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Ryde is an American thriller film, starring David Wachs and Jessica Michél, directed by Brian Visciglia. The plot concerns a serial killer, who discreetly strikes out in a night of murderous rampage, innocently disguised as an app driver.
The premise of the story is centered in the Ryde app, that is successfully replacing cabs in LA. Clients just need to install the app in their mobiles, call the driver, enter their destination address, a credit card number, and enjoy the ride. Nevertheless, the main character, an unnamed maniac psychopath, discovers a formidable way to satisfy his killing needs. |
After seducing a beautiful girl in a local bar – being himself a charming and seductive individual –, they go to her place using a Ryde driver. There, pretending that they will have sex, he coldly and violently kills her, stabbing the girl in the bathtub. After cleaning up the scene, the killer starts the Ryde app, and the same driver that drove them before appears to pick him up.
Pretending to be just a regular customer, the killer tells the driver to leave him at his house, asking the driver to wait for him. After changing clothes and collecting weapons, he returns. The ride continues and both engage in interesting conversation. After some minutes, the killer request the driver to stop for him to smoke, and invites the driver to join him.
Pretending to be just a regular customer, the killer tells the driver to leave him at his house, asking the driver to wait for him. After changing clothes and collecting weapons, he returns. The ride continues and both engage in interesting conversation. After some minutes, the killer request the driver to stop for him to smoke, and invites the driver to join him.
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When they return, the killer murders the driver, puts his body on the back of the car, and takes his place. Attending by the fake name of Karl, at the course of the night, the killer went to reclaim several more victims: unwary passengers that mistakenly think the killer is just a regular Ryde driver. As the night begins for the killer, he deliberately engages in a vicious and cruel rampage.
In one of his drives, the killer is stopped by a police officer, demanding to see his license and registration. Asking why he was being checked out, the officer tells him that he has parked in a forbidden zone. Suddenly three girls enter the vehicle, and demand the officer to be gentle with the driver, saying they were to blame for his fault, as he was waiting for them. When the driver is ready to leave the scene, the officer demands him one more time to stop, and to open the trunk, saying that the back lights of the vehicle were irregularly blinking. He offers himself to fix it up the cables, as a favor to the driver, preventing him from being pulled over by the police for a second time in the same night. Since the body of the real driver was there, the killer faced the danger of being caught. So he discreetly lowers himself down to pull a knife he has on a sheath attached to his foot, when suddenly the officer tells him that the verification is no longer needed, as the lights were slowly stopping to blink.
So the killer drives the three girls to the luxurious home of one of them. As they find him attractive, two of them try to seduce the driver, and invite him for a private party in the pool, where, initially pretending to engage in sexual activity with them, he murders them both. A third girl, too drunk to understand what has happening, was spared by the killer, that carries her to bed.
Everything gets more exciting when the killer drives a couple, arguing for the fact that they have to attend two parties that same night. He clearly gets an interest in the girl. After leaving the couple in the place of their destination, the killer continues his night rides and his murder spree. Nevertheless, after some hours he encounters the same girl in a street food tent, pretending to find her coincidentally. After she recognizes him, they engage in mutual conversation, and the killer offers to drive her to her place, and she accepts. Guessing that she would be alone, her boyfriend, leaving the club upon which they were attending the party earlier, which was near, suddenly appears. Their discussion is intensified, but he decides to go in the ride with her.
Surprisingly, when the same girl needs a ride again, the driver appears one more time to collect her. Visibly upset by virtue of the discussion with her boyfriend, she stays more silent than in the occasion before. The driver, being exceedingly charming and sympathetic towards her, offers her an opportunity to talk about her problems, and encourages her to see him as a kind of “therapist”, to which she politely denies. Nevertheless, he is persistent, and after he compliments her good looks, she starts to feel threatened. At first, she demands him to return, affirming that she may have forgotten something at the party, and then she asks the driver to stop, saying that she is feeling sick and wants fresh air.
When he stops, he gets close to her, and tries to kiss her. She rejects his advances, and a fight ensues. After a hideous physical altercation, the killer subdues and ties her, and they continue the ride. Inside the car, the girl attacks him, and the killer loses control of the vehicle, colliding with an abandoned car in a stretch of deserted area.
The girl awakens in the hospital. Her boyfriend and her best friend are there. The physician tells her that she is pregnant, and her boyfriend apologizes to her. As they reconcile, an LAPD detective approaches her, and tells her that she needs to identify the body of her assailant in the morgue. As they go to the mortuary, the girl sees a badly burned and disfigured corpse, but affirms positively that the body is not that of her attacker. As the camera gets close to the body, the spectator can see that the body is, in fact, of the real driver, murdered by the killer, and put in the trunk of the car.
This movie deserves a very good and sincere evaluation. Although Ryde is not exactly a fantastic or splendorous movie, it is, indeed, a very good one, with tense moments, an afflictive story line, and a very cohesive plot. Good interpretations and dense character impersonations guarantee a dramatic, intense and exceedingly realistic approach. Some very profound and poetic moments – like a majestic and very cinematic scene when the main character is in a nearly empty cafeteria in the dead of night, with a perceptive look in his eyes that transmits his cold void feelings looking anywhere in his singular universe of mortifying nothingness, with a very beautiful woman that strongly and romantically flirts with him getting disappointed after he ignores her and unexpectedly leaves –, emphatically exhibits a glimpse of the character’s disturbed mind, as well as his personal world of destitute desolation, violence and bestiality.
Despite the fact that Ryde, for the most part, can be seriously defined as a very regular movie, it is a majestically effective, masterful regular movie. There are no flaws and no mediocrity in this production. From the technical devices to the acting to the whole concept of the story, everything was greatly executed. If you want to see a good thriller film, Ryde certainly is highly recommended. I can personally assure you will be thrilled with this movie.
Wagner Hertzog
In one of his drives, the killer is stopped by a police officer, demanding to see his license and registration. Asking why he was being checked out, the officer tells him that he has parked in a forbidden zone. Suddenly three girls enter the vehicle, and demand the officer to be gentle with the driver, saying they were to blame for his fault, as he was waiting for them. When the driver is ready to leave the scene, the officer demands him one more time to stop, and to open the trunk, saying that the back lights of the vehicle were irregularly blinking. He offers himself to fix it up the cables, as a favor to the driver, preventing him from being pulled over by the police for a second time in the same night. Since the body of the real driver was there, the killer faced the danger of being caught. So he discreetly lowers himself down to pull a knife he has on a sheath attached to his foot, when suddenly the officer tells him that the verification is no longer needed, as the lights were slowly stopping to blink.
So the killer drives the three girls to the luxurious home of one of them. As they find him attractive, two of them try to seduce the driver, and invite him for a private party in the pool, where, initially pretending to engage in sexual activity with them, he murders them both. A third girl, too drunk to understand what has happening, was spared by the killer, that carries her to bed.
Everything gets more exciting when the killer drives a couple, arguing for the fact that they have to attend two parties that same night. He clearly gets an interest in the girl. After leaving the couple in the place of their destination, the killer continues his night rides and his murder spree. Nevertheless, after some hours he encounters the same girl in a street food tent, pretending to find her coincidentally. After she recognizes him, they engage in mutual conversation, and the killer offers to drive her to her place, and she accepts. Guessing that she would be alone, her boyfriend, leaving the club upon which they were attending the party earlier, which was near, suddenly appears. Their discussion is intensified, but he decides to go in the ride with her.
Surprisingly, when the same girl needs a ride again, the driver appears one more time to collect her. Visibly upset by virtue of the discussion with her boyfriend, she stays more silent than in the occasion before. The driver, being exceedingly charming and sympathetic towards her, offers her an opportunity to talk about her problems, and encourages her to see him as a kind of “therapist”, to which she politely denies. Nevertheless, he is persistent, and after he compliments her good looks, she starts to feel threatened. At first, she demands him to return, affirming that she may have forgotten something at the party, and then she asks the driver to stop, saying that she is feeling sick and wants fresh air.
When he stops, he gets close to her, and tries to kiss her. She rejects his advances, and a fight ensues. After a hideous physical altercation, the killer subdues and ties her, and they continue the ride. Inside the car, the girl attacks him, and the killer loses control of the vehicle, colliding with an abandoned car in a stretch of deserted area.
The girl awakens in the hospital. Her boyfriend and her best friend are there. The physician tells her that she is pregnant, and her boyfriend apologizes to her. As they reconcile, an LAPD detective approaches her, and tells her that she needs to identify the body of her assailant in the morgue. As they go to the mortuary, the girl sees a badly burned and disfigured corpse, but affirms positively that the body is not that of her attacker. As the camera gets close to the body, the spectator can see that the body is, in fact, of the real driver, murdered by the killer, and put in the trunk of the car.
This movie deserves a very good and sincere evaluation. Although Ryde is not exactly a fantastic or splendorous movie, it is, indeed, a very good one, with tense moments, an afflictive story line, and a very cohesive plot. Good interpretations and dense character impersonations guarantee a dramatic, intense and exceedingly realistic approach. Some very profound and poetic moments – like a majestic and very cinematic scene when the main character is in a nearly empty cafeteria in the dead of night, with a perceptive look in his eyes that transmits his cold void feelings looking anywhere in his singular universe of mortifying nothingness, with a very beautiful woman that strongly and romantically flirts with him getting disappointed after he ignores her and unexpectedly leaves –, emphatically exhibits a glimpse of the character’s disturbed mind, as well as his personal world of destitute desolation, violence and bestiality.
Despite the fact that Ryde, for the most part, can be seriously defined as a very regular movie, it is a majestically effective, masterful regular movie. There are no flaws and no mediocrity in this production. From the technical devices to the acting to the whole concept of the story, everything was greatly executed. If you want to see a good thriller film, Ryde certainly is highly recommended. I can personally assure you will be thrilled with this movie.
Wagner Hertzog
