Macabre…ish Horror Review: Joy Ride 2: Dead Ahead
Joy Ride 2: Dead Ahead, 2008/ 1 hr 31 min
A woman hops into a truck and offers her services to the driver. He unnerves her and asks to be shown what she’s got. He rolls down the window and tells her he wants her to get wet. She decides this was a bad idea and decides to leave, he and tells her to exit through the window. She starts crawling out, he traps her in the window and speeds out of the lot, decapitating her as he passes another truck.
Meanwhile, sisters are taking a road trip on a bachelor/bachelorette vacation to Vegas. On the way, they pick up a guy, Nik (Kyle Schmid), that Kayla’s (Laura Jordan) been having an online relationship. The bride, her sister, Melissa (Nicki Aycox) is not thrilled but whatever, it’s happening anyway. Nik also talks them into taking a back roads ‘short cut’ the rest of the way. But they break down in the middle of nowhere at dusk and so they walk.
They find an old ranch on the way and though there’s month old mail in the mailbox, they’re still hoping to find help there. After Nik breaks in and starts screaming, the others break doen the door to save him but he’s messing around. No one but Kayla likes this guy. Upon closer inspection, it looks like the house has been empty for a year. It’s furnished and lived in but there are no utilities and no phone. So they look the rest of the place over.
The barn is terrifying but they find a mint condition 1970s Chevy Chevelle with the keys in it and it runs. Against their better judgement they take the car. But there is a loose plan to make the home owner whole after they get back to civilization.
Just before dark a semi pulls up to the house. This is Rusty Nail’s (Mark Gibbon) house.
The road trippers and Nik the troublemaker find a town and a truck stop cafe, Bobby goes to the bathroom and doesn’t return after a truck pulls in and out again. Melissa gets a call on her cell from Rusty, he’s already watching them and he has her fiancé. Rusty says he’ll return Bobby after he gets his payment. With Rusty, it’s always a game he wants to play.
First they have to destroy their cell phones. He warns them not to separate or go for help. He also wants Kayla’s finger, the one she gave him as he sped passed them. He wants Melissa to bring it to him.
On the way to the location, they stop at a funeral home to get a finger. When they arrive at the location, Rusty tells Melissa to get out of the car and strip. He wants a show. Then he cuts off Bobby’s ring finger.
But when Melissa takes the finger to the truck and it isn’t Rusty, it’s some creep. This was for nothing. He knows they took a stop at a funeral parlor and he tells them to check the glove compartment to see what a fresh cut finger looks like.
Bobby attempts to escape when Rusty stops for his smokes but too little too late, the poor man who tried to save him gets a horrific death. And the game is about to get much worse and more dangerous for the trio.
This slasher is directed by Louis Morneau and it is well done! It’s paced well, good cinematography and score. Plus the same voice we all know and love. It is violent and gruesome, the physical effects are good though more is insinuated than shown. It’s very bloody and often painful to watch and hear. There are also some humiliating scenes but the cast was up for the challenge, they sold every horrific, torturous scene. Very good sequel!