Joyride (1996) User Reviews

pretty tense

[bioscoopzaal · 7/10 · 14 December 2000]

Wow, what an exciting short. I was surprised at the tension of this flick, although it reminded me more than once of "Opus 66" a French horror-short. Anyway, the story is as follows: a power-line repairman gets off of work early and heads home (to his family?). Unfortunately, he gets kidnapped is locked up in the trunk of his own car. The tension rises, but he doesn't seem to be able to free himself.

I'm not going to spoil the rest, but I can tell you that this first film from Jim Gillespie (who later did the neo-slasher I Know What You Did Last Summer), is a pretty good one, making great use of its brisk 18 or so minutes runtime. The mood, dialogue and direction are excellent. Recommended, although the film may be hard to find. How about putting it on the IKWYDLS dvd ? Good fun.

Intense and Creative

[Michael_Elliott · 16 June 2015]

Joyride (1995)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

An electrician (Christopher Fulford) gets done with a job and on the ride home he sees a body in the middle of the road. He stops to investigate when he's hit on the head by a second person. When he wakes up he's in the trunk of his car tied up and he must try to fight to stay alive.

This 10 minute short was directed by Jim Gillespie who would soon after wards find himself in Hollywood making movies including I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER. This short got a lot of attention at various film festivals and for very good reasons because it's highly entertaining, incredibly creative and it manages to build up some wonderful suspense. There are so many fun twists in the story that I'm going to avoid mentioning a single one because it would really take away from those watching the film for the first time. Once the action gets to the trunk of the car there's a great amount of suspense as we see our hero struggle to do anything and there's no doubt that he has some of the worst luck imaginable. Gillespie shows an extremely strong directorial job and it's easy to see why this gained him so much attention.

Pretty decent, until the ending

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 29 July 2016]

"Joyride" is a British 10-minute movie from 1995, so this one had its 20th anniversary last year already. It was written and directed by Jim Gillespie. This is the story of a man who gets tricked by two psychopaths and taken hostage in a car. The joyride begins, or maybe I should say nightmare ride for the protagonist. But he is not the only one who gets his fair share, so are the police officers. I must say this was a pretty tense mix of thriller, action and horror and I would have given it a 6 stars out of 10 if it wasn't for the abysmal ending. First of all, it makes no sense that he knocks out cold the one guy in his state at the end. And these cool comments also don#t feel authentic at all at the very end. Quite a shame as with this they destroyed a fairly convincing work that most filmmakers could have been proud of. But because of the ending I give it a thumbs-down. Not recommended.

Very tense, very dark and very enjoyable

[bob the moo · 10 July 2004]

A man is called out to inspect a remote electricity pylon and, once he finds the problem is minor, he heads home. As he drives home he comes across an injured man lying the middle of the road; but when he gets out to help he finds it is a trap and he is knocked out by a second man hiding in the hedges. He wakes up in the boot of his own car, tied up and heading who knows where.

I don't know who Kate Ogborn is but, as executive producer, she has produced many of the short films that I have seen in the past few years. She is not on the IMDb credits for this film (meaning that she has done other work that IMDb doesn't have) but I saw her name on the credits as this ended. I would like to meet her because this is yet another strong short that she has been involved in and also appears to be the break through that gave Gillespie the chance to make 'I know what you did last summer'. The plot, as with many shorts, is simple and not fully explained, suffice to say that, if there is a message, it is a dire warning against procrastination!

The film moves very quickly and is very tense and enjoyable with moments of violence, brief cliff hangers and an ending that is dark but enjoyable at the same time. I didn't know any of the cast but they all do well in their various roles, in particular the lead actor who is a very sympathetic character and allows us to get right into the film without much build up.

Overall this is a great short film and should be seen by the (sadly large) numbers of people who look down their nose at short films as something not worth their time. It is dark, it is fast paced and is very enjoyable. Darkly comic without being funny this is well worth tracking down – it may not be a great film but it is a good example of what shorts are generally used for – quick, punchy calling cards as to what those involved can do.