Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.

Each year there are movies produced that are never seen by the public. Their content is considered too graphic, too disturbing, too shocking for general audiences. This is one of those films.

College students Cathy (Jamie -Lynn Sigler, THE SOPRANOS), Bill (Patrick Renna, THE SANDLOT), Steve (David Clayton Rogers, “Gilmore Girls”), Jim (Alex Solowitz, ALPHA DOGS), and Liz (Jennifer Tisdale, THE HOUSE BUNNY) are taking a road trip to New Orleans one weekend when a chance find in a roadside bathroom leads them to a long-closed Dark Ride--an amusement park attraction which consists of a cart being pulled along a track through a funhouse where the riders are treated to various horrible scenes--which is about to be re-opened. Since they’ll be in New Orleans before the Dark Ride officially opens again, movie buff Bill suggests they save some money on a motel room for the night, break into the Dark Ride, and sleep there.

Along the way, they pick up hitchhiker Liz (Andrea Bogart, “Days of Our Lives”), then proceed to the Ride. Upon arriving, Cathy tells the others to have a good time, but she’ll sleep in the van. The others break in, get high, and get comfy. Then Jim tells the story of how this particular Dark Ride was closed down. Ten years earlier, he says, there was a deformed monster living inside the Dark Ride, a killer named Jonah. And one day Jonah decided to kill and mutilate twins Colleen and Samantha. Jonah was sent away and the Ride was closed (all of which the viewer learns in the opening prologue of the movie).

That’s not the whole story, Bill interjects. Turns out he was determined to visit this Dark Ride no matter what; those twins were his cousins and he was never allowed to attend their funeral. So for Bill, coming here is a form of closure.

As the party begins to break up, Jen grabs Steve and pulls him aside, only to have Steve stumble upon Cathy’s corpse. She’s been brought in from the van and her throat’s been cut. Steve freaks, but just then Cathy reveals it’s a gag; some time previously, Steve and Cathy were an item until Steve cheated on her. This whole Dark Ride idea was, with Bill’s help, hers, a plan to exact “time-released justice” as she calls it.

Everyone laughs and Steve stalks off. Just then the power starts to fail and Jim, who had wired the electricity for their brief stay, goes off to fix it, followed by Jen who’s interested in some one-on-one time. Meanwhile Bill, Cathy, and Liz are creeping along in the dark when they come upon Steve. He’s strung up like one of the Dark Ride puppets, one arm nearly severed, and covered in blood.

And this is where the fun really starts. Seems two weeks earlier, Jonah escaped from the hospital where he’d been incarcerated and now he’s returned home to play. As Bill revealed to the group earlier, Jonah’s not some murdering monster, he’s just confused. Having grown up in the Dark Ride, it’s the only thing he knows, the Dark Ride was his playground, and when he saw how excited people were to be inside it, the only way he knew to prolong that joy, to play further with them, was to mimic what he saw. Unfortunately, what he saw were staged deaths and mayhem.

Having gotten the set-up and originality out of the way, the movie’s third act follows the pre-established routine of characters getting picked off one by one as they split up and each try to find their own way out, meanwhile Jonah, who knows every nook and cranny of the place, is always waiting just around the corner, until the surprise reveal at the end. And a big surprise it is. Looking back, the reveal was set up perfectly, and played close enough to the chest to make it work and, while in the canon of slasher flicks it shouldn’t come as any surprise, it actually does in this case.

Overall I was very surprised by how much I liked this movie.

I had seen something about it a couple years ago on TV, I forget where, but the movie was being made fun of because of one particular death scene, and it really was kind of goofy, so for the longest time, I dreaded having to sit through this movie, fearing I’d just be subjecting myself to 94 minutes of ridiculously bad nonsense. But I’ll be dmned if I didn’t really like it.

It’s a real ensemble piece and the characters are all well-drawn, given distinct personalities, and well-played by the actors. Patrick Renna as Bill stole the show, but Andrea Bogart’s Jen was a very close second. Dave Warden as Jonah gives even Kane Hodder’s Jason Voorhees a run for his money in sheer intimidation. He’s not the biggest guy in the world, but he conveys so much with a simple head tilt or posture that he’s not someone I’d want stalking me in the middle of the night, that’s for sure.

DARK RIDE was written by Craig Singer and Robert Dean Klein (the two worked together on 2003’s A GOOD NIGHT DIE) with Singer directing. While it was shot in LA, but set in NJ, from what little you see of the location, unless you’re familiar with the area, you’d never know the difference. The real star is the Dark Ride, which, in fact, isn’t real at all. The Dark Ride set is the interior of some of the Universal sets, the parts no one ever sees. The movie is shot in such a way, you’d never guess that’s what it was, and Singer and company really worked well with the resources available to them, especially with a shooting schedule of less than 4 weeks and a budget of just barely over a million dollars. DARK RIDE may be a small movie, but it looks much bigger, and is loads more satisfying than some of the bigger budget horrors I’ve seen with wider releases and bigger stars.

Everything about the look of DARK RIDE, the quality of the film, the lighting, the production design, is top notch and adds to the bigger-budget feel. Much of the story in the third act is told almost entirely through editing, as there is little dialogue during the chase scenes, but we’ve got a lot of characters to keep track of. Much of what makes the story work so well is a result of what we don’t see, and the way in which we don’t see it, for instance Bill’s discovery of the Dark Ride leaflet in the gas station bathroom. Even something as simple as this comes into play later in the movie and gives the story a more complete feel. Once the full plot is revealed, nothing about it seems rigged, it doesn’t feel as if every step the characters took was pre-arranged and one part of the plan hinged entirely on everyone being where they were supposed to be at the proper time. This isn’t a Friday the 13th movie where, for Jason to be successful everyone’s got to split up at just the right moment and retreat to just the right kill zone. Even though the plot behind DARK RIDE is well-structured, enough was left open that it still feels very fluid, which I appreciate.

I also appreciate the special effects. Almost no CGI was used in the making of DARK RIDE, instead returning me to my original horror loving roots of good old-fashioned makeup and physical effects, many of which are revealed in the DVD feature “Behind the Mask”. Jen’s death, especially, is explained and the way it was realized physically was brilliant and so simple.

Other DVD features include a “Making of” featurette, a brief storyboard montage, 16 minutes of deleted scenes (and thank God they were deleted because they definitely would have been overkill; another aspect of what makes this movie work is what’s NOT shown), and a commentary track with director Craig Singer and producer Chris M. Williams, which is very entertaining and enlightening in terms of how the movie was put together and what made the final product work so well.

Of all the first series After Dark Horrorfest movies, I think DARK RIDE was the biggest surprise, for me, because I’d gone in expecting to hate it. But in the end, I think it really works well, not just as another slasher movie, but as a good exercise in storytelling. DARK RIDE is proof that you don’t need huge stars and ten million dollars worth of effects to make a good movie. Sometimes talent and dedication to the craft work just as well.


After Dark Horrorfest I: 8 Films to Die For
The Abandoned

Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older