Joy Ride 3: Roadkill (2014, Declan O'Brien)

When the original "Joy Ride" came out, I never really figured they would franchise this concept into a straight-to-DVD slasher saga while, with each one, grooming Rusty Nail into an unmysterious, Jigsaw-like horror villain. I guess I should've seen that coming. I always liked the original "Joy Ride". It was definitely one of those 'pleasant surprise' kinda flicks for me, at a time when decent shit actually hit the mainstream and sent a bit of a buzz around the horror scene. The first one was a pretty solid suspense flick that took the psychotic trucker concept to new lengths. As much as I do enjoy "Duel" and "Breakdown", "Joy Ride" owned it. The second installment pretty much marked the ever-so fashionable 'slasherization' down-grade of the first film. And, the third one waters it down even further...

A race car crew (consisting of young-and-hip looking no-name actors) is transporting their car through the desert. While on an open stretch of road that just so happens to have a reputation for dead motorists turning up, they decide to open up the racer and see if it's fast enough or whatever. In the process, however, they stupidly cut off Rusty Nail's rig at high speeds, which, as you could probably guess, pisses him right the fuck off leading to the usual, deadly cat-and-mouse game along the desolate back roads.

To be perfectly honest, "Joy Ride 3: Roadkill" wasn't as bad as I thought, considering it's the third movie in a series based on a movie that never should've had a sequel. Now I know there are literally TONS of movies you could say that for, but here's the reason "Joy Ride" should never have had a sequel: because after the first movie, you would really have no choice but to expand upon and demystify Rusty Nail's character. In the first movie he was basically just a deep voice and an 18-wheeler. His face and body are shown no more than 3 times toward the end in brief and obscured 'blink-and-you'll-miss-it' moments. It was done very well and any more than that ruins the enigmatic character. Then, in the second movie they start showing way too much of him and here they show his face every few fucking minutes. Hell, they show him right on the back of the fucking DVD case! I guarantee more of these "Joy Ride" sequels will come out in the next few years and I'll bet my left nut that by the fifth one they'll have Rusty Nail be a disfigured, Jason Voorhees-like zombie killer with a full back story.

I do realize I said earlier that it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. It IS actually well shot and contains a few decent kill scenes. We also get hot, blond junkie tits for about the first 8 minutes of the movie. Needless to say, it opened strong. Unfortunately, the characters are painfully bland and there is absolutely no suspense whatsoever. Don't bother with it if you can help it.