuice.� It does, however, have all the makings of a cult film.

Chad Lowe and Kristy Swanson play a sweet young couple who’ve taken a desert back road as a short cut to Las Vegas, where they’re to be married. A kindly roadside gas station proprietor (Richard Farnsworth) fails to persuade them to turn back and take the interstate. A few fantastical, calamitous moments later, Swanson has been kidnaped by a zombie-like Hellcop (C. J. Graham) with a penchant for virgins and whisked off to Hades, where Lowe must rescue her before sunrise--and not before encountering a bemused Satan, here called Beezle (Patrick Bergin).

Written by Brian Helgeland, “Highway to Hell� was directed by Belgian-born Ate De Jong, whose first American feature was last year’s “Drop Dead Fred,� but who is best-regarded for the 1986 Dutch release “A Flight of Rainbirds,� a splendid serious comedy in which Jeroen Krabbe plays a handsome man in his 30s still in a state of sexual innocence.

There’s no doubting De Jong’s talent, energy and vivid imagination; it’s just that he hasn’t yet found in America the material that expresses his abilities to best advantage. Even so, “Highway to Hell� (rated R for language, some nudity) is not bad. It’s fast, fun and even witty, far above the usual fare that opens without press previews.

‘Highway to Hell’

Chad Lowe: Charlie Sykes

Kristy Swanson: Rachel Clark

Patrick Bergin: Beezle

Richard Farnsworth: Sam

A Hemdale release of John Daly/Derek Gibson presentation of a Goodman-Rosen/Josa/High Street Pictures production. Director Ate De Jong. Producers Mary Anne Page, John Byers. Screenplay Brian Helgeland. Cinematographer Robin Vidgeon. Editor Todd Ramsay. Costumes Florence Kemper. Music Hidden Faces. Production design Phillip Dean Foreman. Running time: 1 hour, 32 minutes.

MPAA-rated R (language, some nudity).