Riding the Bullet MPAA Rating: R Entertainment: +1 Content: -4

Based on Stephen Kings first e-book, Riding the Bullet is a horror thriller about Alan Parker (Jonathan Jackson), a 21-year-old college student morbidly fascinated with death. After a breakup with his girlfriend (Erika Christensen), Parker attempts to commit suicide with a razor blade while he is high from marijuana in the bathtub. His failed suicide attempt is followed by the news that his mother (Barbara Hershey) has been hospitalized with a stroke. While his roommates head off to a John Lennon concert on Halloween 1969, Parker begins hitchhiking through rural Maine to be with his mother. His memories of his fathers death and a carnival ride called the Bullet cause flashbacks and gruesome dreams that include a ride in a car driven by a man who had died in a violent accident several years earlier. Unable to get away, Parker is faced with a horrific and deadly choice.

This dark movie is riddled with obscene language and suicidal thoughts. Alan Parkers fascination with death is evident in the opening scene and never lets up. His childhood was fairly normal and happy with two exceptions: his father was hit by a car and his mother scolded him for not riding a roller coaster called the Bullet after waiting in line for an hour. He is confronted with each of these events while hitchhiking through dark country roads. The journey ends on a ride with George Staub (David Arquette), a man who several years earlier was decapitatedin a car crash.The movie frustrates by not making clear what is a dream and what is reality. But after a while, this reviewer no longer cared and just wanted to leave. Void of any Christian message, the movie ends with a hopelessthought, Nothing seems to last, but the bullet is always there.Fun is fun, and done is done. Riding the Bullet is a misfire of epic proportions.

Preview Reviewer: Henry J. Rogers
Distributor: Freestyle Releasing