It seems impossible to believe now, but there was a time when those responsible for highway safety films seemed to believe that using scare tactics as an educational tool was a good idea. I grew up hearing rumors about the infamous driver’s education films—full of graphic car crashes and bloody bodies—that traumatized a generation of students.
Bret Wood’s documentary focuses on the Mansfield Ohio based Highway Safety Films Inc., which produced such titles as “Signal 30,” “Mechanized Death,” and “Highways of Agony” between 1959 and 1974. Founder Richard D. Wayman felt the need to publicize the horror of car accidents few saw in person. He worked closely with Phyllis Vaughn, whose house served as the headquarters. Dedicated to realism, contractors were sent to sites of horrific car crashes to shoot footage of dead, mangled bodies.
“Hell’s Highway” features interviews with men involved in shooting these films. Wood refuses to portray them as ghouls. Instead, they’re ordinary men on a mission to educate., according to surviving employees Earle J. Deems, and John R. Domer. Apparently, Richard Wayman didn’t sleep much. He was always ready with a camera, to head out to an accident or a morgue.
Film historian and archivist Rick Prelinger is on hand to explain that the educational film genre was created in the 1930’s by insurance companies looking to shift blame from careless companies to carless workers. That figures, doesn’t it? That was adapted into World War II training films, and by the 1950’s had evolved into teaching teenagers how to behave.
It’s suggested that these films aren’t as shocking now that we’ve been exposed to the films of Sam Peckinpah, violent videogames and more. I wholeheartedly disagree. I found this documentary and the short films included as extras very hard to watch. We know Peckinpah films and videogames aren’t real. Witnessing the dying and the dead is a whole different ball game when it’s real. The idea of filming dead bodies without permission raises its own set of questions, but there’s no doubt that viewing real, bloody corpses should never be easy.
the issues raised in “Hell’s Highway: The True Story of Highway Safety Films” are interesting, but the only reason to put yourself through it is if you have memories of watching them in school, or if you want to induce nightmares.
Newly remastered, this Blu-ray includes the following extras:
- Audio Commentary by Writer/Director Bret Wood
- New Restorations of Three Driver’s Ed Films: Mechanized Death, Wheels of Tragedy, and Highways of Agony
- The Complete 2003 Pre-Restoration Version
- Bonus Classroom Scare Films: The Child Molester (1964), Death on the Highway (1959), Go, Sober and Safe (1966), The Last Date (1950), Options to Live (1979), The Shoplifter (1964), and Teenicide (1950)
- Trailers
- Deleted Scenes
