Joy Ride 3

The Joy Ride series hits a significant speed bump with this colossally ineffective entry, with the familiar narrative following a group of friends who run afoul of vicious trucker Rusty Nail (Ken Kirzinger). It’s clear immediately that Joy Ride 3 bears few attributes designed to remind the viewer of the comparatively stellar original film, as writer/director Declan O’Brien has transformed Rusty Nail into a hopelessly generic horror-movie villain – with the character’s penchant for Jigsaw-like death traps certainly going a long way towards cementing this vibe. The movie’s less-than-accomplished atmosphere, which is established in its thoroughly uninvolving prologue, is compounded by O’Brien’s emphasis on underdeveloped, one-dimensional characters, and it’s clear that one’s efforts at working up any interest in or sympathy for the protagonists’ exploits fall flat on a recurring basis. It doesn’t help, either, that O’Brien has infused the narrative with a distinctly paint-by-numbers sort of feel, as the filmmaker’s screenplay contains virtually all of the touchstones that one might’ve anticipated (and predicted) – including an appearance by a crazy local who warns the heroes away from Rusty Nail’s stretch of highway. The anticlimactic finish confirms Joy Ride 3‘s place as a particularly objectionable straight-to-video horror sequel, and it’s ultimately impossible not to hope that this marks the end of Rusty Nail’s run-of-the-mill endeavors.

* out of ****