A group of six friends on a road trip stop off at an amusement park attraction named 'Dark Ride', unaware that a psychopath who brutally murdered two girls, has just escaped a mental institu... Read allA group of six friends on a road trip stop off at an amusement park attraction named 'Dark Ride', unaware that a psychopath who brutally murdered two girls, has just escaped a mental institution and is seeking refuge there.A group of six friends on a road trip stop off at an amusement park attraction named 'Dark Ride', unaware that a psychopath who brutally murdered two girls, has just escaped a mental institution and is seeking refuge there.
- Director
- Writers
- Stars
David Clayton Rogers
- Steve
- (as David Rogers)
Jennifer Tisdale
- Liz
- (as Jennifer Kelly Tisdale)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Featured reviews
Dark Ride is nothing but wasted potential
Twin girls are murdered on a dark Ride back in the 80's. Flash forward to teen going on a road trip and they find a flyer at a gas station for The dark Ride at Asbury park NJ.
This movie has all the ingredients for a good horror flick.
Great story, decent actors decent gore. Even the set is good but It takes 50 Minutes to get to the kills and it just falls flat It's just long and drawn out. I give it 5 stars for the kills, they are done pretty well.
I just wish that it was idk maybe shorter and to the point. Again I will say so much wasted potential.
This is one boring Dark Ride.
This movie has all the ingredients for a good horror flick.
Great story, decent actors decent gore. Even the set is good but It takes 50 Minutes to get to the kills and it just falls flat It's just long and drawn out. I give it 5 stars for the kills, they are done pretty well.
I just wish that it was idk maybe shorter and to the point. Again I will say so much wasted potential.
This is one boring Dark Ride.
In 1989, in New Jersey, two sisters are killed in a ghost train in the greatest attraction of the Asbury Park, the Dark Ride. The police arrest the serial killer that is sentenced to life in a mental institution; finds fourteen other bodies hidden in the spot and the justice shuts-down the attraction. Fourteen years later, a group of five friends and a hitchhiker decides to visit the amusement park that is offering free lodging in its reopening. Meanwhile, the psychopath escapes from the asylum and while the group is inside the Dark Ride, they are chased and killed by the murderer.
The slasher "Dark Ride" is a boring collection of clichés. Whatever the viewer may expect in a B-movie of the genre, he or she will find in this flick: bad acting, poor screenplay and budget, breasts, screams, the victims splitting from the group and killed one by one, "unexpected" twist etc. In the end, watching this flick is a pure waste of time. My vote is three.
Title (Brazil): "Trem Fantasma" ("Ghost Train")
The slasher "Dark Ride" is a boring collection of clichés. Whatever the viewer may expect in a B-movie of the genre, he or she will find in this flick: bad acting, poor screenplay and budget, breasts, screams, the victims splitting from the group and killed one by one, "unexpected" twist etc. In the end, watching this flick is a pure waste of time. My vote is three.
Title (Brazil): "Trem Fantasma" ("Ghost Train")
Dark Ride was exactly what it is suppose to be.. A throw back to the 80 horror movie of college age kids being killed and then the surprise twist ending.. It was not the greatest movie but I enjoyed it due to all the memories it brought back, from Funhouse (which it is almost a copy) to the burning, Friday the 13th, sleepaway camp, etc etc.. Acting was OK, and the premise was OK as well, How ever, premise is many years ago, two kids get killed, now years later, the killer escapes and this is when the kids decide to go and look at the ride.. Twist ending later, (its not bad but didn't quite explained how it just ended up that happen at that time, but all in all it was not a bad movie.. Compare to most of the movies of horror filmfest, this was actually one of the better ones..
I was extremely excited to see this movie (it was my most anticipated of the Horrorfest lineup) and I'm not too sure what I'm thinking about it at the moment. The plot was very basic and reminded me a lot of your average 80's slasher flicks, but theses are the films I grew up watching, so that's a huge plus. The dialog was far from perfect, but there actually were a few intentionally funny bits that had me and the rest of the theater cracking up. The acting wasn't too awful, but the character of Liz pretty much annoyed the hell out of me the entire time she was on screen. Actually, most of the characters were rude asses and I didn't really care if any of them were going to live or die. The stoner characters were by far the most amusing, though. There were a few scenes of decent gore including a very original beheading that I didn't see coming, and a few scenes built up decent tension and suspense. I also enjoyed the cinematography for the most part. It was very stylized and gave the film it's own unique feel even if the plot and circumstances were clichéd to the max. Also, the killer was very imposing and the mask he wore was really sweet. On the down side, the ending felt incomplete and the unnecessary "twist" was not surprising at all. Almost all of the suspense scenes didn't go anywhere as the killer like to toy with his victims too much and let them get away just in time. This got a little frustrating after a while and I just wanted to see some freakin' action already! Overall, Dark Ride was a much slower paced movie that the preview made it seem, the characters did all of the stupid things that you would expect them to, there was gratuitous nudity and blood (in a few parts) and the killer and setting were very creepy. It was a fun movie, but not one that I would rush out to see by any means of the imagination. I'd give it an above average 6.5/10.
Dark Ride is slick and professionally made but that's the only real good thing about it. For a start, the plot. A group of teens spend the night in a closed "dark ride" as a dare, not realising that a killer is lurking in the ride with them and there is no way out. I mean really, "The Funhouse" did this already about 20 years ago, and saying this is a tribute or something neatly avoids saying it basically just rips the whole thing off.
There's nothing else to say about the plot, so let me say that there a few more things this film doesn't do as well as it should. First of all the so called "dark ride" looks great - but so it should , it seems to be as big an aircraft hanger!! There's no way a real ride in such a run down resort as this one is supposed to be could be so enormous and with seemingly endless rooms devices and contraptions. Most of the time when the teens are wandering about they seem to be in various horror sets that take up whole rooms with no trace of any rail tracks on the floor to carry the ride's cars (it's a ghost train so where are the trains supposed to be going?).
Now sadly another thing that drags the film down is some real hammy acting by the central cast. Fits of screaming and sobbing, running into walls, shivering and blubbering, no histrionic emotion is left unused, and it soon becomes very tiresome. I really didn't care about any of the characters.
What the film does have is some effective, good old fashioned gore, with some surprisingly graphic slaughters. That and the fun of the wacky exhibits of the actual ride itself are the good points in what is otherwise a rather unimpressive movie.
There's nothing else to say about the plot, so let me say that there a few more things this film doesn't do as well as it should. First of all the so called "dark ride" looks great - but so it should , it seems to be as big an aircraft hanger!! There's no way a real ride in such a run down resort as this one is supposed to be could be so enormous and with seemingly endless rooms devices and contraptions. Most of the time when the teens are wandering about they seem to be in various horror sets that take up whole rooms with no trace of any rail tracks on the floor to carry the ride's cars (it's a ghost train so where are the trains supposed to be going?).
Now sadly another thing that drags the film down is some real hammy acting by the central cast. Fits of screaming and sobbing, running into walls, shivering and blubbering, no histrionic emotion is left unused, and it soon becomes very tiresome. I really didn't care about any of the characters.
What the film does have is some effective, good old fashioned gore, with some surprisingly graphic slaughters. That and the fun of the wacky exhibits of the actual ride itself are the good points in what is otherwise a rather unimpressive movie.
Did you know
- Trivia"Dark ride" is an old term used in the carnival business to describe rides that involve getting in a cart or buggy and traversing a dark, enclosed building designed to have characters or props appear at intervals, designed to surprise or entertain.
- GoofsWhile in the van Cathy and Liz are texting each other, when Liz reads her text message you can see the cursor meaning she wrote the text message, she didn't recieve it.
- Crazy creditsAt the end of the credits we hear the laughter of a child as the My2Centences logo appears.
- ConnectionsReferenced in Rewind This! (2013)
- SoundtracksMeko
Written by Chris Grace
Performed by Chris Grace
Produced by Chris Grace
Engineered by Joe West
Mastered by Ted Jenson at Sterling Sound
C&P Chris Grace Publishing LLC (BMI)
Eucommia Records
- How long is Dark Ride?Powered by Alexa
Details
Box office
- Gross US & Canada
- $321,875
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $2,482,000
- Nov 19, 2006
- Gross worldwide
- $321,875
- Runtime
- 1h 34m(94 min)
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1
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