Joy Ride 2: Dead Ahead Review (2008) Worth Watching?

It's about a group of friends on a road trip who break down in the middle of nowhere and decide to steal a car from the wrong guy.

Joy Ride 2: Dead Ahead was directed by Louis Morneau (who also directed Werewolf: The Beast Among Us, The Hitcher II: I’ve Been Waiting, Bats and Final Judgement) and stars Nicki Aycox (from Dead Birds, Jeepers Creepers 2), Nick Zano (from Final Destination) and Kyle Schmid (from Death Row).

Detours can be deadly

Good 'ol Rusty Nail is back!

Well, kinda. Same psychotic trucker from Joy Ride 1, just a different voice actor. But whatever, a lot of Hollywood horrors go low budget on sequels and the original Rusty Nail guy, Ted Levine, is an established Hollywood star. He was Buffalo Bill in Silence of the Lambs for cryin' out loud, that doesn't come cheap! And that was only one of 85 roles in his career. So yeah, probably well outside of the budget for this installment.

This Rusty Nail was just some guy, the two brothers from the previous Joy Ride became two sisters in this one and were accompanied by two random dudes. One was literally random, he was a guy one of the sisters met on Myspace! Myspace?! This movie really showed its age by dropping in that little nugget of a detail.

The 1971 Chrystler Newport from the first Joy Ride became a bland 1983 Chevy Caprise Wagon, which thankfully broke down and became a growling 1971 Chevy Chevelle hardtop, worthy of a cameo in Gone in 60 Seconds. For all you millennials out there, Gone in 60 Seconds was the original Fast and the Furious, only instead of Vin Diesel it was Mr. "NOT THE BEES!!!!!!" himself, Nick Cage.

Okay, enough of the comparisons. This movie goes the Hills Have Eyes route and shows our protagonists deciding to take a shortcut after fueling up at an old gas station. This shortcut turns into an old dirt road, they have no cell reception and, well, you know the rest. They end up stumbling across an old creepy house which has a bad ass car in the shed. They take the car, which just so happens to be owned by good 'ol Rusty Nail.

I expected the rest of the movie to take the same basic, familiar, seen-it-before path. But that's when the awesomeness of Joy Ride 2 kicked in.

There were WAY more tits, blood and WTF scenes than I was prepared for. What I thought was going to happen didn't. What I didn't think would happen did. And then there was a forced cross-dressing guy with fake piercings playing a demented game of brutal torture dice. I really love those special horror movies that lull you into a pessimistic calm before flipping everything on its head.

Kudos to the director Louis Morneau, who just so happens to have also directed The Hitcher 2. Guess which series I'll be adding to my watchlist next!

Worth Watching?

Yes and no. Yes for those of you out there who are cool with B-ish horror movies and can appreciate the finer details of our beloved genre. No for those of you out there who are looking for an original horror that pulls you in from the start.