Joy Ride 3: Road Kill

RELEASED TO VIDEO IN 2014 and directed by Declan O'Brien, "Joy Ride 3: Roadkill" depicts horrific events on the backroads of the American prairie when a youthful racing crew on their way to Road Rally 1000 mess with the wrong trucker, Rusty Nail.

Rusty Nail obviously moved from his former location in the desert wilderness far outside Las Vegas, Nevada, to the lonesome prairies of Texas (note his license plate and the Kansas plates of the racers). The change in locale to the flatland prairie/forests (shot in the Winnipeg area) makes for a slightly different ambiance to "Joy Ride 2," but story-wise it's more-of-the-same, minus the obnoxious goth-punk.

The first "Joy Ride" (2001) was akin to a modern-day "Duel" (1971), but with eye-rolling improbabilities, particularly in the last act. "Joy Ride 2: Dead Ahead" took that template and added slasher & 'torture porn' elements, which is what you get with this one. But I like the protagonists better, led by Jesse Hutch, the race car driver. Kirsten Prout and Leela Savasta are effective in the feminine department with Kirsten being particularly adorable, but both need to gain at least 12-15 lbs.

This is the first movie that reveals Rusty from the get-go (Ken Kirzinger), which is interesting, but they should've kept his identity a mystery IMHO, like in "Duel" and the first two movies, not that it matters much. At the end of the day this is a throwaway slasher thriller, but it works for what it is, an over-the-top slasher-horror on the American highways. Turn off your brain and enjoy the quick, implausibly horrific ride. If you can't do this, stay away.

THE MOVIE RUNS 95 minutes and was shot in Winnipeg and Provincial Rd 305, Tourond, Manitoba, Canada. WRITER: Clay Tarver. ADDITIONAL CAST: Benjamin Hollingsworth, Gianpaolo Venuta and Jake Manley play the remaining race crew.

GRADE: B-

But not as good as the first. This entry finds a group of young people driving cross country on the way to take part in a race in Canada. They make a bad decision and take a detour down a road known for its disproportionate amount of disappearances. Of course we know this is the road traveled by Rusty Nail, the villainous trucker obsessed with both his CB radio and destroying anyone that dares insult him.

Our core group of young people cut off Rusty Nail, played by yet another actor after the previous two entries. Here, it is Ken Kirziner, best known as Jason in Freddy vs. Jason. He's actually pretty good, although not as nearly as great as Ted Levine in the first. And Rusty is a much more present villain here, as we actually see him committing the violent acts that were usually kept off screen in the first movie. And the kills here are unique and genuinely creative, even impressive, especially for a straight-to-DVD flick directed by a guy that makes his living doing cheap sequels to theatrical releases.

I'll also say that the movie is fairly unpredictable and you generally won't know exactly who will die and when. The plot is less impressive, becoming repetitive and unbelievable as it goes. But it cleans up in the action-oriented and impressive finale.

The supporting cast is fair, the effects are pretty solid, and the movie is generally pretty good, if not great. The second movie, which made the dubious decision to try and force Joy Ride into the then popular "torture porn" sub-genre, was pretty terrible. This is actually pretty entertaining. I'd say give it a look. It's not a bad little movie.

I enjoyed the first Joyride which was full of tension and very well done. Unfortunately as we already know the perpetrator this one does away with the tension to instead concentrate more on gore.

A group of boy racers and assorted girlfriends pick on the wrong lorry to mess with and pay the price. It's all fairly predictable stuff but there are one or two good scenes i.e the opening death scene to keep you interested. At times it is extremely gory with some SAW like scenes which I'm not sure add a great deal to the movie. The acting is what you'd expect, by no means bad but not great either.

Overall as long as you don't have high expectations this is an OK time filler but I doubt it's one that will live long in the memory.

Based on no less than 3 sequels in the "Wrong Turn" franchise, 1 sequel in the "Joyride" franchise and 1 bizarre creature-feature experiment called "Sharktopus", I think it's safe to assume that director Declan O'Brien will probably never win any Academy Awards, but you can definitely rest assured that his films deliver lots of deranged monsters/psychopaths, nauseating gore effects and excruciatingly painful on-screen death sequences! And, as I'm sure many horror genre fanatics will agree with me, sometimes those are exactly all the things you require in order to have a good time! Last weekend, I attempted to start watching no less than three other (more ambitious and classier) thrillers, but I was too tired and kept falling asleep. I had almost given up my desire to watch something, but then "Joyride 3" started on television. This movie didn't have any problems whatsoever to keep me awake and entertained, and sometimes that's simply the best possible compliment you can write about a horror movie!

The plot of "Joyride 3: Road Kill" – hardly an imaginative subtitle, by the way – is a non-stop spitfire of the most derivative and overused horror clichés. You know, there's even a variation on the good old-fashioned, mad-raving local who tries to warn the dumb kids not to take Highway 17! That scene certainly brought back a lot of fond 80s slasher memories! Every single one of the main and supportive characters are walking & talking stereotypes and the chronological order in which they are most likely to get slaughtered is easy to foretell from the moment they open their mouths. There isn't any tension building whatsoever, lots of stuff doesn't make any sense and there are numerous errors in continuity (unless you're willing to believe that giant cumbersome 18-wheel truck travels quicker than a race car). But the most crucial question to ask here is: does it all matter? No, absolutely positively not!

The simple truth is that "Joyride 3" is about a psycho-trucker who goes after a bunch of amateur street racers because they nearly drove him off the road. Well, in all likelihood he was going to go after them even if they didn't drove him off the road. While the group falls apart, our trucker – Rusty Nail – cheerfully massacres them one by one. The cool thing is that he uses his truck or assets the truck as murder weapon, so naturally it gets very messy! If you're a true gorehound, there are some marvelous rewind-sequences here. I like your movies, Mr. Declan O'Brien. That "Sharktopus" thing is an insult to the intellect to every living creature, but the "Wrong Turn" sequels are fun and so is "Joyride 3".

Your average slasher-horror movie. That is, pretty bad...

A bunch of twenty-somethings are driving to Canada to get to a (Nascar- type) race. They annoy a truck driver who then gets his revenge in rather sadistic ways...

Just from that summary you'll know this movie is hardly original. The highway scenes are derivative of Duel, and just about every highway- confrontation movie since then. The latter half of the movie is pretty much just Saw (or one of its zillion sequels).

So nothing new, and just more sadistic violence for the sake of it. Weak story, paint-by-numbers direction.

Avoid.