![]() Thanks for taking the time to talk with us, Declan. In this feature, Declan O'Brien tells us about working with Ken Kirzinger, the challenge of filming stunts centered around a moving truck, and his favorite moment on set: There is a nice assortment of special features, including the featurettes “Road Rage: The Blood, Sweat and Gears of Joy Ride 3,” “Riding Shotgun with Declan: Director’s Die-aries,” “Finding Large Marge,” lost messages from the victims and an audio commentary with O’Brien.Rusty Nail returns this week in Joy Ride 3 and we caught up with the movie's writer / director, Declan O'Brien, in the latest installment of our Q&A series. With no hope for the characters, there’s no emotional investment in a horror film, and it then becomes and expensive albeit creative fake snuff film. There’s a hopelessness to it with Rusty Nail seeming to always have the upper hand. The film takes a punishing angle to the characters rather than a slasher movie danger. Instead, it’s the same problem I had with O’Brien’s fifth “Wrong Turn” movie. However, my biggest beef with this movie isn’t the production value (which is, frankly, well done) or with the cast. They’re also such jerks at the beginning of the film and make such terrible decisions later in the movie that it’s hard to muster sympathy for them when the blood starts to flow. The characters in the film are pretty rote and not terribly well-written. I don’t necessarily think this movie is borrowing from other contemporary films, but it shares a lot of the same story elements with DreamWorks’ “Need for Speed” from this past spring as well as the rather awful horror video sequel “No Vacancy.” Too much of Rusty Nail is shown, making him just slightly more exposed than Wilson from “Home Improvement.” Unfortunately, Kirzinger isn’t particularly terrifying to look at, so he never quite clicks with the terror the way the obscured trucker from Spielberg’s “Duel” did. However, with no mask and only being shot in shadow, we lose a bit of mystery by the character. This seems appropriate because Kirzinger has some slasher history in his blood, having played Jason Voorhees before. In essence, this “Joy Ride” has become less of a stalker film that we saw with the original and more of an offshoot of the teen slasher genre. Over the next hour, we see Rusty Nail kidnap, torture and murder the group, seeking revenge for their original road rage. While traveling a short cut (which is a deadly decision to make in the middle of nowhere, horror movies tell us), they cross paths with Rusty Nail’s truck and become a target. ![]() The main victims of the film are a group of road racers who have fixed up a supercharged car for a big racing event. Fortunately, this is not an effects-heavy or star-driven franchise, so while the cast of this movie is virtually unrecognizable, it works for the smaller-budgeted horror movie. “Joy Ride 3: Roadkill” continues the violent adventures of Rusty Nail (Ken Kirzinger), who first made his appearance on the original film which had a successful theatrical run. Unfortunately, “Joy Ride 3: Roadkill” loses some of the fun that I’ve seen in his earlier films and gets a bit too morose, as he did with “Wrong Turn 5: Bloodlines.”ĭon’t worry… fans of direct-to-video horror sequels will understand what I’m talking about. ![]() I’m not as much into O’Brien’s films as I am Reiné’s, but I have enjoyed several of his movies – like “Sharktopus,” “Wrong Turn 3: Left for Dead” and “Wrong Turn 4: Bloody Beginnings.” (Spoiler alert: Roel Reiné is one of my favorite direct-to-video directors working today.)ĭeclan O’Brien, the director of “Joy Ride 3: Roadkill” has an interesting slate of movies that happen to be sequels to horror movies and thrillers. That puts me in a different position where I can compare this to other movies in their filmographies, and I am now forming opinions of different filmmakers’ bodies of work in the direct-to-video market.Īfter all, it’s one thing for a film fan to brag about seeing all or most of Steven Spielberg’s filmography, but it’s something else entirely to proudly say that you’ve seen most or all of Roel Reiné’s filmography. I’ve been doing enough DVD and Blu-ray reviews over the years to begin to recognize the name of directors on these direct-to-video titles.
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