 Movie: Night Drive Year: 2011 Studio: The Film Factory Director: Justin Head Language: English Length: 102 Minutes Sub-Genre: Slasher, Thriller, Animals |
Plot: Night Drive is a gritty South African thriller/horror, set against the backdrop of the beautifully romantic African Bush, where an eclectic mix of tourists is left stranded during a night drive. It is only when they realize that they are being hunted by a group of poachers that the terror truly begins.
Review: The opening scene of Night Drive really captivates the imagination. You get glimpses of African tribesmen doing bizarre things with body parts, bullets and this unknown juice that it drank. There are glimpses of gore, bloody machetes, internal organs and hyenas all rolled into one.
After the beginning montage of random things it jumps to a cop somewhere in South Africa. The story unwinds at a slow pace, he is chasing after a drug lord and events happen that cause him to lose his job. From there we are taken to this so-called “Night Drive” where vacationers are taken on a wildlife excursion through the deadly terrain of South Africa, in search of expanding their horizons, with peace, tranquility and the hopes of seeing wild animals.
The story finally starts to unfold about 45-50 minutes in. The basic concept to Night Drive is; poachers are not killing animals but humans, they need fresh, internal body parts to perform their cult-like rituals involving hyenas. After the brutal killings, the bodies are left for the hyenas to munch on.
As you can see by the summary, the story is wild, very hard to follow at times, especially since they go back-and-forth with transitional scenes, and most of the time the camera is not fixed, causing jerkiness during the action scenes. The acting was surprisingly good for a horror movie of this type. The music and sound effects were engaging, not scary, but more of a riveting type. There are many machete scenes, that gets a point right there! But actually, there was only one effective kill scene in this whole movie and it was done extremely well.
The story is the biggest downfall along with the quick cutaways of the most gruesome scenes. There is a handy little twist in the end I enjoyed and never seen coming. I was never bored, but then again I never thoroughly could see what was happening, so we have a mixed bag. I wouldn’t go out of my way to seek it out, but if you come across Night Drive online or at a local movie rental shop, pick it up, I think you will get something out of it.
 Reviewer: BillChete Date: 01/05/2012 Rating: 5½/10 Recommendation: Rental |
 Trailer: Watch DVD: DVD Empire BluRay: N/A Social Media: Facebook |