Blog Monster Movie Review: Dark Ride

Dark Ride (2006)

Starring: Jamie-Lynn Sigler, Patrick Renna , David Clayton Rogers, and Dave Warden
Directed by: Craig Singer
Written by: Robert Dean Klein and Craig Singer
Production Company: My2Centences and Blue Omega Entertainment

Friends Steve, Cathy, Jim, Liz, and Bill are going on vacation. Along the way, after a strange encounter at a gas station, movie obsessed Bill finds a flier announcing the reopening of The Dark Ride, an amusement park horror ride shut down 20 years earlier after twins were killed by a man living in the ride. The friends also pick up Jen, a strange, hippy-like girl.

They agree to spend the night in The Dark Ride to save money and have a little fun. Unfortunately, what they don’t realize is that the killer has escaped the mental asylum he was kept in and has returned to his old home. What follows is a series of bloody killings, a lot of running around to get out, and revelations that not all is what it seems.

This is a fairly basic slasher movie harkening back to the Great Slasher Era of the 80s. They use the horror amusement ride setting well to add tension.The characters are all obnoxious to varying degrees making their deaths less tragic than anticipated. The actors playing these characters do a decent job, although not fantastic. The slasher, Jonah, was a really cool design wearing a little boy mask creating a creepy visage.

Craig Singer’s entry in the “8 Movies to Die For” collection is a decent, fun horror movie. It may not be anything groundbreaking, but, if you ask me, all a slasher flick has to do is be fun and entertaining, and Dark Ride fits the bill.