The film opens with a traditional horror movie scenario: a babysitter, a dark night, and a stranger at the door. It doesn't take a genius to know that the flesh of the babysitter and the blade of a knife are designed for each other. So the first impression is the dismiss this film as a slice and dice horror flick. Instead, like the railway term the film is named for, this film meets many junctions on its journey and only reluctantly settles on a final destination.

After rejecting the stereotypical horror genre the film takes a spin is a couple of other directions. There's the road movie subplot, featuring the unlikely couple of Danny Glover and Jared Leto, who team up on a drive from Texas to Utah. Then there's the Amarillo sheriff's election subplot that becomes twisted into the murder mystery. And finally, there's the Dennis Quaid subplot, he says he's an FBI agent but there's something weird about him, too.

These are the ingredients that writer and director Jeb Stuart employs to bounce us along, and after an hour it is still unclear exactly who is whom and why. Stuart uses one of Hitchcock's favorite tools where he tries to engage the audience with all the characters such that it is unclear who to love and who to hate.

When the climax finally unravels the various plots and characters, the film has nowhere to go but downhill. As each potential theme is reluctantly discarded and the characters reveal their inevitable spots, little remains but to endure the anticlimactic conclusion. The hero and villain stereotypes kick in and engage in the obligatory action packed fight to the death of one and near death of the other. By the time the schmaltzy television movie ending drips over you, its almost a relief to see the credits.

Nonetheless, my overall impression of this movie is good. If only there was a way to omit the beginning and the end and stay instead in that wonderful mystery land where the uncertainty is the game, Switchback would be very fine.