John Dahl was once – in fact, still is – best known for his clever neo-noir thrillers Red Rock West and The Last Seduction. This was before the unfortunate Unforgettable, a movie so dire it torpedoed his reputation and almost ended his directorial career. Can Road Kill – a cine-literate teens-in-peril flick – restore his reputation? Sadly, no.

The plot’s not a novel one: irritatingly clean-cut Lewis (Paul Walker)and his girl pal Venna (eerie younger Helen Hunt clone Leelee Sobieski) collect his wayward elder brother Fuller (Steve Zahn) on the road: the latter then installs a CB radio, and unwisely initiates airwave hostilities with a psychotic lonesome trucker named Rusty Nail. Catastrophic, but entirely familiar consequences ensue.

A lazy regurgitaion of Soul Survivors, Jeepers Creepers, Final Destination or any number of recent genre outings, Road Kill strives for a gothic sense of dread – dark highways, sinister motels, a savage thunderstorm, wide-open spaces in the middle of nowhere where no help can arrive – but is just too ridiculous to come close to chilling the bones as it should.