Horror Favourites – Joey Palmroos

Get ready for a white-knuckle ride with Delivery Run directed and co-written by Joey Palmroos. This cat-and-mouse survival chiller follows one desperate man, one impossible road and a single, unstoppable menace. Following its acclaimed premiere at Grimmfest 2024, the film is out now courtesy of Plaion Pictures and we grabbed Joey for a little chat.

Staring Alexander Arnold (Yesterday, Skins, Poldark), Liam James Collins (The Outlaws, Casualty), Arthur Sylense (Kingsman: The Golden Circle, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny), Jussi Lampi (Lapua 1976, Syke) and Nadine Higgin (Doctor Who) Delivery Run is a heart racer of a slasher that will drive you wild with fear.

Set in the unforgiving, icy backroads of Minnesota, Delivery Run follows Lee (Arnold), a delivery driver with a gambling problem and debts he can no longer dodge. After gangsters threaten him in his own home, Lee decides to try his luck at delivering food to drum up the cash he now needs urgently. On what should be a routine shift, a petty road-rage incident with a hulking snow plough, soon turns into an all-out hell ride, as Lee tries to escape the wrath of a homicidal maniac driver.

What begins as a tit for tat chase soon escalates into a nightmarish journey through backroads, abandoned truck stops and over frozen rivers. Each encounter forces Lee to dig deeper into his own grit and determination – using nothing but his battered delivery car, a phone with an almost drained battery and sheer dumb luck to stay alive.

Below director of Delivery Run, Joey Palmroos, talks about his favourite horror film: Duel

“Duel has always fascinated me. It’s not a conventional horror film, but its tension, simplicity, and primal fear have haunted me ever since I first saw it. At its core, Duel is a story about an ordinary man suddenly hunted by an unseen, unstoppable force. That sense of claustrophobia in wide open spaces, of being utterly alone yet pursued, is what makes it so terrifying. It’s not about monsters or ghosts but the human experience of fear itself.

When I set out to make Delivery Run, I wanted to capture that same spirit, the idea of turning something everyday and familiar into a nightmare. In my film, it’s not a highway in the desert, but the snowy backroads of Minnesota with a snowplow. A piece of machinery we usually associate with safety and community, transformed into an instrument of fear. It’s a story of survival, told through motion, sound, and atmosphere more than dialogue.

On a personal level, Duel also reflects my own filmmaking journey. Spielberg made it at a time when he was proving himself, using every ounce of creativity and resourcefulness to make something bigger than his circumstances. That’s something I deeply relate to. Delivery Run began as a daring idea, an independent film shot in the freezing wilderness of Finnish Lapland, standing in for the American Midwest. Through persistence and passion, it grew into an internationally recognized feature.

For me, Duel is the ultimate reminder that great cinema doesn’t need spectacle to be powerful. It needs vision, momentum, and courage. That’s the energy I carried into Delivery Run: a relentless pursuit of story, tension, and the kind of fear that stays with you long after the engine stops.”

Delivery Run is on UK digital platforms now.

Delivery Run trailer