THE ROAD (2011) SCARE SCORE

Added: 2026-05-23

[00:00:00]Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the horror mine. My name is Vicshai and this is the scarecore, where I break down horror movies and rate them on how scary I think they are. In this episode, I'll be going over the 2011 Filipino horror film, The Road. I'll be going over the events that take place throughout the film while rating the scares on how scary they are or attempt to be. The road will have us mining deep into the horrors of a mysterious and isolated road with a dark and tragic secret. But how scary is it? Sit back and relax and join me as we explore the road and tally up the scare score.

[00:00:46]Our movie begins by showing us the dark titular road along with the opening credits. This is accompanied by an ominous tune and feels like the standard horror movie opening. Part one takes place in 2008, which is the present day for the film. A car is parked along the dark road and an unseen man is holding a gun in the driver's seat. He places the gun underneath a place generally considered to be unsafe and it goes off.

[00:01:11]I think you guys are picking up what I'm putting down. Our main character's alarm goes off and he gets ready in the mirror for his job as a police officer. His name is Luis Medina and he is given a medal of valor by the police chief for his recent heroism. He is considered the town's top cop because he has an outstanding track record of case closures and suspect arrests. The chief tells him that despite not following protocol, the mayor wanted to recognize and award him. A woman tries speaking to the chief, but he walks away when he notices her. Louisie speaks to her and she wants an update on her missing daughters, Lara and Joy Luna. Louise seems unfamiliar with the case, but he says he will look at their case file.

[00:01:52]One of the other officers says this is a 12-year-old case with no leads, but Louise insists on looking into it. We see that Joy and Lara have been missing since June 23rd, 1998. As he drives off, a girl on a bike almost runs into his car and falls over. The girl named Ella walks past her friend Janine and her boyfriend Brian. Ella doesn't like Brian because she claims that he cheated on Janine. That night, Janine and Brian show up at Ella's window to take her for a ride. Janine has her driving test next week and Brian is teaching her how to drive. She agrees to go along, but just so Janine isn't alone with him. They get on the main road, but Brian gets scared when he sees the police up ahead since he doesn't have his boating license either. He reverses the car and opens a gate that leads down a dark road isolated from the main highway. The road is almost pitch black aside from the car's headlights. As Janine gets in the driver's seat, a red car drives past them, and Ella says she didn't see a driver. Ella and Brian start bickering about his cheating incident, and Janine stops the car to tell them to stop arguing. She then tells Ella to drive, and the couple get cozy in the back seat. Bright lights shine behind them, and the red car reappears right next to them.

[00:03:09]Ella slams on the brakes and tells them about the driverless car. The couple didn't see it because they were too busy displaying affection in public. Brian gets back in the driver's seat and says that he can't find the exit. The car appears behind them again, but it's too dark for Brian to see the driver. The cars are now side by side and the red car is driving pretty aggressively. Ella looks over and sees someone with a bloody plastic bag over their head.

[00:03:34]Brian finally sees that the car is driverless and speeds off. The car somehow gets in front of them and slams on its brakes, forcing Brian to swerve and come to a stop. Janine pleads with him to go home, but what the hell does she think he's been trying to do?

[00:03:49]Everything that's happened so far with the red car has had a really good amount of tension. Nothing too crazy has happened, and the driverless car concept is actually pretty cool and intriguing.

[00:03:59]He can't seem to find an exit and realizes that he keeps passing the same tree. The red car appears right in front of them and starts driving towards them.

[00:04:08]Brian reverses and the red car suddenly swerves off the road and crashes into the woods. Brian gets the bright idea to get out of the car and investigate.

[00:04:17]Janine goes with him and Ella calls her dad. She tells him that they're on the closed road by the junction and that they can't get out. She frantically asks him for help and the call disconnects.

[00:04:27]Brian and Janine investigate the car that looks like it's been there for ages before spontaneously combusting. A bloodied body with a plastic bag on its head then emerges from the back seat.

[00:04:38]They retreat back into their car and drive off. I like that the film is revealing bits and pieces of what's happening through brief glimpses of disturbing imagery. It's effectively keeping the audience on edge while building a really interesting mystery in the process. Janine is covering her face and we see the road from her blurry perspective. A woman in the middle of the road slowly comes into view and Brian slams on the brakes. The ghostly woman walks towards the car and Brian isn't taking any chances. He tries running her over but she disappears.

[00:05:10]Brian says the car won't turn on and gets out. Janine goes with him but Ella refuses to exit the car. We see the back of someone's bloody head and Janine looks absolutely terrified. Brian and Janine take off running, leaving Ella behind with a ghost in the back seat next to her.

[00:05:30]This was a really good scare scene that shockingly didn't use a bunch of jump scares or overly loud noises. Aside from the very end, it relies on the creepy imagery and the actor's reactions to effectively portray fear. Janine wants to go back for Ella, but Brian says they need to get help first. They stumble on a house in the woods and someone with a plastic bag on their head in front of it. Back on the road, the car starts bouncing up and down on its own and Ella gets out. As the couple retreat back into the woods, the ghost with a bag over its head is silently running behind them. Ella finally notices it, but the spirit just runs past them. The ghost quietly yet aggressively running behind them in slow motion was a straightup terrifying and haunting visual. As Ella slowly approaches the car, we can barely hear someone crying Let Us Go. It's something I wouldn't have noticed without the subtitles and had to put headphones on to actually be able to hear. It's genuinely creepy and a really wellexecuted scare. Ella opens the back passenger door, which falls off the car, revealing a skeleton in the back seat.

[00:06:36]Janine and Brian get separated and call out to each other in the woods, which leads to a really disturbing jump scare.

[00:06:47]This was an excellent jump scare that's honestly up there with one of the scariest and most effective I've ever seen. It's pretty unexpected and really wellcraftrafted in two parts. First, we hear the spirit making a strange noise and briefly see the top of its head.

[00:07:02]Then, the spirit suddenly appears and we get hit with a really disturbing visual accompanied by a really unnerving moaning sound. It's really well-crafted jump scares like this that feel earned and not cheap that I really appreciate.

[00:07:15]Janine links back up with Ella and they get the car started again. They drive for a short period before the woman's spirit again appears in front of them.

[00:07:24]The spirit's face then appears on the floorboard and causes Janine to lose control. The car spins out and Ella falls out, thankfully stopping just short of the pole and getting the hereditary Charlie special. Janine's face hits the steering wheel and knocks her out. Ella then looks up and sees the spirit ripping the plastic bag off her head, revealing her severely burned and disfigured face. Again, another great scare scene that builds upon the relentless scare pace of the past 20 minutes. The police finally arrive with Ella's dad, and the chief tells Louise to prove he's worthy of the medal he gave him. He looks into the car, and we see that Janine has tragically died from hitting her head. Louise finds the abandoned car with a skeleton and discovers a necklace on it. They find Brian's body in the woods and Ella's dad identifies him as her friend. The police search deeper into the woods and stumble upon the old house. As Luis and another cop are about to breach the front door, another officer comes out, almost causing a friendly fire situation. The mustache cop named Greg says he searched the entire house and didn't find anyone.

[00:08:30]Janine's mother cries over her daughter's body and Mrs. Luna shows up to the morg. She identifies the skeleton as one of her daughters, but is told that she was alone in the car. Part two takes place 10 years ago in 1998. We see an unnamed man walking alone along the road and eating dinner alone. His house seems to be an absolute mess, and he is struggling to fall asleep, embodying that peak male loneliness. We then see two girls driving along the road on a bright, sunny day. They drive past the unnamed man before their red car breaks down. He walks past their car and they ask him where they can get some water.

[00:09:06]He says they can get water at our place and tells them to follow him. As they walk in the woods, they ask him for his name, but he doesn't reply. He leads them to the house in the woods and one of the girls says they should leave. As they walk away, he walks out of the house and knocks them out. The girls wake up chained inside of the old creepy house and are revealed to be Joy and Lara Luna, the missing girls in 2008.

[00:09:29]Lara is the older sister and listens as Joy is being taken away by the strange man. She pleads with him to leave her alone, but he takes her downstairs. He then throws her against the wall which knocks her out cold. He starts doing weird incel things like sniffing her hairband before delivering a knuckle sandwich. He then places a bag over her head and a rope around her neck. He places her inside a closet and tells her to stop moving around because she can hear her. Lara asks him what he did with Joy, but he doesn't answer. Sometime later, Joy calls out to Lara from the next room. Just like Bubba did by that river in Vietnam, Joy wants to go home.

[00:10:07]The sisters start to cry and Lara apologizes for not being able to protect Joy. She blames herself for the less than ideal situation they're in, but Joy says that it's not her fault. Lara hears Joy gagging in the other room before repeating, "I want to go home.

[00:10:24]home. I want to go home.

[00:10:29]While the sisters are trapped in the house, the man is outside doing something to their car. Joy sits at the edge of the bed before noticing something strange behind her. The bed is moving up and down as if there were someone inside of the mattress. She tells Joy that she isn't alone in the room before we are treated to a decent jump scare.

[00:10:51]A decently creepy little scene showing that the supernatural occurrences started way before 2008. The man comes back into the house and gets into a physical struggle with Lara while Joy freaks out in the next room. Lara refuses to be a victim and hits the man and he instantly folds at the first sign of Rezi stance. He frantically runs out of the room and locks her back in. Lara retreats to the corner of the room before noticing that the man dropped his keys in the struggle. She unlocks the lock to her chain and tells Joy that they can escape this together. We then see that in his cowardly retreat, the man seems to have forgotten the complex mechanic of closing a basic lock. Lara escapes her room and calls out to Joy, but can't seem to find her sister. Joy starts throwing up Mr. Hanky, and it's revealed that Lara has been speaking to her ghost the entire time. Lara looks inside the closet and finds a skeleton with a bag over its head, revealing that the man wasn't actually speaking to Joy, but the skeleton. She goes downstairs and hides when the man comes into the room. He sits down for a meal and she tries to make a stealthy escape. Her stealth attribute needs a little more points put into it because she bumps into a table and knocks over a picture.

[00:12:04]The man gets up to adjust the photo and Laura quickly escapes the house. She gets into her car but can't seem to find the keys. The man walks out of the house and Lara tries hiding from him. She retreats and falls backwards into a hole where she finds Joyy's dead body. She silently cries out in despair before climbing out of the hole. Lara runs back out onto the road and the man chases after her in the red car. She does her best to get away, but running away in a straight line is never the best way to go. He hits her with the car and the injured Lara tries crawling away as the man slowly stalks her holding a bag.

[00:12:43]He places the bag over her head and drives off with her in the back of the car. She suddenly pops up gasping for air as the man loses control of the car.

[00:12:52]He swerves off the road and the car crashes into the woods. He hits his head on the steering wheel, but it isn't enough to take him out. He limps out of the car before it lights up in flames with Lara still in the back seat, showing the tragic fate of Lara and Joy Luna. The spirits haunting the road in 2008. Their souls have been unable to move on as these horrible events seem to be replaying themselves, tormenting those unfortunate enough to find themselves on the dark and mysterious road. Back in the present, Louise and another officer are still searching for Ella. They then hear a voice in the distance saying, "Don't come near me."

[00:13:33]They make their way back to the house in the woods, and Louise searches for her inside. Ella suddenly jumps up and attacks him while yelling at him to let them go. He tries to calm her down, and she says that she hates him before passing out from exhaustion. Louise carries her out of the house in his arms, and the chief thanks him for finding her. Ella's dad asks her what happened and she seems to be possessed by Lara Luna's spirit. She says that their car broke down and that she and her sister asked for water before he hit them. Thinking there is potentially another victim, Louise radios that he's going back in. Part three takes us even further back to 1988 and explores the backstory of the killer from part two.

[00:14:14]We see him as a young boy wearing the same white t-shirt, innocently looking out of his window. He notices a young girl approaching his house and he hides from her. She is looking for someone named Madame Carmela and the boy opens the front door. She asks for his name, but he refuses to tell her. She then invites him outside to look at the butterflies, but he seems afraid to leave the house. His mother comes downstairs and yells at him because he isn't allowed to go outside. The girl's name is Martha, and her grandmother sent her over to help Madame Carmela with the laundry. Carmela tells her to come back in the morning and shuts the door. She then drags her son upstairs and locks him in the closet. She walks away and smiles at someone out of view. He then takes a look at a photo of him and his parents. That night, a man walks out of their house as the father comes home. I was going to make an absent father joke about being able to relate to his situation, but it looks like he's got one of those, so I can't actually relate. His dad apologizes and embraces his son. During dinner, the dad is praying over their meal and Carmemella complains that she's hungry during the prayer. We learn that the family is struggling financially and that the father is a preacher at a church.

[00:15:24]Carmemella clearly treats their son like crap, but his dad seems kind and decent.

[00:15:29]We see the boy scratching out girls faces in a book, showing that his mother's treatment made him despise women. He asks his dad if he can go outside, but his father essentially says that the outside world is full of sin and is trying to shield him from that.

[00:15:44]The next day, Martha is doing laundry and asks the boy to come out. He says he can't go outside and isn't allowed to talk to girls because his mom says they're filthy. He looks back for his mother, but Martha says his mother isn't home. She blows soap bubbles in his direction and says if he won't go out, then she's coming in. She goes inside the house with a bubble bowl and gets a little handsy. It turns out that his mom actually is home and he's about to find out. She starts smacking him around and Martha tries getting her to stop.

[00:16:14]Carmela shoves her away and Martha hits her head on a wooden corner. This is very similar to how the man pushes Joy in 1998 and he was possibly replicating this moment. She frantically tells him to go get a towel, but I don't think a towel can fix murder. She tells him to wipe the floor clean and he passes out.

[00:16:33]He wakes up in bed at nighttime and looks out of his window at his cheating mother. The man says he can take her away from here and we see the father is actually home and witnesses everything.

[00:16:43]He waits for her at the bottom of the stairs and tells the boy to go to his room. The father confronts Carmela about her infidelity and she doesn't seem to care. She slaps him in the face and calls him worthless before saying she's leaving them both in the morning. He asks her to have pity on her son, but she seems totally emotionless. The boy is crying in his room while listening to his father begging Carmela to stay. The next morning, his mother walks into view with mud on her feet and tells him to wake up. She looks suspiciously pale and he follows her downstairs. When he gets downstairs, he slips on some mud on the floor. He washes his hands and Carmemella tells him to hurry up, setting up the plates.

[00:17:24]His father walks in to tell him that Carmela left them and she won't lock him up anymore. The boy doesn't have any reaction to it and thinks that Carmemella's spirit is actually his living mother. Later that night, he looks out of the window and sees Martha's spirit standing right outside.

[00:17:42]He also sees his mother's ghost quietly staring at him as his dad walks into the house. His dad throws up some Quaker Oats, and we hear Carmela yell at him to get a towel and to clean it up. It's actually the same audio as when she told him to clean up Martha's blood, which is really eerie. He replies to his mother's yelling and his dad tells him not to be afraid anymore. Carmemella's spirit is right there and he tells his dad that his mom is very angry. His father gets upset and screams that his mother is no longer there. Not realizing that his son's trauma response is fully activated and he's actually seeing his mother's ghost. He brings him outside and shows him his mother's dead body inside of a hole in the ground. The boy runs back inside as the dad screams at Carmela to leave them alone while stuffing her mouth with dirt. The boy looks for his mom inside the house and the closet opens on its own. He instinctively climbs inside and shuts himself in.

[00:18:40]Every supernatural thing that's happened in this chapter so far has been eerie and downright dreadful. However, Martha slowly turning her head inside of the closet is a truly haunting visual. This also confirms that Martha was the spirit standing behind Lara in 1998. The father looks inside the closet and is shocked to find his son sitting next to Martha's body. He tries pulling the boy out of the closet, but he says that Mama won't let him go out and shuts himself back in. The father falls back and cries out in despair at the tragic situation. The next day, the boy pushes Martha's body off of him and sees his mother's ghost approaching the closet. He goes downstairs and simply stands there as his father decides to join Carmela in the afterlife. Carmemella's ghost is watching behind him and quietly walks out of the room. The boy opens the front door and sees Martha's spirit waving at him to come outside. We then see his older self walking out of the house.

[00:19:37]Back in the present, the police are still searching inside the house. They find the old family picture and discover a door upstairs with a brand new lock on it. The officer busts down the door and finds Lu's police cover and Medal of Valor inside before getting hit from behind. Luis puts a pillowcase over his face and uses a belt to commit a blue-on-blue crime. The film's plot twist comes to light as Luis is revealed to have been the killer the entire time.

[00:20:05]This entire film has cleverly actually been about Louise and the tragic upbringing that turned him into a monster. It's a pretty cool plot twist that was executed well and that I didn't really see coming. It took a little while to get there, but I think that the payoff is worth it. Luis then puts on a jacket in the same mirror he used in the beginning of the film. Luis coldly walks out of the house and is recognized by Ella, who points to him and is still possessed by Lara's spirit.

[00:20:36]This explains why Ella attacked him when she saw him come into the house. Luis realizes that he can't hide his secret any longer and has nothing left to lose.

[00:20:46]He shoots the chief of police before frantically driving off onto the road.

[00:20:50]His car suddenly stops and the ghosts of Joy and Lara appear in the car. Luis realizes that his time is up and the shot of the ghost just staring him down is menacing. Lara assists him with a gun placement and it goes off. This scare scene of Lara and Joy finally getting their revenge on Louise was both scary and satisfying. It's straight to the point and wastes absolutely no time. The police arrive and approach Louise's vehicle with their guns drawn. In the film's final scene, the spirit of a young Louise is finally able to walk out of the house. His spirit is finally free from his abusive past and the monster it turned him into. His mother's spirit is still trapped in the house and watches as he finally gets to see the butterflies as the movie ends.

[00:21:41]And that, ladies and gentlemen, was The Road. My friends, this is one of the scarier and bettermade horror films I have seen in quite some time. The Road wastes absolutely no time and hits the ground running right away with excellently crafted scares. The first 30 minutes of the film are absolutely relentless when it comes to scares. The film is shown in three parts that each feel tonally distinct, but still manage to deliver an overall satisfying narrative. Part one is a straightup supernatural horror with scares that are really well-crafted and provides some terrifying visuals. Part two turns into a slasher thriller and kind of feels like the weakest part of the film.

[00:22:21]However, part three reels it all in narratively and is filled with absolute dread that retroactively seeps into the previous parts. The overall story is told really well, and I really enjoyed the backwards storytelling style they used to tell it. This is, in my opinion, director Yam Lauronas' best movie in one of my favorite Filipino horror films.

[00:22:42]While the scariest parts are front-loaded to the first 30 minutes, the rest of the film still has enough tension and dread to make the overall package feel scary, earning the road a great scare score of 75%. The audience scare score gathered by channel members is 52%. The scariest scene in the film is the horrifying jump scare that happens when Brian and Janine are separated in the woods. It's just so wellcraftrafted and set up. The moaning sound that Lara spirit makes before appearing is very strange and unsettling. When the spirit suddenly appears, the disturbing and uncanny visual hits like an absolute truck. This is up there as one of the best jump scares I have ever seen. I want to give a massive thanks to our Golden Kayako Club and the rest of our channel members for your continued support. But as always, I hope you all enjoyed this video. Thank you all for tuning in and I cannot wait to see y'all right back here in the horror mine. Y'all stick around.