| Premiere of the film "Wow trip" A cross between a thriller and horror under the playful title “Wow Ride” (originally Joy Ride) begins with nonsense, a trifle, a trifle. College student Lewis Thomas (Paul Walker, familiar to us from “Pleasantville” and “The Fast and the Furious”), infatuated with his childhood friend Vienna (Lelee Sobieski), easily buys into her offer to go home together for the holidays - in the hope that on the way from Colorado in New Jersey friendship will develop into something more. He throws away the airline ticket he bought ahead of time, buys a wrecked 1971 model and follows his beloved to a nearby university town, along the way picking up his older brother Fuller (Steve Zahn), who is out on bail, a petty bully with a natural talent for causing big trouble. At the first stop, Fuller buys an ancient radio transmitter (“something like the prehistoric Internet”), with the help of which in America it was customary to warn oncoming drivers about an ambushed traffic inspector or simply while away the time in meaningless conversations with strangers. After chatting on the radio with the driver, nicknamed Rusty Nail, Fuller persistently invites Lewis to take part in the drawing. He agrees. In a thin feminine voice (a talent discovered in the school theater), Lewis makes an appointment with the chauffeur at roadside motel No. 17 and asks to bring pink champagne. And so the two conspirators pass the time in No. 18, listening to what is happening behind the wall. The noise of a giant truck approaching, muffled conversation, either a sigh or a sob, then silence again.
At this point, director John Dahl's film (Red Rock West, The Last Seduction, Rounders) firmly promises us two things: first, that it will be scary, and second, that it will be good. It seems that this has everything that is needed: a smart script idea, suspense, good actors. But when in the next scene a stupid sheriff appears on the screen and tells the jokers that his neighbor’s jaw has been torn out, and then in a menacing voice he orders them to “get out of his state before sunset” (and this is instead of trying to find the maniac through the boys), it becomes It is clear that promises cannot be trusted. Well, when the offended truck starts chasing the brothers and Vienna, who has joined them, through the fields of Stevenking’s corn, you completely understand that you have been deceived.
There is no longer any strength to mock chronic idiots who do not understand that you can escape from a multi-ton truck by sharply swerving to the side, and continue to rush in a straight line towards the camera in the beautiful backlight of blinding headlights. I don’t have the strength to shout from the audience: “Call the police!” or “Don’t open that door, you idiot!” And it's useless. The characters, as well as the writers who created them, are deaf to the voice of reason.
In America, “Wow a Ride” was proclaimed almost a classic of the genre. This can only be explained by one thing: every viewer who, at a tender age, experienced the sweet horror of watching Don Siegel’s “Invasion of the Body Snatchers,” George Romero’s “Night of the Living Dead,” or Tobe Hooper’s “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” unconsciously strives to evoke long-standing feelings in the soul -- fear of the dizzying abyss that sucks the heroes, and a secret feeling of comfort from the fact that this is, after all, a movie. Therefore, in almost every more or less professional category B horror film in America, they are ready to see a masterpiece that gives hope for the revival of a faded genre and reminds that horror is not only created for parodies. But if the only horror movie of your childhood was “Viy,” I won’t dare recommend “Poezdochka” to you. Alexey MEDVEDEV |
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