See what I mean? Familiar concept. Minus the fat kid, of course. This kind of picture has been done a thousand times before, though the names, places, and dates may have been jostled around a bit to keep you from noticing the similarities. Dark Ride is certainly guilty of being painfully unoriginal; I doubt even Singer would disagree with that statement. The trick is to take something we've seen before and dress it up in brand new clothes from the mall, a kind of cinematic make-over for stale ideas. If you can accomplish this task correctly, chances are people like me won't crucify you for being a lazy writer. No offense, of course.
The coolest thing about this particular entry in the saturated slasher subgenre is definitely the atmosphere. Singer and crew have constructed a very spooky ride for these characters to hang out in. Since the camera never lingers on one set piece for too long, it makes you wonder if those bloody corpses and severed limbs are merely props or leftovers from the resident psycho's late night snack. It also helps matters considerably that most of the movie is drenched in shadow, sprinkled lightly with what I like to call "Argento Lighting." Very effective, very creepy stuff.
The bad news, I'm afraid, is that Singer never uses his surroundings wisely. The movie takes at least an hour to get rolling, leaving you with lots of pointless dialogue delivered by people you honestly couldn't care less about. Instead of peppering the kills throughout the movie, they're lumped towards the tail end of the feature, one right after the other. Slashers, I believe, benefit greatly from well-balanced pacing. In other words, you have to know when to hold 'em and know when to fold 'em. Kenny Rogers is a very smart, very rich man.
On the performance front, everyone involved does a decent job in front of the camera. Patrick Renna — the guy I unfairly dubbed "the fat kid from The Sandlot" just a few minutes ago — is probably the best of the bunch, followed closely by Alex Solowitz (Never Been Kissed) and Jamie-Lynn Sigler (The Sopranos). The rest, I'm afraid, are as abrasive as a Velcro enema. You can't wait for them to die, and you'll breathe easier when they do. Too bad that doesn't happen till the end. Damn you, Singer!
Article comments
1 - Gregory Conley
Glad to see you enjoyed DARK RIDE. Surprisingly enough, the director and writer of the film, Craig Singer, says that FUNHOUSE didn't play too much of an inspiration in the making of the film. He's from the Jersey Shore, which has all types of rides like the one in the film.
Craig appeared on my podcast, the Your Video Store Shelf Podcast, to promote the film. If you or your readers are interested, it's located here.
2 - T. Rigney
Dark Ride, to my surprise, was an enjoyable little genre flick. I'll be sure to check out your podcast sometime soon.
Thanks for reading!