Joy Ride 2: Dead Ahead – DVD Review

Film, Reviews

Ahhh, the direct-to-DVD horror film sequel: what a lovely little nugget it has turned out to be. When a horror film has done enough to make a decent bank at the box office and then on its DVD release, you can surely expect there to be a sequel to it. Now if there wasn’t a lot of talk or conversation about whether or not the film was actually “good,” then you can expect that sequel (or sequels) to hit homes without ever heading to theatres. Thus is the fate of Joy Ride 2 which had a decent first film, but not enough to bring it to the big screen once again. Not having any actors return and also changing the entire feel of the first film won’t help you get a direct to DVD third film either.

Bobby and Melissa are headed out to Vegas with her sister Kayla so that they can have a little bachelor/bachelorette party before their wedding. Along the way, they stop and pick up this gothic freak of a guy named Nik who Kayla met on MySpace, and he is going to accompany her all the way to the parties. But they decide to take a shortcut and end up stranded with a dead motor on some old dirt road. They decide to hoof it and come upon this old abandoned house that just so happens to have a souped-up 1971 Chevelle sitting in the garage. Borrowing it to go get some help won’t hurt right? Right?

Stopping into a diner to get some grub, Nik takes it upon himself to act “cool” and insult all the truckers that are within hearing distance. Wrong move bud! It is then that their trouble begins as Melissa gets a call on her cell phone from a man calling himself Rusty Nail, and he has something that belongs to her…Bobby. From here on out it is a race to do whatever Rusty wants them to do in order to get Bobby back in one piece, and also make sure they survive the night as well.

They tried. They really really tried, but it just didn’t work. The first Joy Ride from 2001 was a suspenseful thriller that actually made Paul Walker look like a somewhat credible actor. There was tension, suspense, mystery, and Rusty Nail kept you so far on the edge of your seat that you almost fell off. His voice was unwavering and never showed a single hint of emotion as he tortured a group of kids that wronged him. It wasn’t a great film, but it accomplished what it was trying to do and that was scare people without needing unnecessary deaths or off the wall villains. Joy Ride 2 decided to go against that formula.

Rusty Nail this time is a guy who gets angry, laughs a lot, and is so much more active in freaking out the group he’s after. He raises his voice ad gets angry when his hostages don’t do what he says. Slamming his fists on the table, he scares them into abiding by his wishes. What happened to his just talking all creepy and making them need a new pair of shorts? It takes away from the character he was made out to be in the first film and simply turns him into a freakish, murdering trucker. I am extremely disappointed in the decimation of a simple and effective horror film villain and turning him into a generic murderer.

Other then that, the film has a good idea at hand because the first one was a lot more enjoyable then it had any right to be too. But the problem at hand is that all the tension is taken away from Joy Ride as it transforms into a clichéd and simplified thriller. Only ten minutes into the film, you’re going to know which characters will die and which will survive. The victims do all the same moves that moronic horror film victims have done for years and pay for it. They insult people that could beat the hell out of them and laugh about it. They go into places they know they shouldn’t. And worst of all, they get the upper-hand on the villain and proceed to just back off instead of killing them when they have the chance. Seen it, done it, wrote the book.

The film is shown in Anamorphic Widescreen format and maybe it is the screener disc I got, but there are a few problems. Most of the bright colors and daytime shots can be seen just fine, but the darker scenes are where problems commence. Some of the scenes in the car at night can’t be seen at all. One instance is when Mel holds a scalpel to Nik’s throat threatening him. Had Kayla not said to give her the scalpel; I’d have not known what Mel has in her hand.

The film is heard in Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound and it does a decent enough job. All dialogue can be heard clearly and the music never overpowers it.

Joy Ride 2: The Making of Dead Ahead – Nothing much here except the cast talking about how scary the film is, how hard it was shooing in cold weather when it’s supposed to be the desert, and other such normal backstage stuff. This feature runs thirteen minutes and forty-seven seconds.

Blood And Guts: The “Make-Up” Of Horror – This just over seven-minute feature got into detail with the make-up guy about the blood, prosthetics, fake fingers, deaths, and everything else that went along with making the wounds and deaths as real as possible.

Storyboard-To-Scene Comparison (Scene 118) – The final and climatic scene is shown side by side with the original storyboards so that people can compare and contrast.

TrailersMirrors, Prison Break: Season 3, Stargate Continuum, The Happening, and The X-Files: I Want To Believe


For an everyday B-movie slasher, Joy Ride 2 really isn’t that bad of an effort. It has some decent gore and a couple interesting kills making for a night full of death that you don’t have to put a lot of thought into. But as far as keeping the Joy Ride franchise rolling in the same direction; it failed miserably. Besides using the same name for the villain and putting him in a big rig; there isn’t a single thing that even somewhat resembles the first flick. While that does disappoint, I wouldn’t put this one completely out of reach for you may enjoy a rental some night. Purchasing it though just wouldn’t be worth the cash because you won’t want to check it out more then once and the special features are next to nothing. I will say that I was wrong though to something originally said in this review. You can expect a third film in the series…not sure if that is a good thing, but it’s going to happen. Candy Cane. Goldilocks. What’s next, Red Riding Hood?

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20th Century Fox presents Joy Ride 2: Dead Ahead. Directed by: Louis Morneau. Starring: Nick Zano, Nicki Aycox, Kyle Schmid, Kathryn Kirkpatrick, Mark Gibbon. Written by: James Robert Johnston & Bennett Yellin. Running time: 91 minutes. Rating: Unrated. Released on DVD: October 7, 2008. Available at Amazon.