NEXT EXIT (2022), A HORROR MOVIE REVIEW

The story works on a level that doesn’t need to be too deep, but acts as a catalyst for the discussions you are likely to have with friends and family after you watch it.

Next Exit (2022)

Two unhappy strangers find themselves on a road trip across the U.S. to partake in a scientist's radical experiment with the afterlife in Mali Elfman's poignant sci-fi debut. ​

Written and directed by Mali Elfman

NEXT EXIT follows Rose (Katie Parker) and Teddy (Rahul Kohli) on a final road trip across America as they are thrown together by fate on their way to volunteer for Dr Stevensen’s (Karen Gillan) research exploring life after death. As the film opens, we learn that it is not necessarily the end when you die and some ghosts are still hanging around. Dr Stevensen is investigating ways to communicate with these ghosts and needs volunteers to die for her and act as her guinea pigs in the thereafter. (Which does beg the question whether there are guinea pig ghosts as well **makes notes – Horror Version of G-Force**.)

As someone who works in medical research, I am not sure how that would fare getting through an ethics committee, but the focus of NEXT EXIT isn’t really the act of death or the research itself. Indeed Karen is definitely on “doing a mate a favour” duties here as her screen time is less than 5 minutes all told. It’s always great to see Karen onscreen, but if you are a fan and coming here for her performance, you may be disappointed; not because it is bad, its just VERY short.

Anyway, as I said, this isn’t really the focus. The main focus of the film is the people who would volunteer for this research and what would drive them to wilfully give up their lives to help science.

Enter Teddy and Rose, two troubled death-seekers who end up travelling together because of a mix up with their car rentals. They are seemingly very different people at first, Teddy being very buoyant and witty, while Rose is dour and closed off – one would be forgiven that these two would ever spend time together outside of the rental car.


But, as the journey continues, and they force each other to confront their pasts and their reasons for dying, they grow to like each other and then….

…well, that’s all you get, I don’t want to spoil anything.

NEXT EXIT takes a sometimes light-hearted, look at death, at pain and trauma through its twin protagonists and slowly builds up the emotion until, at the end of the film you are invested in Teddy and Rose’s story. The light-hearted nature of the film distracts at little from the seriousness of the decision the pair have made, making the final act all the more powerful. Teddy and Rose are very different at the start of the film and almost too “polar opposite” to work at first – classic Rom-Com set-up. But the two leads’ performances work well off each other and any concerns I had about caricature at the beginning were soon forgotten


The film doesn’t really get into an in-depth, psychological discussion of the meaning of life, skirting around the subject, but is all the better for it. The story works on a level that doesn’t need to be too deep, but acts as a catalyst for the discussions you are likely to have with friends and family after you watch it. I certainly did with my wife as we considered why you might feel this way and what might drive you to “gift” your life to science – leaving your body to medical science AFTER you die is one thing, NEXT EXIT takes it to the next level. Ultimately, I found it to be a well-balanced, thought-provoking film with some interesting themes for discussion.
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I did find myself wondering if Next Exit was really right for Ginger Nuts to be honest, it certainly isn’t an out and out horror and IMDB has it as COMEDY/MYSTERY/ROMANCE but, before Jim revokes my honorary Gingerhood, I would say it definitely edges into Sci-Fi and there are morbid elements to the story that revolve around death, abuse and trauma, it’s just more implied than explicit.
For some people, the very act of deciding to end your own life because of what you see as a failed life constitute horror!


NEXT EXIT is currently on IMDB with a score of 5.6. I don’t normally score films, but I think this is a bit low and would be at least a 7 for me. I would not necessarily go higher as it’s definitely not a film for everyone. The story unfolds slowly and with limited action, it just isn’t that sort of film. But if you are in the mood for something a little more intellectual, but which doesn’t get too bogged down in the metaphysical and with two well-acted lead characters, then you could find a lot worse.

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