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.

[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.

[9] Dennis Harvey of Variety wrote that the film does not deliver on its promised horror elements but might be better appreciated as a slice of life drama.

[11] Jeannette Catsoulis of The New York Times called it an "uncomfortably authentic drama about the horrors of dedicated drug use" that "never overcomes the fact that watching drugged-out wastrels is rarely interesting".

[12] Martin Tsai of The Los Angeles Times called it "a junkie hipster spin on the unreliable-narrator conceit" that is like "the CliffsNotes version of Dante Alighieri's Inferno".

[13] Samuel Zimmerman of Fangoria rated it 3.5/4 stars and wrote that the film's depiction of wasted suburban youth is unoriginal but raw, and it is "where the unstaged, more truly frightening moments can be found".

[14] Scott Halam of Dread Central rated it 3/5 stars and wrote, "It does take a very long time to get up and running, but if you're into reality bending films, you might dig this.

"[18] Chuck Bowen of Slant Magazine rated it 2.5/5 stars and wrote, "The behavior is alarmingly and realistically staged, and you don't have to be a prude to wonder if 75 minutes in the company of these people is really time well spent.