At what point does an exploitation film become an art film? Take for example, the nasty, but incredibly fun suspense thriller “Freeway” from 1996. “Freeway” updates the “Little Red Riding Hood” story to modern times, but the heroine is not the sweet, innocent girl she is in the fairy tale. While Reese Witherspoon’s teenage character Vanessa Lutz has been dealt a lot of bad cards in life, make no mistake, Vanessa is really f–king scary! Even scarier is Kiefer Sutherland’s child psychologist Bob Wolverton (Wolverton = wolf, get it?) who moonlights as a serial killer of hitchhikers and prostitutes. Anyway, Bob picks up the wrong girl with Vanessa and as the attached trailer shows, turns the tables on Bob. Lots of trouble ensues …

Make no mistake, this is one sleazy tale, but it’s gleefully sleazy and doesn’t pretend otherwise. However, the acting (especially by Witherspoon and Sutherland), script, and direction are all top notch. And it proves that just because you’re making an exploitation film, it doesn’t mean that it has to be crappy. It’s too bad Bright’s directing career didn’t take off after “Freeway.” Let’s just say he’s made some “interesting” choices since then. And while the trailer is fairly cheesy, this is by no means is indicative of the quality of the film. If you have the stomach for it, “Freeway” is a wonderfully sick thrill ride.