Review of Joy Ride 3: Road Kill

Since most horror films just to minimize risk are made on a tight budget a case can be made that since being able to watch films at home came about these films will all be successful. This is also why the most sequels are made for horror films. Cause if they make a little more money than expected, then that success is already so big that it can easily be made into a franchise. Then things changed the larger studios noticed that there is money to be made here. Obviously not as much as they are used to but it will be fine for petty cash. So they started making straight to DVD horror film sequels. They even went as far as not just using their own films as the basis but brought other studios rights too even goings so far as to having the sequel that went straight to video have nothing to do with the original. ie Wild Things 2-3 or Single White Female 2. The films paid for themselves so the practice has been kept alive. We can thank this system for this film too. Its original was the 2001 film Joy Ride with Paul Walker and Steve Zahnn. Basically it was a tight thriller that really only had one problem that despite using a well known story as its basis and transposing that to the then popular "teen world" it really couldn't come up with anything original. Being terrorized on the road is not a new idea, think back to the 86 The Hitcher, but anyway it was a watchable film. In 2008 the second part came out only on DVD and it was unfortunately a flop. It was boring and it screamed low budget and lack of ideas. And now 6 years latter with the 3rd part…. The story… Rusty Nail is back on the road again looking to punish injustice at every turn - and this time it's with a group of hotheaded street racers on their way to the Road Rally 1000 Canada. As they drive through a desolate shortcut on the way to the race, an encounter with Rusty turns sour and soon he is tracking, teasing and torturing them until the end of the road. First off surprisingly the film isn't that bad. There are a few reasons for this. First Fox allocated the necessary funds to not make it lame. Then they left the direction and the script up to someone who has proved themselves with sequels before Declan O'Brian who is known for Wrong Turn 4-5 and they weren't bad. He did a good job on them. Of course don't expect a life changer, but despite the fact that it's a part 3 it is pretty good. I mean the script is pretty basic, but it would be out of this world unreal if it wasn't. And you really can stomach the actors too. Especially Ken Kirzinger in the role of the truck driver who was Jason in Freddy vs. Jason. Oh and the film is pretty bloody, and the slasher scenes are depicted well, there's one with a hand which looks really good and one with someone getting tied to a truck. Of course the film could still be empty despite these but it ends up being nerve wracking and exciting, but this is all relative. Obviously it doesn't come close to the 1st part and even that was lukewarm but at least that had a story. Anyway all in all its exciting, bloody and if you liked the 1st one you'll probably be okay with this one too. To me it was an average film so I give it a 5/10. https://www.youtube.com/user/Videodromeblog