‘Drive Back’ Review
Stars: Zoltan Torok, Robert Lewis Stephenson, Zack Gold, Whit Kunschik, Madonna Young Magee, Alan Dorfmeier, Jim Tuck | Written by Jon Sarro | Directed by Cody Ashford
Drive Back begins with a young Reid (Zoltan Torok) sitting in the woods sketching when a shot rings out and a deer falls near him. That’s followed by the appearance of his father, (Robert Lewis Stephenson; Penitentia, Extracted) who forces the traumatized boy to take a knife and motions towards the dying animal.
Years later, Reid (Zack Gold; The Whisperer in Darkness, Bullet Train Down) is engaged to Olivia (Whit Kunschik; The Bounty Men, Country Gold) and they’re about to become parents. Making their way home after an engagement party at his parents’ cabin out in the woods, Olivia suggests taking a shortcut to get back home.
Disoriented after nearly being hit by a spending truck, they stop for directions at The I Forgot Store, a mom-and-pop convenience store where Mom (Madonna Young Magee; Blood Drive, Exorcism of Allie Fay) is nuts and Pop (Alan Dorfmeier) appears to be dead. That still doesn’t stop them taking a shortcut she tells them about, one so obscure it’s not even on recent maps. It doesn’t take long for them to realize what a bad idea that was.
Sinister shortcuts and roads that seem to have no end are common enough themes in genre films, Dead End, In Fear and The Toll for example. And making the protagonists a bickering couple is every bit as common. Writer Jon Sarro (Adventure Space Squad) and director Cody Ashford bring their own approach to the material, even if the couple’s encounter with a creepy hitchhiker (Jim Tuck; Above Snakes, The Legend of Jake Kincaid) seems to indicate otherwise.
There’s a theme running through the film’s first act, young Jake is drawing a snake eating its tail or the ouroboros, a symbol representing the endless cycle of life, death and rebirth. At the party there’s a reference to a previous engagement that ended badly, even the head of the deer, mounted on the wall, makes an appearance. So it shouldn’t be a surprise when the couple find themselves rehashing old arguments and driving in circles. Perhaps the fact that they’re driving through Charon County has something to do with it.
If this feels a bit like The Twilight Zone revisited, Drive Back’s second half shifts into backwoods slasher territory as the couple find themselves chased through the woods by a malevolent figure. But even that invokes the past in the form of a familiar-looking hunting knife. The pieces all fit together, but can they stop squabbling long enough to figure out how and escape?
Unfortunately, even after we learn what is happening, the film leaves a lot of the how and why of the situation unexplained. And knowing that might have helped the final scenes make a bit more sense. It doesn’t ruin the ending, but it is an unfortunate stumble at the last minute.
Ashford and Sarro work up a nice atmosphere of dread and uncertainty as the protagonists get dragged deeper and deeper into the mystery of whatever is happening on this stretch of road. Lucas Pitassi (Debbie and the Devil, Looking for Her) contributes plenty of effective night shots of the woods spiced up by the effects of Robert Vargas (The Girl on the Mountain, The Gallows Act II). Gold and Kunschik are solid as the leads and manage to keep the viewer on their side, even as secrets come to light and their arguing threatens to get on your nerves.
Overall, Drive Back is an enjoyable film that adds enough variations on a familiar theme to make it feel fresh and interesting. It’s worth giving a chance if you’re in need of a post-Halloween horror fix.
***½ 3.5/5
Dark Sky Films released Drive Back in US theaters as well as VOD and Digital Platforms on November 8th.
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