Starring: Jamie-Lynn Sigler, Patrick Renna
Rating: 6/10
Directed By: Craig Singer
Runtime: 87 minutes
Dark Ride is a throwback to the halcyon days of slasher films – the 1980s – and pays tribute to one of the better slasher flicks of that time – Tobe Hooper’s The Funhouse. It’s a film that follows five friends spending one night in an amusement park haunted house with a particularly nasty history. As one would expect, a murder occurred there and, as one would continue to expect, the murderer has escaped the confines of a mental institution to pay these five friends a visit. As with most slasher films, the story is irrelevant and the true success or failure can be gauged on how scary the stalking is and how disgusting and inventive the kills are. The positive is that the answers to those questions are “quite scary” and “pretty inventive”. The negative is that the viewer has to wade through 40 minutes of cinematic crap to get there.
Films like Dark Ride aggravate me. They are films that have a shot at greatness if they spent a little more time on casting and developing the script. The first 40 minutes of Dark Ride are painful to watch. The acting is sub par at best and the dialogue that this group of “friends” are forced to utter is oftentimes quite laughable. Twenty minutes in and I was dangerously close to leaving the theater. I’m glad I stayed around though because when the protagonists finally arrived at the amusement park, the film transformed into a completely different experience. The film successfully captures the claustrophobic feel of the Haunted House in which the friends find themselves trapped and the killer is quite frightening by, thankfully, remaining quiet and also by wearing one of the best masks I’ve ever seen adorn a slasher’s face. The stylistic flourishes and wonderful use of color reminded me of another fantastic slasher film – Michelle Soavi’s Stagefright (1987). The final half of the film proves that director Craig Singer could make a noticeable contribution to the genre if given the right script.
Dark Ride is ultimately worth a look but my suggestion would be to wait until it’s available on DVD so you can skip the early expository portion of the film for the wonderful 50 minute slasher film that comes at the end.