Trucker

Film: Trucker

Year: 2024

Director: Errol Sack

Writer: Steven Shaffer

Starring: Katherine Gibson, Ivan Cardona and Jim Palmer

Review:

This was a film that I learned about thanks to Breaking Glass Pictures. The press release with an opportunity was sent over to me thanks to Lauren. The concept sounded interesting so I agreed to check it out. This is technically a wide release film for 2026, which I enjoy to round out my end of year list.

Synopsis: a trucker’s family is killed in a fiery crash caused by a group of reckless teens. Rescued from the wreckage and nursed back to health by a mysterious old man, the trucker exacts revenge on the teens.

We start this out with a guy walking down the road. We don’t know anything about him aside from the fact that he has a bottle of alcohol, a shotgun and looks like he’s had a rough go. The information is from the Sheriff files in Flagstone County, Arizona back in 1985. This man was walking down the road in the desert. The police brought him in to learn a bit more about what was happening.

Things then shift a year into the past. There is a mother inside of a diner waiting for her food. Her name is Lindy (Lauren Parkinson). She is holding a baby and there’s a little girl with her, Anabelle (Anna Tzvetkova). Waiting in the truck is her husband. They leave and are almost hit by Dan (Dwayne Hilton Jr.). In his car are his girlfriend, Cindy (Nicole Mattox), Jeff (Curtis J.C. Scott), his brother Mike (Ivan Cardona) and Vanessa (Katherine Gibson). They’re here to pick up alcohol.

The truck hits the road as does this car. They get stuck behind him and try to pass. When they don’t make it and another car is coming, they drive the truck off the road. It leads to a fiery crash. The trucker is tossed from it with his family still inside. Dan, Jeff and Cindy are careless about what happened. Vanessa forces them to go back, but Jeff urinates on the trucker while Dan pours a beer on him. They’re driven away by an old man, Levy (Chuck Cirino). Jeff is left behind in the confusion.

A year later, Veronica returns from school, much to Mike's excitement. The group has expanded; Mike now hangs out with teammate Scotty (Zachery Cirino), and Cindy has a new friend, Reina (Dare Taylor). Dan hangs out with Greg (Eli Cirino), Chris (Milo Hayden), and Richard (Ryan Rathburn). Vanessa, still haunted by leaving Jeff, wants to return to learn his fate. Dan fears this will expose their secret, but Mike calms him and agrees to take Vanessa and Scotty up.

They retrace their steps and it leads them to a junkyard. They explore it to see if Jeff ended up there. Levy is stalking them and alerting someone staying inside of a container that the time is here. Limited information is given to Scotty who decides to go back to the car to wait. Mike makes a call to Dan, thinking they found something about what happened to Jeff. This turns into a nightmare that none of them will ever forget, if they survive. The trucker is released. His injuries have changed him as he exacts his revenge.

That is where I’ll leave my recap and introduction to the characters. Where I want to start is that this does have good things going for it. Seeing the title, it initially makes me think of something like Joyride or Duel. At the heart of this though, it is more of a slasher film that is inspired by I Know What You Did Last Summer. The crux is that we have a number of teens that did something bad, covered it up and now someone is out for revenge.

Let’s then start with what works here. We have this trucker who was with his family when a drunken jerk, Dan, runs them off the road. They’re a bit too malicious for what they did, but I can overlook it. Maybe Dan and Jeff are budding psychopaths where the rest of the group are just there as a matter of circumstance. Vanessa is bullied into not talking for fear of getting into trouble. The same thing with Mike is that it could potentially end his career with football. Like I said, this feels like it borrows from that 1990s slasher.

Next, I'll discuss the Trucker, reportedly played by Jim Palmer. His face isn’t ever seen. His body is after the accident. We know little about him, other than his family seemed nice and he was understandably angry after the accident. When everyone is trapped in the junkyard, he appears masked and burned. His desire for revenge after losing his family is understandable. I do think getting to know him a bit before the accident might help, because in my end, he’s a rough, angry man from the start.

Then to just explore the themes that are prevalent here. This is looking at the corruption of grief driving our trucker to retribution. I do find it to be justified, for some of the group at least, since they made a pact of silence. They’re avoiding accountability. Even the characters that want to come forward are bullied into not talking. There are elements of isolation and loneliness developing this rage with the trucker and his treatment by Levy. This also feels like a throwback to films of the 1980s and 90s with its set up and execution.

That should be enough for the story so I want to shift gears to the filmmaking aspects. The cinematography effectively captured the area's desolate nature and the unforgiving desert, with solid framing that enhanced the practical effects. I was glad for that and if there was CGI it was either absent or seamless. The music and sound design were fitting. However, the film is a major slow burn; the extended wait for the action caused me to lose interest.

All that is left then would be the acting performances. This is an amateur production so I’m not going to come down as hard. Gibson is attractive, which helps as our lead. I do like that she wants to do the right thing, even though it is too little, too late. Cardona works as her boyfriend. Hilton is solid as our jerk. Their friend group is solid for cannon fodder. Palmer brings good size to the role. Chuck Cirino and the rest of the cast rounded this out for what was needed.

In conclusion, this offers an entertaining, if somewhat slow-paced, slasher film experience that successfully captures the spirit of 1990s revenge thrillers, even while drawing inspiration from earlier road horror like Duel. While the performances, owing to its amateur status, are uneven and the pacing requires patience, the film excels in its desolate atmosphere, practical effects, and timely exploration of accountability and justice derived from profound grief. It serves as a satisfying watch for fans of throwback horror who appreciate a straightforward premise executed with thematic weight, even if the main antagonist remains a somewhat underdeveloped force of nature.

My Rating: 5.5 out of 10