Released the same year as Jeepers Creepers, this 2001 horror movie follows a pair of brothers (Paul Walker and Steve Zahn) who mess with the wrong truck driver in a CB radio-based prank. They should have called it CB Jeebies.

Joy Ride (released as Road Kill in the UK) crosses the road-based cat-and-mouse thriller (Duel, The Hitcher) with the prank-gone-wrong slasher flick (The Burning, The House on Sorority Row) to surprisingly fun effect. It opens like a teen TV drama from the era, complete with blonde brothers from the wrong side of the tracks and a soft-top rock soundtrack, before skidding butt-first into urban legend territory.

Though consistently ridiculous, the road-rage tropes are elevated by moody cinematography and a noirish sensibility. In true Duel fashion, director John Dahl keeps the truck driver hidden, and menacingly voiced by The Silence of the Lambs‘ Ted Levine in a portrayal that does the trucker image no favours. Between this and Jeepers Creepers it is surprising anything got delivered to set on time that year.

Disappointingly it only features a woman (Leelee Sobieski) to get abducted and because she looks a bit like The Hitcher’s Jennifer Jason Leigh (although not as much as she looks like Helen Hunt). But it is the hapless antiheroes who differentiate the film, bringing a truckload of terror on themselves without veering into unlikability, while the playful screenplay by Clay Tarver and J. J. Abrams is a gas. Even if it doesn’t reinvent the 18-wheeler, Joy Ride is a top-tier teamster creeper.