Joy Ride (2001)

Directed by: John Dahl | 97 minutes | action, horror, thriller | Actors: Paul Walker, Steve Zahn, Leelee Sobieski, Jessica Bowman, Stuart Stone, Basil Wallace, Brian Leckner, Mary Wickliffe, McKenzie Satterthwaite, Dell Yount, Kenneth White, Louis Cortés, Michael McCLeery, Jim Beaver, Rachel Singer, Terry Leonard, Satch Huizenga, James MacDonald, Ted Levine

A film that flops in America and doesn’t make it to the cinema in the Netherlands is not worth watching. Or is it? After seeing ‘Joy Ride’ you have to conclude that moviegoers are whimsical creatures. This action-packed road movie with horror features contains all the ingredients for a full house: subtle tension build-up, charming actors, intelligent dialogues, well-dosed humor and character sketches that are worth seeing for a change. And yet ‘Joy Ride’ didn’t ring the cash registers. Unfortunate.

Maybe it’s because ‘Joy Ride’ is an old-fashioned thriller. Old fashioned in the best sense of the word. Here no winged monstrosities with their own transport as in ‘Jeepers Creepers’ or inbred mutants à la ‘Wrong Turn’. ‘Joy Ride’ is a film in the tradition of highway classics such as ‘Duel’ and ‘The Hitcher’ and relies on recognizable situations. You’re playing a joke and it’s wrong. Very wrong. But you’re anonymous on your cup of coffee (“It’s a kind of prehistoric internet,” says Fuller), so you don’t worry at first. Then that scary voice on the radio turns out to know where you are. Oops! You’ve lost your anonymity, but the psycho that’s chasing you is still no more than a voice. Nothing is scarier than an enemy you can’t see.

A condition for the success of a concept that is based on suspense and not on splashing blood is that you empathize with the main characters. That’s why director John Dahl takes the time to deepen the characters, without putting it too much on top. Paul Walker convinces as successful student Lewis, who reluctantly takes his older brother in tow. Lewis may be the apple of the family’s eye, but he knows he’s just a boring jerk compared to the lavish joker Fuller (a great role by Steve Zahn). And in turn, Fuller regularly makes out his younger brother as a mother’s child to mask his jealousy. The simmering rivalry between the two flares up when the beautiful Venna (Leelee Sobieski) appears on the scene. Lewis is too timid to bite the bullet and when Venna is attacked in a bar, it’s not him but Fuller who steps in for her. And how! It produces a scene that is both hilarious and moving.

Dahl builds the tension as subtly as his characters. Sound is more important than image. You hear Rusty Nail more often than you see him, which makes him all the more menacing. The hot-tempered trucker’s voice comes from actor Ted Levine, who played the murderer Buffalo Bill in ‘The Silence of the Lambs’. A good choice, because Levine’s baritone will make your neck hairs stand on end. By the time Dahl pulls out all the stops and lets his villain strike in full force, you’re on the edge of your seat. Fortunately, the director resists the temptation to reveal too many details of the shadow behind the wheel at the end. And that is not a cross for a superfluous sequel, but a worthy conclusion to a successful thriller.