Joy Ride
The Players: Leelee Sobieski, Paul Walker, Steve Zahn; directed by John Dahl
The Skinny: Berkeley freshman Lewis Thomas (Walker) gasses up his beat-up Chrysler for a cross-country trip home for summer break, picking up his crush, Venna (Sobieski), from her college on the way. But Lewis’ romantic aspirations hit a bump in the road when he makes a detour to pick up his screw-up older brother, Fuller (Zahn). After prankster Fuller goads him into playing a practical joke on a truck driver over a CB radio, the trucker, an unseen and terrifying force known only by his CB handle, “Rusty Nail,” intends to get the last laugh.
The Bottom Line: With a high-concept plot similar to the recent Jeepers Creepers, could it be we’re revisiting the era of great horror flicks we saw in the ’70s and early ’80s? Where the unseen and unknown is more terrifying than a killer giving chase in a black cape and plastic skull mask? It’s about time directors realized that the power of suggestion is much more frightening than the obvious. This movie is a good bet to reach sleeper-hit status.
Opens: Oct. 5
