Panic Fest 2024: Off Ramp is the Juggalo-centric road trip flick destined for cult status

Off Ramp. // Courtesy Panic Fest

This is part of our coverage of local horror/sci-fi’s biggest event of the year, Panic Fest 2024. For more from the fest, click here.

What do you think of when you hear the term Juggalo? Does your brain flood with people in black and white face paint? Do you think of reckless gang-affiliated individuals, as the FBI described them in 2011 (and was eventually overturned by a lawsuit)? The new film Off Ramp may change how you view the fans of rap group Insane Clown Posse, thanks to its sense of humor and giant heart, through a tale of two lost souls venturing to the one place they can feel accepted.

After a year in prison, Trey (Jon Oswald) is determined to turn over a new leaf and do whatever it takes to ensure he never ends up in the slammer again. This notion is immediately tested when his best friend and adopted brother Silas (Scott Turner Schofield) offers him a joint in the parking lot on his release. Trey worries falling back in with his friend may be his undoing until Silas convinces him they need to attend The Gathering of the Juggalos, a music festival celebrating ICP and their ardent fans.

Trey agrees but insists he and Silas enjoy this trip and travel the road less taken. That choice propels the pair through the seedy underbelly of the Mississippi backcountry. They encounter an unhinged Sheriff (Reed Diamond), a black-market dealer frenemy named Scarecrow (Jared Bankens), a cop on acid (Miles Doleac), a fried chicken establishment, and naturally, a seance. A moment when Trey and Silas end up helping to deliver a baby brazenly enters the realm of body horror.

Off Ramp embraces the spirit of late 90s and early 00s stoner comedies. The humor here isn’t too removed from Harold and Kumar go to White Castle, Rolling Kansas or Detroit Rock City. It’s a gross-out laugh-out-loud comedy of the kind that doesn’t come along too often these days, focusing more on the situations and characters our heroes encounter, rather than outright mocking their personalities.

Off Ramp. // Courtesy Panic Fest

Writer-director Nathan Tape and his co-writer Tim Cairo imbue the film with an unexpected amount of tenderness alongside the rampant stupidity on display. Silas and Trey are often at odds, but they’ll still protect each other no matter the cost. They extend that love and understanding to Eve (Ashley Smith), Scarecrow’s sister. Their compassion isn’t part of an ulterior motive, but because that’s what it means to them to be a Juggalo—a perspective that’s probably the opposite of public perception. Tape and Cairo bring us along into the Juggalo subculture with narration that tosses out jargon that explains the comradery and love that comes with being part of the ICP fan community.

While a movie that spends 90 minutes with a couple of Juggalos might seem like a hard sell, Tape and Cairo do their best to draw us in. They frame the trip as a kind of religious pilgrimage for Trey and Silas, complete with devout followers continually spouting words of acceptance and love to those they come across under all the layers of clown makeup. It all adds up to a crowd pleasing movie that, even if it doesn’t get a traditional theatrical run, seems destined to garner a cult following. It’ll be sure to entertain those smart or daring enough to cast aspersions aside and whoop whoop it up.