Directed by: Lee Vervoort
Starring: John Michael Morris, Rachelle Christine, Tim Emery
The Truck is a film about a couple that are thrown into a supernatural situation where a killer truck is after them. That is literally it. If you have seen the film Rubber and believe in the idea of “no reason” then The Truck becomes a bit more acceptable as a film, but if you don’t know what I am talking about then I highly doubt you will find much of anything worthwhile here because absolutely nothing is explained in the film.
Why or even how did a truck start going around running people over? No idea. Who is maintaining the truck with new parts, gas or oil? Is someone ordering from Parts Geek everytime the truck needs a tune up? Why would the sheriff and deputy, who are literally the only people living in town, be okay with a truck driving around killing as it pleases only until these two show up? Absolutely no reason, and these questions are the tip of the iceberg.
Going in, I admit I was excited to watch this because while these films are usually bad, they have the potential to be what I refer to as awesomely bad. You know the ones I’m talking about, where everything is so over the top that you end up liking it because you had so much fun watching it. This isn’t one of those films. Films like this require an extra element of over the top joy, or an almost childish aspect in the film-making that makes a bad film enjoyable. But here, the film seems to take the story too seriously when you can’t do that in this kind of film. This kind of situation isn’t possible in reality so the theatricality of the film needs to adjust accordingly to draw any joy from the audience, but sadly, it doesn’t happen here.
The acting is dull and the story is pointless. And both facts only become amplified when the transitions are awkwardly nonexistent and the sound editing allows the engine to dominate the actors’ dialogue to the point where you miss entire conversations. And what’s worse is, because there is nothing to grab your attention or emotionally connect you to what is happening, you will probably find yourself not caring about anything you may have missed.
I realize this all sounds harsh, but as someone who loves film, I always try to at least find something that a film did well, but it seems this is one of the few times I walked away so unimpressed that I don’t hate the film, I just don’t care. And that annoys me almost as much as viciously hating a film. At least when you hate something you can pinpoint exact reasons for the hatred, but when I say I didn’t care about a film it frustrates me to think that the magic of film may be gone. It might have been best if The Truck never had a parts geek repair and never made it onto the street.
1/10
Andy Comer