Joy Ride (2001)
Cast: Paul Walker, Leelee Sobieski, Steve Zahn
Director: John Dahl
Synopsis: thoughtless juvenile prank rebounds in the most terrifying manner
Reviewed by: Omar Khan

 

Once in a while, along comes a suspense thriller in the mould of the classic cat-and-mouse games exemplified by Spielberg's magnificent road movie Duel. The plot is pared down to the bare essentials and shaped purely to generate maximum white-knuckle tension, with characterisation—and occasionally logic—taking second place. While Duel and Dead Calm remain the undisputed masterpieces of this sub-genre, Joy Ride ranks among its most successful modern descendants.

The film stars erstwhile teen-comedy favourite Paul Walker as a well-intentioned college student and dutiful son who finds himself caught up in a deadly mess thanks to his idiotic ex-con elder brother (Steve Zahn) and his own inability to say no. Walker buys a battered old car simply so he can drive out west, pick up his potential girlfriend (Leelee Sobieski), and bring her home. Along the way, however, he agrees to do his parents a favour by picking up his brother, who has just been released from prison. Unfortunately for Walker, his loud-mouthed, pushy sibling proves rather more difficult to shake off than expected, and it soon becomes obvious that he is going to be saddled with his demented company for considerably longer than he had bargained for.

Like all good petty criminals, Zahn immediately buys himself a CB radio to keep one step ahead of the police, but before long, he begins using it for his own amusement, pestering truckers with a stream of idiotic chatter delivered in a variety of ridiculous fake accents. Eventually, he bullies Walker into putting on a sultry female voice in the hope of amusing themselves by luring in some lonely truck driver. Sure enough, a man calling himself Rusty Nail develops an unhealthy interest in Walker's imaginary temptress, Candy Cane. Walker and Zahn collapse into fits of laughter, blissfully unaware that their harmless prank has just set in motion a terrifying chain of events. Before long, they are no longer the instigators of the joke but the victims, finding themselves relentlessly stalked and psychologically tormented by a man whose anger is anything but amusing.

"Apologise," growls the voice over the CB radio.

And he means it.

Stylishly directed and beautifully paced, Joy Ride is the finest thriller of its type for many years—perhaps since Dead Calm. There are moments of genuine suspense and several sequences of almost unbearable tension. It borrows ideas from Duel, Scream and even Coppola's superb The Conversation, yet still manages to establish an identity very much its own.

Watching the DVD, it was fascinating to discover that the filmmakers had originally planned an entirely different ending. Thankfully, somebody had the good sense to abandon it, because the discarded finale would almost certainly have transformed an excellent thriller into an unintentionally laughable turkey. A hearty pat on the back to whoever made that decision. If only someone had shown similar wisdom when it came to the ending of Jeepers Creepers.

Paul Walker is unlikely to win awards for his performance, but he acquits himself perfectly well, while Steve Zahn and Leelee Sobieski provide excellent support. The real star of the film, however, is the wonderfully sinister voice of Rusty Nail as he patiently searches the airwaves for the non-existent Candy Cane.

Joy Ride is an unpretentious, no-nonsense thriller that delivers a hugely entertaining ninety minutes without resorting to CGI spectacles, supernatural gimmicks, masked slashers, gallons of gore or monsters from another dimension. There is nothing especially original about it, yet somehow it feels refreshingly old-fashioned.

And before anyone points it out, yes, I realise Dead Calm wasn't set on the road. Nevertheless, in spirit it belongs to the same family of suspense thrillers as Duel, The Car, Wheels of Terror (ugh...) and Joy Ride.