Horror Extreme Movie Catalog

I was supprised at how well this was considering it has the name lions gate on it. Cinamatography was alot better then most of the junk they put out. Acting was pretty well done. The music added to the theme alot.

However the ending was figured out 25% of the way through. In the end it was mildly entertaining at most but just not scary.

DARK RIDE

A while back I read a review by KlownArt on this film, and I remembered that "hey" I have that movie. This film actually turned out to be ok, I had heard mixed things about this movie some saying it was great others hating it. So I went into this with an open mind and came out thinking that while it had its moments it was just ok. This film is most definitely a throw back to the days of when the slasher film rained supreme, the 80's. It really does have that old feeling to it and while some may not like that I think it is a plus. But don't come into this thinking this is a classic because it is far from it, to be honest it is not even the best in the "AFTER DARK" series. I will say to its credit that it may not be the worst in the series either so expect something that is some were in between. Of course to enjoy it at its full potential go into this movie with absolutely no expectations and you may end up some what entertained, you may even like the film.

A group of friends decide that the time is right for a road trip and all meet up and are off and running. While off on the road they decide to stop off some where were they come across an advertisement for a you guess it "Dark Ride", of course they decide to check it out since one of them recognizes the place. It turns out years ago a man went inside of the ride and killed two little girls in a very creative way. With that bit of information they decide that is the next stop along the way, so we are off. While on their way there they happen upon a hitchhiker who happens to be very easy on the eyes, but she is also a little off [absolutely the best scene in the film]. Once she is picked up and wants to go along they make their way there and break into the attraction. It is here that things get a little interesting as it turns out the killer escaped from the asylum and made his way back to the ride. How lucky is he that a group of fresh new victims are at his disposal, was it luck?

The killer in this film to its credit is interesting but you really don't get enough of him, or maybe you do but it doesn't feel that way. Unfortunately that is were the interesting characters stop for the most part, I say that for a reason. The reason being is that at one point or another most of the characters in this film seem interesting, I know that sounds weird but it is true. They either start out interesting but eventually end up annoying or they were just there and developed into something interesting later. That is not to say that the performances were terrible [some were] just the characters were not fully developed, of course this is a slasher flick so maybe I am being a little hard.

Writers Robert Dean Klein and Craig Singer who is also the director really stuck to the basics of a slasher movie, serve up some young bodies to a killer with a knife [or ride in this case]. I guess in that respect they brought a bit of originality to this film but the creative kills are not explored enough. Also it takes a while to even get to the kills and once it does the movie is to quick, once it picks up it is over. And while the ending is pretty cool it is way to obvious as you will guess it right after the first kill. Patrick Renna, Andrea Bogart, and Alex Solowitz turn in some good performances - but see what I said above earlier about the characters of this film. Patrick's "Bill" seems to be a good character throughout but remember what I said about the ending?

I will not say that this is a horrible movie and I will not warn anybody not to see this, you may actually like this film because it does have its moments. To be honest I like this film but I would probably not watch it over and over, it is not a classic in my eyes. I think the main reason to see this would be to say "yes I have seen all the After Dark Horror Fest", I bought all of them just to own the series. Got to work on getting the entire second round of the Fest next.