Dark Ride (2006)

User Rating:

4.6/10   

Director:

Craig Singer

Writers:

Robert Dean Klein (writer)
Craig Singer (writer)

Genre:

Horror | Thriller

Tagline:

The Last Ride You'll Ever Take...

Plot:

A group of six friends on a road trip stop off at an amusement park attraction named 'Dark Ride', unaware that a psychopath who brutally murdered two girls, has just escaped a mental institution and is seeking refuge there.

Plot Keywords:

Road Trip | Psychopath | Amusement Park | Pirate Flag | Head Split In Half

Cast

Jamie-Lynn Sigler	...	Cathy
Patrick Renna	...	Bill
David Clayton Rogers	...	Steve (as David Rogers)
Alex Solowitz	...	Jim
Andrea Bogart	...	Jen
Jennifer Tisdale	...	Liz (as Jennifer Kelly Tisdale)
Brittney Coyle	...	Colleen
Chelsey Coyle	...	Samantha
Dave Warden	...	Jonah
Jim Cody Williams	...	Ticket Taker
Erin Dawson	...	Pretty Hippie
Jack Doner	...	Old Man
David Ury	...	Attendant #1
Atticus Todd	...	Attendant #2
Steven Mattila	...	Homeless Man

MPAA:

Rated R for strong grisly horror violence and gore, sexuality, nudity, language and some drug content.

Runtime:

94 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

USA:R | UK:18 | Argentina:16 | Australia:MA (www.videoezy.com.au/default.aspx?page=detail&itemId=46437)

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

My2Centences

Trivia:

"Dark ride" is an old term used in the carnival business to describe rides that involve getting in a cart or buggy and traversing a dark, enclosed building designed to have characters or props appear at intervals, designed to surprise or entertain.

Goofs:

Plot holes: In the beginning of the film a number of newspaper headlines are shown including one that reads "Killer Sentenced to Life in Mental Institution." Yet later in the film Jim says that he read an article about the event that said that the killer had died. Bill then reveals that the media had reported that the killer had been killed, and the fact that he was locked up in a mental institution was a secret known only to people involved in the case.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Colleen: Looks like it's closed.
Samantha: Don't be such a wimp. The guy's right there.

Movie Connections:

References Tire Trouble (1924)

Campy And Formulaic Horror Flick, Similar To Tobe Hooper's "The Funhouse".

Part of the popular After Dark Horror Film Festival (which included the remarkable horror film, "The Abandoned" among seven others), "Dark Ride" is a weirdly entertaining little slasher film heavily reminiscent of Tobe Hooper's "The Funhouse". The story follows a group of college friends who decide to go on a trip during spring break. While driving through New Jersey late one night, they have a bizarre encounter at a gas station, and later pick up a ditsy hitchhiker with a good stash of drugs. The kids decide to stop at an amusement park to check out the "dark ride", a horror ride that was closed down for years after two twin sisters were murdered there in 1989. The murderer is now institutionalized, but for these unlucky teenagers, he has escaped within the past two weeks. As they enter the ride and decide to spend some time messing around in there with all of the scary props and whatnot, they aren't aware of the real horrors that await them.

While this film was very obviously inspired by Tobe Hooper's slasher film, "The Funhouse", it honestly is nowhere near as good. But would one expect it to be any better? Nah, I don't think so. Besides this, "Dark Ride" is still an enjoyable little blood-soaked horror flick. The plot is beyond derivative, and the script is pretty jammed full with typical horror set-ups and clichés - we've seen it all before, plenty of times. Not much originality here, but oh well. While the story does lack any uniqueness or originality, it makes up for it with some good thrills and a full plate of some cheap (but clever) scares and violence. It's a pretty gory film, but I think that's what it was going for anyway so it works. We have plenty of gruesome stabbings, slashings, head-splittings, and a grossly clever decapitation that could likely become of cult status (I won't explain, you'll know it when you see it for sure). The sets inside the horror ride were really nicely done, and appropriately spooky. Amusement rides like that have an eerie thing about them anyway, so I love the setting.

The acting in the film is so-so. Jamie Lynn-DiSalca (of TV's "The Sopranos") is the heroine, and is just alright - not anything mind blowing, but passable enough with her performance. The male stars are actually the better actors in the film though, I'm sure some of you will recognize Patrick Renna of the '90s Disney film, "The Big Green", I knew I'd seen that face before. The rest of the cast isn't bad, but the performances were overall no more than average (if not a little below). When considering what type of movie this is though, the acting quality is almost irrelevant. The killer in the film is creepy, not because of his physical deformity, but more so because of his child-like porcelain mask that he wears throughout the film. I thought the 'twist' in the end was actually pretty good, it came totally out of nowhere for me, so I have to give that some credit because the writing there was pretty good.

Overall, "Dark Ride" is an enjoyable little slasher fest that isn't much more than that. It's formulaic, clichéd, and predictable in quite a few ways. But it still manages to be entertaining and fun aside from it's downfalls. Hardened horror buffs will know exactly what to expect, and will feel like they've seen it a hundred times. But if you enjoy a good old corny slasher flick, this weird little throwback to '80s style splatter pictures might be an enjoyable find. It isn't a great movie by any means, but I have to give it a half-and-half rating at least because it was pretty entertaining for what it was. 5/10.