Review of Joy Ride 2: Dead Ahead (2009) by Ron C — 08 Aug 2009

I actually rate the first Joy Ride (or Roadkill as it was called in the UK) pretty highly... It was smart, creepy and a little scary, with a decent cast and decent twists. The second film has none of those things.

.. Instead it throws Rusty Nails in as some sort of sadistic "Jigsaw from Saw" wannabe torturing a bunch of kids for no apparent reason. At least in the first film you got the feeling that Rusty Nails had some sort of traumatic childhood or some reason to get as upset as he did.

If that had been explored in the second film, it may have been a worthwhile sequel but it isn?t. Instead it?s a ?teen horror? by numbers that is worth avoiding, especially if you like the first film. Oh, and the jumpiest moment is when one of the teenagers smashes a windows in the first ten minutes.

That should be a clue as to how scary this film is overall (hint: it is not). The only worthwhile scene is the ?dice game? but it really does belong in a franchise that might have handled it better (Saw).