Movie Review: Joy Ride 2: Dead Ahead

4 friends on a road trip to Vegas break down in the middle of nowhere, until they find a seemingly abandoned home. They break in and end up "borrowing" a car to get back to civilization. Unfortunately for them, the home wasn't actually abandoned and the really bad news is that it's home to a killer trucker, who comes looking for them.

I'm actually a pretty big fan of the first Joy Ride movie, produced by J.J. Abrams (Lost, Cloverfield) back in 2001. It was really more of a thriller than a horror movie though, or actually just much more psychological torment than physical. This time around, there's a lot more of the physical variety as the body count mounts. But the bad news is really they've replaced the suspense and mood of the first film with gore and violence in this one. The suspense in minimal and the plot get's pretty silly at times.

The production values are about what I expected and the soundtrack is OK. As far as the acting, it's acceptable for a direct-to-video title and the characters are pretty believable and likable except for 1 obvious annoying tool, who you'll be happy to see go except he becomes much more sympathetic in his finals scenes. Nicki Aycox is great eye candy and gives probably the best performance of the film.

The plot gets pretty derivative and silly, as "Rusty Nail" becomes almost supernatural in the way he's just always there, sees all and knows all. They try to explain it by him having all truckers as "his eyes and ears", but it's really not enough to explain how all encompassing the guy is. Another thing that is really disappointing to me is the ending. Let's just say he's got to be Criss Angel's father or something.

There is a scene in a basement where our pal Rusty tortures the guys with a little game, and it's got a bit of a Hostel feel to it. Putting yourself in their place it becomes a pretty hardcore little horror scene, and I think it was really well done. Easily the best bit of the film.

So all-in-all, for a direct-to-video title this is a pretty fun flick. It's not as good as the first one and it's really nothing new, but it's got a lot to like with plenty of action and thrills. Ignore the stupid ending and go along with the cliches and you'll have fun.

6/10