Toad Road

Slacker James and his friends spend their days abusing alcohol and drugs and their nights at various parties. He moves through his life with a sense of boredom until he meets Sara, a college student seeking enlightenment from drugs. Knowing that this would prove harmful to her, James tries to dissuade Sara from this idea but is ultimately unsuccessful. As she becomes more and more addicted to drugs, Sara becomes obsessed with the idea of Toad Road, a road in York, Pennsylvania, that possesses seven gates rumored to lead directly to Hell. Legends state that each gate, once passed, causes increasing disorientation and eventual loss of self.

She persuades James to join her in an excursion to Toad Road, where the two take acid and eventually become separated. James ends up passing out and upon waking, finds that six months have passed since he and Sara went to Toad Road. She has been reported as missing and he is considered to be a person of interest in her disappearance. While he was missing, his friends have returned home, and he no longer has a place to stay. He moves into a shack owned by his uncle, and, pressed for details by the police and locals, turns to self-destructive activities, such as encouraging people to beat him up. Battered and feeling guilty about Sara's disappearance, he is haunted by visions of Sara. James asks her if he is responsible for her disappearance, but he receives no answer.

• Sara Anne Jones as Sara
• James Davidson as James
• Jim Driscoll as Detective
• Whitleigh Higuera as Whitleigh
• Damon Johansen as Uncle Damon
• Andy Martin as Psychiatrist
• Scott Rader as Scott
• Jamie Siebold as Jamie
• Donnie Simmons as Donnie
• James Wyatt as Driver

Banker first began working on Toad Road in 2008 and cast Jones as Sara, a college student addicted to drugs that becomes fascinated with the legend of Toad Road. He stated that he wanted to use the idea of drug addiction as a foil to the idea of the urban legend of Toad Road.^[1] Banker was inspired to create the film after watching footage for his documentary All Tomorrow’s Parties.^[2] Of the party footage, Banker commented that while the footage was great, it didn't "really [say] anything" and that it would be interesting to create a story "that felt like this but actually went and had a real story to it".^[2] Elijah Wood came across the film in 2012 during the film festival Nightmare City and decided to help produce Toad Road.^[2] Many of the scenes were improvised. Banker said he shot "a wealth a footage", then edited it into a series of tonal shifts.^[3] The cast were non-professionals that Banker recruited from social networking website Myspace. The interpersonal conflicts were in some cases real, as Banker wanted to find a group with natural and existing tensions. He intended to shoot the entire film himself but eventually called in Jorge Torres-Torres to assist.^[4]

Toad Road premiered at the Fantasia Film Festival on July 26, 2012,^[5] and had a limited theatrical release in which it opened October 18, 2013, in Los Angeles and a week later in New York.^[6] It was released on DVD and video on demand on December 10, 2013.^[7]