Joy Ride and the art of the road thriller
A review by Brooks Rich
In honor of Azzam and Chris going on a road trip this weekend, we have a road thriller from 2001. I love this subgenre. Honestly the thought of being on the open road in the middle of nowhere kind of freaks me out. The road thriller plays on the fear of the unknown. Who knows who you're driving by on the highway? Especially at night if you're just two headlights passing by each other. Who is that person in the other car? Also if we take a wrong turn on a road trip, who knows where we will end up. Look to both versions of The Hills Have Eyes for this. These films take the open roads of America and turn them into highways to Hell.
There are some greta road thrillers out there. Steven Spielberg's first major film was the TV movie Duel, about a businessman being chased by a truck apparently driven by a phantom. The driver is never seen and the truck becomes this almost demonic entity. The Hitcher is simple yet effective. A young man on a road trip picks up the wrong guy on the side of the road. There's the highly underrated and underseen Road Games from 1981. Stay tuned for that one day. Alfred Hitchcock's masterpiece Psycho is a sort of road thriller. Marion Crane takes the wrong exit and ends up at the Bates Motel. The rest we know. Even Jeepers Creepers, also from 2001, is a kind of road movie as two siblings driving stumble upon a nightmare. Stay tuned for that as well. Holy shit that film is terrifying. But today we look at Joy Ride.
Paul Walker and Steven Zahn play two brothers driving cross country. Armed with a CB radio, they pull a prank on a trucker named Rusty Nail by pretending to be a woman named Candy Cane. Of course when Rusty Nail discovers this ruse, after ripping a man's jaw off, he begins to pursue the two brothers.
It's a simple story but it is very effective. Unlike in Duel, where we never see the driver and only have the truck to be scared of, we have both the truck and the voice of Rusty Nail, supplied by Ted Levine in an uncredited role. This really gives the movie some gravitas. Levine is so good as a voice here he makes the truck even more sinister. You would think he would humanize the villain but leave it to Buffalo Bill himself to make it even scarier.
It's a classic horror movie trope. Messing with the locals, in this case the trucker who populate the open roads, and having it come back and bite you. Director John Dahl uses the highway to great effect. When the brothers discover that Rusty Nail knows what car they're in, Steve Zahn turns around to just find countless headlights behind them, all of them potential threats. They are surrounded by cars and truck but are still very much alone. But later they are the only car on the road and know that menacing truck and driver could be just a mile down the road, hiding in the darkness down the road. It's so frightening because it feels real. This doesn't seem like a made up scare.
This is a fun movie and one that kind of sneaks up on you. You might think, oh come on, typical early 2000s' teen horror movie. But give it a chance. It'll get its hooks into you. It's more creepy then outright terrifying and again a lot of that is thanks to Ted Levine. Track this one down and also any of the other films I mentioned Take a trip on route 666.
A review by Brooks Rich
In honor of Azzam and Chris going on a road trip this weekend, we have a road thriller from 2001. I love this subgenre. Honestly the thought of being on the open road in the middle of nowhere kind of freaks me out. The road thriller plays on the fear of the unknown. Who knows who you're driving by on the highway? Especially at night if you're just two headlights passing by each other. Who is that person in the other car? Also if we take a wrong turn on a road trip, who knows where we will end up. Look to both versions of The Hills Have Eyes for this. These films take the open roads of America and turn them into highways to Hell.
There are some greta road thrillers out there. Steven Spielberg's first major film was the TV movie Duel, about a businessman being chased by a truck apparently driven by a phantom. The driver is never seen and the truck becomes this almost demonic entity. The Hitcher is simple yet effective. A young man on a road trip picks up the wrong guy on the side of the road. There's the highly underrated and underseen Road Games from 1981. Stay tuned for that one day. Alfred Hitchcock's masterpiece Psycho is a sort of road thriller. Marion Crane takes the wrong exit and ends up at the Bates Motel. The rest we know. Even Jeepers Creepers, also from 2001, is a kind of road movie as two siblings driving stumble upon a nightmare. Stay tuned for that as well. Holy shit that film is terrifying. But today we look at Joy Ride.
Paul Walker and Steven Zahn play two brothers driving cross country. Armed with a CB radio, they pull a prank on a trucker named Rusty Nail by pretending to be a woman named Candy Cane. Of course when Rusty Nail discovers this ruse, after ripping a man's jaw off, he begins to pursue the two brothers.
It's a simple story but it is very effective. Unlike in Duel, where we never see the driver and only have the truck to be scared of, we have both the truck and the voice of Rusty Nail, supplied by Ted Levine in an uncredited role. This really gives the movie some gravitas. Levine is so good as a voice here he makes the truck even more sinister. You would think he would humanize the villain but leave it to Buffalo Bill himself to make it even scarier.
It's a classic horror movie trope. Messing with the locals, in this case the trucker who populate the open roads, and having it come back and bite you. Director John Dahl uses the highway to great effect. When the brothers discover that Rusty Nail knows what car they're in, Steve Zahn turns around to just find countless headlights behind them, all of them potential threats. They are surrounded by cars and truck but are still very much alone. But later they are the only car on the road and know that menacing truck and driver could be just a mile down the road, hiding in the darkness down the road. It's so frightening because it feels real. This doesn't seem like a made up scare.
This is a fun movie and one that kind of sneaks up on you. You might think, oh come on, typical early 2000s' teen horror movie. But give it a chance. It'll get its hooks into you. It's more creepy then outright terrifying and again a lot of that is thanks to Ted Levine. Track this one down and also any of the other films I mentioned Take a trip on route 666.
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