Joy Ride 2: Dead Ahead

A sequel in name and villain to 2001’s solid thriller Joy Ride, Dead Ahead is a similarly superior piece of genre work that owes a lot to a cast that refuses to bow to stereotypes. Nicki Aycox leads a trio of young potential victims as they zoom around back roads obeying the twisted commands of faceless long-haul psycho Rusty Nail, who is torturing Aycox’s boyfriend (Nick Zano of TV’s What I Like About You) in his bad-ass tractor-trailer. Director Louis Morneau blends the diesel action of Steven Spielberg’s early classic Duel with the nutcase horror of The Hitcher (Morneau helmed The Hitcher II: I’ve Been Waiting) for an intense chase saga. It’s all variations on a conventional theme, but the cast and solid production make this Joy Ride worth taking.

Shelf Talk: Fox knows it has a nifty, nasty thriller on its hands, and it’s correctly supporting the title with a multi-million-dollar marketing campaign similar to last year’s backing of Wrong Turn 2: Dead End. The studio will saturate platforms across the board, including TV, cable, online and talent appearances at genre conventions. Horror buffs have been waiting for this one—now get the word out to casual genre fans. John Dahl’s original Joy Ride pulled in $22 million in theaters and has legs at retail seven years later; the FX channel will air it on street date and populate it with ads for the sequel.