Movie Review: DRIVE BACK

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN / Staff Writer

Posted: November 8th, 2024 / 02:52 AM

DRIVE BACK movie poster | ©2024 Dark Sky Films

Rating: Not Rated
Stars: Whit Kunschik, Zack Gold, Jim Tuck, Madonna Young Magee, Robert Louis Stephenson
Writer: Jon Sarro
Director: Cody Ashford
Distributor: Dark Sky Films
Release Date: November 8, 2024 (theatrical, VOD, digital)

The title of DRIVE BACK appears once in the film, scrawled on the reverse side of a road sign. It has several meanings, but the most immediate is, “Turn back, don’t go this way.” Of course, the warning is neither seen nor heeded.

In the opening, nine-year-old Reid is sitting in a tree, drawing on his sketchpad. He is startled by the sound of rifle fire. His father Duane (Robert Louis Stephenson) has just shot a stag. With the animal moaning in pain on the ground, Duane insists that Reid take a hunting knife.

We cut to adult Reid (Zack Gold) proposing to longtime girlfriend Olivia (Whit Kunschik). Their engagement party is at the cabin of Duane’s parents. Olivia is visibly pregnant.

Given the couple’s inability to name the date, or even the season, for their wedding, we gather the relationship may be a bit rocky. When Duane presents Reid with a lighter and says it’s his wedding present, we also gather that the groom’s father isn’t thrilled with the prospective bride.

On the way back to the city, on what is supposed to be a three-and-a-half-hour drive, Olivia insists that the route on her GPS is better than taking the same road that brought them to the cabin. Reid capitulates.

As would be likely in real life, the GPS quits in the middle of the woods. Alas, this is when the car is at a three-way crossroads. Reid and Olivia find a small roadside establishment, where a strange old woman (Madonna Young Magee) suggests a shortcut.

Let us stipulate that so far, DRIVE BACK is off to a good start. Director Cody Ashford and writer Jon Sarro have already provided us with some legitimate jumps, suggestions of secrets to be revealed, and a genuinely ominous tone. As harbingers go, Magee is topnotch.

But then DRIVE BACK hits its plot groove. This combines sporadic character amnesia (both Reid and Olivia, at different times, can’t remember how long they’ve been on the road, meeting the old woman, and so on) with a hooded killer and a science-fiction element. The history of the couple’s romance is also gradually uncovered.

Olivia and Reid are meant to be confused, and Kunschik and Gold play their bewilderment and emotional pain well. But their interactions become so repetitive that it would take a really stunning revelation to put these in perspective, and we don’t get that.

Instead, we are as confused as the characters are. It seems intended that their mutual back story has bearing on the aforementioned science-fiction aspect, but the connection between these is unclear.

The rules governing the what’s happening are likewise indecipherable. When we get flashbacks to meaningful moments, we can see parallels to action in the present, but not why the parallels are significant.

Ultimately, DRIVE BACK delivers some horror highlights, but it’s not a satisfying whole.

Follow us on Twitter at ASSIGNMENT X
Like us on Facebook at ASSIGNMENT X

Latest Buzz

Movie Review: DRIVE BACK

Creepy but confusing

Article Source: Assignment X
Article: Movie Review: DRIVE BACK

Related

Related Posts:

Leave a Comment

Assignment X Poll

Newsletter subscription status

Latest Buzz

Movie Review: DRIVE BACK

Creepy but confusing

Article Source: Assignment X Article: Movie Review: DRIVE BACK

Related

Related Posts:

Leave a Comment

Assignment X Poll

Article Source: Assignment X
Article: Movie Review: DRIVE BACK