‘Off Ramp’ Review — Juggalo road trip thriller is all about family [CFF ’24]

A review of the new thriller, at the Chattanooga Film Festival now

Before I get into this, I should admit something: I’m not a Juggalo. When I was a teenager and I first started seeing that clown paint pop up in my small town, I was unsettled. I never checked out Insane Clown Posse’s music, at least on purpose, and I mostly only knew them through online jokes about Faygo and magnets.

Now, though, from what I understand, they seem like nice people… regrettable over-use of “ninja” aside. (Apparently it comes from ICP’s legitimate love of kung-fu movies, but it’s sure used in a way that makes it sound like a stand-in for a certain other word beginning with N). Most of what I know about them comes from a great episode of David Farrier’s podcast Flightless Bird, in which the Mister Organ documentarian looks into the unlikely subculture, who were once labeled a gang by the FBI until they were forced to take it back upon further investigation.

Off Ramp, a new Juggalo-centric road trip film from Nathan Tape, endeavors to do a couple of things. Primarily, it’s a love letter to Juggalo culture in all its facepainted glory; there are in-jokes and lyrics packed into nearly every scene. At the same time, it also serves as a potential…