Riding the Bullet (2004) Review

Riding the Bullet (2004) Review

Director Mick Garris has had a very successful career in bringing the works of Stephen King to television. Though Garris began by directing King’s Sleepwalkers script as a movie, he followed it up with the epic miniseries The Stand and a more book-accurate adaptation of The Shining (also a miniseries, both scripted by King). But he returned to film with this adaptation of King’s short story of the same name. It was a total box office failure and has dropped into obscurity, but does it deserve more attention? 

Set in Maine in 1969, the story revolves around college art student Alan, who is depressed and obsessed with death and wants to kill himself, A.K.A the definition of angst. He’s haunted by a creature that’s supposed to be Death, but doesn’t look like the traditional grim reaper. He looks more like a ghoul, but is still really cool and creepy. After Alan finds out his mother is ill, he decides to hitchhike to the hospital before she dies, and along the way, meets some interesting and frightening characters, some of them more alive than others. 

Riding the Bullet starts out quite promising. The special effects for Death, as well as all forms of gore, are really good. They were done by Greg Nicotero, currently known for his work on The Walking Dead. The initial supporting characters are decent, though nothing special, and the main character is intriguing despite being depressing, because he talks to himself, but not just verbally, there’s a morbid clone of himself that no one else can see whispering in his ear and commenting on things. 

Unfortunately, after Alan hits the road, things start getting repetitive, with him getting rides, talking to drivers (and himself), something weird happening, then moving on. The first guy he gets a ride with is a stereotypical hippie, who’s pretty entertaining, then there’s an old guy who keeps grabbing his crotch, played by Cliff Robertson, who played Uncle Ben in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man. David Arquette plays a creepy dead guy who drives the same kind of car as in Christine, and does a pretty good job. He doesn’t ham it up as much as some of his other horror roles, like in Eight Legged Freaks and Scream. 

The big problem with Riding the Bullet is it doesn’t know what genre to stick to. It’s categorized as horror, but other than Death, who looks unsettling, it’s not scary, so it’s not true horror. It has some moments that are hilarious on purpose, but others come off as unintentionally hilarious. The title Riding the Bullet refers to a rollercoaster at an amusement park, which Alan is too afraid to ride as a kid, because he sees himself thrown off the coaster by Death, and it’s a laugh-out-loud scene. There’s also some trippy-ness to the movie, with Alan having visions that don’t come true, or weird flashbacks to his childhood, and then there’s a coming-of-age element with him travelling by himself to the hospital, and an element of family drama. It ends up being a weird mix of everything typical to a Stephen King story. 

This is one of those movies that tries to be intriguing by being confusing, so not a lot of things make sense, but it doesn’t build up to a whole lot in the end. Surprisingly, the actual ending is not horrible, but looking back on it, much of the confusing-ness leading up to it didn’t feel necessary, and it didn’t do anything to make it scarier, which I think was the intention. 

Riding the Bullet is not a secret gem, but also not deserving of being so obscure. While it isn’t consistent in quality or focus, overall, I’d say it’s not that bad, with some decently entertaining scenes. It’s worth checking out for King fans, or anyone wanting a bizarre mind-bender.