This review contains MODERATE SPOILERS for the movie Road Kill 2.

If there was ever a movie in need to a serious jolt it is Road Kill 2.

Despite being labelled as an open road thrill-ride, the movie lacks the kind of intensity that its peers present in abundance and the gore-filled violence is in such short supply that you might even forget this is supposed to be a horror-thriller.

The main problem however is in the location - horror movies should be given a dark and enigmatic setting designed to turn the viewers own imagination against them. Not Road Kill 2, as the majority of the story takes place in the vibrant Nevada sunlight and provides a level of transparency that prevents the first half of the film from progressing towards any kind of climax. It is only once the foursome become a threesome and twilight falls that the movie becomes what it is.

As the group traverse the desert, the grand sweeping visuals showing high-speed clouds casting their shadows over the landscape is completely out of place and suggests something on a more epic scale than a spooky house and the perfect car for a joyride. Even the music suggests something on a bigger scale is about to happen, but it never does.

Where the film excels though is in bringing a group of very real people into a completely outlandish piece of urban horror fantasy without losing its grip on reality. To its credit, no time is wasted on the wheres and whys surrounding the journey these characters are on, and what information is offered is kept to the minimum. Instead, the over-the-top cheesiness serves only to create the desire to see what happens to these people and, unlike other teen thrillers, you are quite content with the idea that they all might just survive the night : which is why when the killing starts, it really hits home.

What Worked

Offering very little history or back story to the group other than the essentials for creating an atmosphere of suspicion and distrust, Road Kill 2″ introduces a series of sufficiently different archetypes to have each of the characters bickering among themselves when the road-side disaster occurs . The MySpace emo-punk (Kyle Schmid) becomes the instant focus of blame through his self-serving attitude and outwardly different persona (not to mention his out-spoken detest of truckers), leading to some brilliantly performed reactions by each of the group.

The real charm is in the performance of Mark Gibbon, whose cryptic and husky voiced Rusty Nail isnt too dissimilar to Kiefer Sutherlands in Phone Booth and does carry a heavy element of menace to it.

In a stark contrast to the attempted darkness, Road Kill 2″ also has its comedy aspects, which transform it into a different kind of horror flick. Ideas like almost cutting off a sleeping doctors finger, a morgue attendant with the nickname Mr. Lurch and a case of mistaken identities in the middle of nowhere give the movie a sadistic twist.

And, the tightly-shot finger snatching mission also leads to a somewhat short-lived heart-pumping moment as the doctors come close to discovering Kayla in the act of finger-theft.

What Didnt Work

The opening teaser is as un-ambitious as you can possibly get; the clichéd death of the hooker looked very easy to avoid and resulted in very little mess on the roadside. As a result, the fear and intensity that should be common place in hack-and-slash type movies is completely absent and offers little hope for the rest of the movie.

After the teaser, there is nothing but idle banter for the next 25 minutes while the movie tries desperately hard to engender some kind of tension and suspense through a series of B-rated scares. Even the sure winner of a speeding truck honking its horn at what passes for a tender moment failed to provide a jolt.

Then, when Rusty Nail finally makes his move, he does it without any visuals of real horror material - the use of blood is minimalistic and removes the feeling of imminent danger and pushes the film further away from taking on

Giving Credit Where Credit Is Due

Road Kill 2″ stars Nicki Aycox, Nick Zano, Kyle Schmid, Laura Jordan and Mark Gibbon. It was written by James Robert Johnston and Bennett Yellin, and was directed by Louis Morneau. It is available for purchase on DVD now.