I was really rooting for this one. I was rooting for all the "8 Films To Die For" even though I thought they should at least have made them double features or something to give an incentive for going to them all (they were all full price for unproven films/filmmakers...huh?)<br /><br />The idea is great--any excuse to show a cinematic version of a haunted house ride with stupid victims running around it, on the run from a deranged mutant is welcome. Yes, it has already been done (in "Funhouse," which this so obviously recalls it's a wonder they didn't get sued), but...umm...so has the slasher genre...again and again and again. The Japanese horror genre too. There's really little more to add to the genre beyond the individual vision of the filmmaker, which will make or break a low budget film. The budget of "Dark Ride" was obviously low but not THAT low; they got the universal back-lot and locations at the Santa Monica Pier and the dark ride itself is really pretty cool--even though technically it doesn't look like a "ride" at all--the tracks disappeared early on and never returned, technically the "ride" is a walk through then...isn't it?<br /><br />And that's the problem here. I'm not sure if it's the inexperience of the director (he seems to have enough work under his belt to know better) or the lack of funds or something else but...this movie "feels" a lot cheaper than it looks. There's a generous dosage of gore, some great fx (the death of Andrea Bogart's character is genuinely alarming, if hard to...well...swallow...). The sets are cool, lighting. This isn't a z-grade film...but it FEELS like one. The acting is pretty weak overall. Not a big deal in a film of this kind and the cast is no less serviceable than a typical low-budget 80's slasher... but there's a point where acting becomes so bad it pulls you out of the film. Alex Solowitz as a would-be stoner-type seems to be trying to channel Christian Slater doing Nicholson and his method-y "sniffing" routine becomes wearisome, quickly. Really the only stand out is Andrea Bogart, and only because of a hilarious non-sequiter moment where she goes berserk in a van briefly. I look forward to seeing her doing similar business (much more of it actually) in future work, she's great, recalling "Baby Firefly" from "House Of 1,000 Corpses." <br /><br />But again, the direction gets in the way of enjoyment of the film...it's inexcusable to have shots that are out of focus or framed wrong nowadays. There's a scene mid-way through where all the characters are in the dark ride talking in panic to one another and you absolutely lose your sense of place because of the way it's shot and edited...it reminds me of the parody short films shown at the beginning of the brilliant "The Big Picture" and I actually had to laugh after a certain point, it went on so long. Surely SOMEONE knew how to shoot business like this properly? There's some confusion with whether or not it's raining, there's some really poor choices of p.o.v. (the kids in the van could see the security guard in wide shot AND close up...and he wasn't aware of their presence?) and the usual plot holes and required suspension of disbelief. It also didn't look right...many shots had the appearance of high-def video and I was surprised to find, in the supplementary features, that it was actually shot on film. <br /><br />Having said that, there was a lot going for this...some nice shock surprises (albeit totally unbelievable, if the killer is supernatural like Michael Meyers it needs to be established, how<br /><br />else could he be EVERYwhere at the same time, and know the kids' next moves before they make them?). The aforementioned death of Andrea Bogart, the killing of the asylum workers, the set up (if not execution) with the twins in the beginning. I enjoyed watching the movie and that's worth something, it didn't make me angry like most poorly done low-budget fare. It delivered some solid splatter and that's worth the price of a cheap rental. I'm glad for any filmmaker who actually gets his film made, period. It's just that "Dark Ride" comes close enough without attaining its goals to not qualify as being "good" and I'm definitely glad I didn't pay full price to see this in a theater, I'd have felt cheated. This is not, in "technical" speak, a "real" movie that deserves to be paid full price for, it's direct-to-DVD/cable fare. <br /><br />One last note--it was very confusing that this was supposed to be taking place in the southeast but the location was the Santa Monica pier...not quite the same as trying to pass off Toronto for New York but close. <br /><br />The sound design, by the way, was as unfortunately clunky as the direction but the soundtrack itself was really beautifully done...chilling, inventive and very effective.