Movies Hunter here. Today, I have brought a 2018 crime drama thriller film called “Back Roads.”
It follows the story of a twisted family, where the siblings do whatever they can to survive.
Since they had an abusive father, the siblings turned to each other for comfort and ended up
doing something they never should have. To know what happens, watch till the end.
In the year 1993 in Pennsylvania, a woman named Bonnie Altmyer murders her abusive husband.
Since she is sent to jail for the murder, Harley, the eldest son of the family, now has to take care
of his three little sisters, 16 year old Amber, 12 year old Misty, and 6 year old Jody. Harley
wants to go to college to complete his education. But since he also has to take care of his sisters,
he works dead-end jobs to pay the bills and raise his siblings. Since he has a night shift, he asks
Amber to look after Misty, and Jody. But Amber refuses, saying that she has a date with a guy.
On top of that, she also insults Harley by telling him that he doesn’t deserve happiness in his life.
Harley doesn’t respond and goes to have dinner with Misty and Jody. He then leaves for work
at a local supermarket. There he meets Callie Mercer, an older married woman, who lives nearby.
Later that night, Harley returns home from work. Misty and Jody have fallen asleep, but Amber
still hasn’t returned home. Later, Harley awakens when he hears moans coming from the living room.
He goes to inspect and sees Amber mating with a stranger on the couch. Harley gets so furious
by this that he goes outside and fires some shots in the air to scare away the stranger.
Misty and Jody also wake up and see Harley and Amber arguing outside.
Soon after the stranger leaves, Harley sets the couch on fire.
The next day, Harley and Jody go to meet their mother in prison. It’s been two years since
Bonnie killed her husband, and this is the first time Harley is visiting his mother in prison.
He didn’t bring Misty with him because he didn’t want Misty and Jody to fight in the truck.
As for Amber, she simply doesn’t care. Harley believes that his mother wants to be in the
prison and doesn’t want to return to them. Suddenly, Harley gets a panic attack and faints.
Later, he goes to meet a therapist, who is appointed by the court. The therapist notes that
Harley thinks that his mother cares more about the girls than him. He reasons that it’s because the
girls can get pregnant, whereas, the boys can simply walk away. But if he ever gets a girl
pregnant, he will marry her. Not because he loves her, but because he feels it’s his responsibility.
Harley and his sisters had a rough childhood, as their father used to beat them and abuse them.
When the therapist begins to ask more questions about his father, Harley gets uncomfortable and
abruptly leaves. He then goes to Callie’s house to pick up Jody, who is playing with Esme,
Callie’s daughter. One night, Harley returns home from work and joins his sisters for dinner.
They tell him that Callie came by in the afternoon and left him a present. Amber then demands to have
a driver’s license, but Harley refuses, saying he doesn’t have money to pay for the insurance
for two people. Amber then offers Harley a chance to go on a date with one of her female friends.
But when Harley learns that her friend is only 16 years old, Harley plainly refuses. One night while
working at the supermarket, Harley meets Callie again. They talk about some paintings and learn
that they share a common interest. One day, Uncle Mike, their father’s brother, comes to meet them.
He is the only one from their father’s side, who still takes care of them.
The rest of the relatives have severed all connections with them, as they hate Bonnie.
One night, Harley wakes up in the middle of the night and goes straight to Callie’s house.
He is having another anxiety attack and can’t breathe properly. He walks into the woods and
Callie goes after him. Callie tries to comfort Harley, but he then takes off his clothes and
mates with her in the woods. The next morning, Harley wakes up and sees that Callie is gone.
So later that night at work, he confronts Callie. She apologizes to him for leaving like that and
says that they shouldn’t have mated. But since she also wants to help Harley in any way possible,
she invites him to come to her house after work, as her husband is out of town.
So after finishing his work, Harley goes straight to Callie’s house. Since Callie wants to help
Harley both emotionally and physically, she decides to mate with him again. The next morning,
Harley returns home and learns that Misty has found $1000, which their mother was saving
secretly. Harley politely demands Misty to hand him the money, but Amber slaps her and snatches
the money from her. She wants Harley to get her a driving license, but Harley refuses again,
saying that he needs to pay taxes for the house. Amber gets furious and curses Harley. Frustrated,
Harley returns to Callie’s house and mates with her to calm down his emotions.
The two continue their affair and mate whenever and wherever they can.
One day while having a session with the therapist, Harley talks about child abuse. The therapist
knows where this is going and questions Harley if Misty was ever sexually abused by their father.
Harley doesn’t deny it, which indicates that their father used to sexually abuse Misty. As for Amber,
he never really had a good relationship with her, so he never made any advances toward
her. Since both Amber and Harley were abused by their father, the therapist questions Harley if
Amber ever wanted to make him feel better. Harley gets uncomfortable with the question and abruptly
leaves. When he returns home, he learns that Amber is moving out to live with her new boyfriend.
He tries to stop Amber, but she is in no mood to listen to him and leaves with her new boyfriend.
Later, Harley asks Jody what happened in his absence that Amber decided to leave all of a
sudden. Jody reveals that she heard Amber and Misty arguing about something about Harley,
after which Amber got really mad. Jody further says that she found a blood-stained cloth of
Misty buried in the forest, which she was wearing the day their father was killed.
Harley realises that that day, Misty was with their father and mother.
He deduces that since their father was sexually abusing Misty, she shot him dead that day.
To prevent her from getting arrested, Bonnie must have taken the blame and got arrested instead.
So the next day, Harley goes to meet his mother. He tells her everything that happened
in the past few days. Harley then asks her why she protected Misty and took the blame for the murder.
He believes that Bonnie doesn’t love them and wants to stay in the prison. But Bonnie reveals
that Misty never shot their father. Instead, Misty was trying to kill her and their father got
in the way. Misty was jealous of Bonnie and she wanted to be the only girl in her father’s life.
She was in love with her father and thought that the sexual abuse by her father was an expression
of love. Harley is devastated by this revelation, as he had no idea there was so much going on
behind his back. Later that night, he goes to Callie’s house to mate with her. But Callie tells
him that he can’t just come to her house whenever he wants, especially when her husband is around.
She doesn’t want to destroy her marriage life by trying to make a 19 year old boy feel good.
One night, Amber goes to meet Harley at the supermarket and tells him that she is moving in
permanently with her new boyfriend. Harley notices the bruise on her eye and asks her if she is
moving out because her boyfriend hits her. He also asks Amber if she will stay if he hits her too.
Amber gets happy and asks Harley if he wants her to stay, to which Harley says yes.
So Amber breaks up with her boyfriend and leaves for home with Harley. The next morning,
when Harley wakes up, he sees Amber lying next to him in her undergarments and is horrified.
Amber tries to get close to him, but Harley pushes her away and leaves the room.
It is revealed that Harley and Amber mated last night, as Harley thought that he was mating with
Callie. Amber screams out loud that Callie doesn’t love him, not the way she loves him.
Harley is horrified by the incident and goes straight to the therapist. He reveals that
Amber used to touch him when they were kids. She would come into his bed and touch his weenie,
as she was afraid of their father. But Harley let her stay because he too was afraid of him.
The therapist explains that there is nothing wrong with him or Amber.
They were just reacting to abuse by turning to each other for comfort.
When Harley returns home, Misty tells him that she heard his fight with Amber.
Misty says that she doesn’t care what happens between Amber and Harley,
as they all are the same. She further says that their father never loved her, not the way he loved
their mother. She wanted to take their mother’s place, as their father never hit their mother. So
she thought that if she gives him what he wants, he wouldn’t have abused her. Later, Harley goes
to meet Callie in the woods but is horrified to find her dead body. It turns out that Amber shot
her dead using Harley’s rifle. She was jealous of Callie and feared that she would take Harley away
from her. She just wanted Harley to take care of her like he always did since they were children.
Later, Harley turns himself in for the murder of Callie to protect Amber.
The interrogator doubts Harley’s statement and doesn’t believe that he killed Callie.
But Harley repeats his statement and asks the interrogator to send him to jail. At first, Harley
never wanted to take care of his sisters and blamed his parents for the condition they were in.
But after learning the horrifying truth about the family, Harley decided to take responsibility and
protect his sisters at all costs, even if it means sacrificing his own life. As for Judy,
Misty, and Amber, they move in with Uncle Mike, who now becomes the legal guardian of the kids.
So this was the story of “Back Roads.” If you liked the story, then do watch the full film,
and if you want to watch more such movies explained, then do subscribe to our channel.
See you in the next hunt.