Russo Review — “Joy Ride: Dead Ahead”

Reviewed by: Joe Russo (Film Critic & SoSF Contributor)

Actors: Kyle Schmid, Mark J. Gibbon, Nicki Lynn Aycox, Laura Jordan, Nick Zano
Director: Louis Morneau
Number of discs: 1
Rating: Unrated
Studio: 20th Century Fox
DVD Release Date: October 7, 2008
Run Time: 91 minutes

Russo Rating = 7/10
Click to purchase the “Joy Ride: Dead Ahead” DVD

There’s something very intimidating about truckers. They drive a rig that could end your life in a split second, and often times they are colorful characters to say the least, hardened by the road. Steven Spielberg tapped into this unnerving fear brilliantly in Duel, and ever since, the “trucker” horror movie has made brief, albeit inferior, appearances in many films like Joy Ride.

The second in the franchise, Joy Ride: Dead Ahead is a surprisingly decent straight to video horror flick, mixing the psychological thrills from films like Duel with the ever popular torture porn personified by the SAW franchise. While the set up for the thrills, chills and gore is surprisingly lame-duck, when the franchise’s killer, Rusty Nail, gets his engines revving, and his claws in his victims, the film becomes a rollercoaster thrill ride with big action usually reserved for much larger, theatrical pictures.

While the film does feature a fairly gratuitous torture sequence, you’ll be surprised at how sickly innovative it is. Had the opening act, which features a rambunctious foursome stranded after their car broke down in the middle of the desert, led to a more logical situation then breaking into Rusty Nail’s home and stealing his car, the gory climax might have been even better.

For a low budget picture, Joy Ride: Dead Ahead manages to pack an explosive punch. Two big set pieces, leading to vehicles going boom, should impress the crowd of naysayers that frown upon straight to video production quality. While the set up leaves much to be desired, the execution is fantastic, and the results are quite entertaining.

Joy Ride: Dead Ahead is at least worth a look for genre fans, especially with its great special effects make up featurettes.