This made me think of Close Encounters of the Third Kind, when Dreyfuss was near the train tracks and everything started to light up, shake, move etc ... course he wasn't really in the middle of nowhere, but what if similar types of things occurred on a long stretch of empty road ... would freak the heck out of me. What if the being that put a knife to your neck seemed/sounded human, but wasn't human at all ... hmmmmmmm. I love scenarios like that, too. They definitely elicit emotion.

I've spent a little time on highways and in truck stops myself... The most helpful and generous people I've run into on the road, especially when I've been in trouble, have consistently been truckers and bikers. I wonder if there a similar kind of hysteria around the building of the original railway transportation networks in the US. There's horror I'll work with and horror I won't touch. I don't want to see more abuse heaped on truckers who already work in terrible conditions and I don't want to contribution to the fear pron and isolationism that tells people to stay home and not to travel or see the world beyond their own backyard. Where does that leave me? An ensemble comedy drama about a that decides that "all" of their (small number of inconsequential) social and civil problems are because of the traffic the highway brings in. So they blow up the highway! They "simulate" a major landslide or some such to force the state to route the Interstate around them... ...and then they're forced to deal with the consequences of virtual physical isolation from the outside world, plus all of the relationships that severs. I suppose in the end they have to literally dig their way out of the problem they've created for themselves. Working title: A Town Called Paranoia

Scott, your premise made me think of Wolf Creek. A great horror which really plays on that fear of being stuck somewhere miles from nowhere and at the mercy of whoever happens past. In this case, nothing supernatural, just a crazy bush man who has been alone for far too long. I like Shaula's idea, and perhaps could tweak it to have a small town that has been completely cut off for years suddenly being connected to the outside world and having to deal with that connection....and do they embrace the change or rally against it?