Highways of Agony (1969) ** 1/2 (out of 4) When these highway movies were first produced their simple goal was to warn teens the dangers of speeding, drunk driving or simply just not paying attention. As they went along they had to make sure the lessons were being learned so they grew more and more violent until you got to something like this. Today, these films aren't viewed for their quality or lessons but instead people want to find the craziest, bloodiest and more violent films and this one here is certainly at the top of the list.Again, you really can't go into a movie like this expecting the work of Martin Scorsese but there's no question that this here is one of the more memorable ones in the genre. I say this because there's quite a bit of violent footage shown including some pretty bad wrecks. We get all kinds of footage of classic cars crashed, wrapped around telephone poles and much more. To my knowledge, all of the dead bodies shown here are fake and a lot of the action is staged but what's here is still quite gory. I'm sure the likes of a Herschell Gordon Lewis would be impressed with the amount of blood here. This is the main reason people are going to come to this film and they certainly won't be disappointed. The score itself is also quite creepy.

If you are prone to bad dreams, have a weak constitution, or are easily traumatized, I suggest you do not seek out and watch this experimental "snuff film" -- for want of a better term -- like I did, thinking it was a Pauly Shore feature. Here, real corpses are set ablaze inside of those fiberglass tuna-cans otherwise known as Automobiles. But these are human tunas and unless you enjoy awakening each morning in a pile of your own barf, AVOID AVOID AVOID! Personally, I was totally freaked by this little offering from Ohio Safety Films, which is some sick institution, let me tell you. >SPOILER ALERT< Heads are lopped off, dead bodies sent down inclines in big cars without being strapped in, torsos diced up with that same ease that a chef tosses a salad (or prepares a sandwich). >END SPOILER ALERT<Afterwards, I was tormented by nightmares wherein my hind end was being devoured by mastiffs ...

1969,10 years after they first started with Signal 30,Highways of Agony raises the bar.Very violent crash aftermaths,with a death in every instance.Plymouth Valiant,1968 GTX(440/manual),58 Impala,Corvair,1960 Falcon wagon,Suburban Carry All,62 Impala,66 Chevy wagon,and more all meet their demise through the negligence of their operators.In one case a family of three (plus an unborn fetus)is wiped out due to the young father/husbands impatience with a stop sign,same with an old 1958 Plymouth station wagon,where 6 of 8 family members die when the mother fails to stop at an interstate off ramp intersection.There is no need for any of these crashes,and it only illustrates how we all react to being inconvenienced for a mere few seconds...the alternative is to neglect others,and pay the ultimate price.Not to be missed....one of the best of the genre. UPDATE****************** Contrary to what "Cucumber Machine" states happens in this film,none of that does.Nobody loses a head...etc.Its brutal and bloody,but its reality,not the fiction Mr Cucumber states.