Joy Ride: An Auto Theft

At 13 minutes, this short is a predictable and fairly amateurish "crime never pays" morality tale, but it does pack a punch, particularly at the end. The acting is pure 70s novice, but one of the girlfriend actors freaks out pretty effectively as the joyride slowly morphs into a death march into the side of a mountain. If you saw this in school, I bet you remember it (I haven't seen it in 27 years but it has stayed with me for some reason). Not as gory as the DEATH ON THE HIGHWAY or FACES OF DEATH series, this is still clearly intended to scare kids into good road behavior. I don't know if it curbed car theft but it probably did decrease some children's desire to be in cars going around sharp mountain turns.