Movie review: Riding the Bullet

Alan’s mother, Jean, has a stroke so he tries to hitchhike his way to the hospital. Along the way he is picked up by a mysterious stranger, George, and things get progressively stranger with hallucinations and psychotic breaks regarding his childhood.

Jonathan Jackson (Alan), David Arquette (George), Cliff Robertson (Farmer), Barbara Hershey (Jean).

Based on a Stephen King book, and directed by the famous Mick Garris, you would expect this to scare you good. Although it was entertaining, the scare factor was nowhere to be found. The plot was interesting and the story was told well, it just wasn’t that scary. There was a lot of drama and a lot of emotional baggage being hauled around by Alan which just squashed the scary bits. Character development was excellent but again, it turned the movie into a drama rather than a horror flick. Overall the story was very enjoyable, made you think in parts, and gave a few chills, it just wasn’t scary.

I did enjoy David Arquette quite a bit, he did great as a freaky dead guy. Hershey was also a bit freaky in her role.

Camera work was a bit rough with some really dark parts. Dialogue was okay but nothing really exciting. The soundtrack was very enjoyable with some good classic rock throughout. I also liked a couple of slight nods to other King stories that were rolled into this one.

Overall a good movie, just not very scary.

There is some nudity, adult concepts such as suicide and drugs, and a somewhat scary grim reaper so save this one for older teens and above.

Released: 2004
Reviewed: 12.21.15
Star rating: 3 out of 5
Genre: Horror, Supernatural Horror, Psychological Thrillers, Films based on Books, Psychological Horror

copyright ©2015 Dave Riedel