Night Drive (2010) starring Christopher Beasley, Corine Du Toit, Brandon Auret, Greg Melvill-Smith directed by Justin Head Movie Review

Night Drive (2010)   3/53/53/53/53/5


Christopher Beasley in Night Drive (2010)

The Human Safari

After being thrown out of the police for behaviour which endangered the public Sean (Christopher Beasley) heads to the game reserve where his estranged father, former special forces soldier Jack Darwin (Greg Melvill-Smith), is now a game ranger. Jack is himself in a bit of bother as his campaign against poachers has seen him using tactics he learnt as a soldier which are illegal. With Jack and Sean working together to take a group of tourists out on a night time safari they find themselves in danger from more the just wild animals when their jeep breaks down as local legend tells of the Hyena Man who trades in human body parts.

The synopsis for "Night Drive" sounds great, a safari goes wrong, dangerous animals, even more dangerous men who hunt humans and an estranged father and son with weapons training you can almost smell the tension and picture the action. But sadly "Night Drive" despite a good script which also includes Sean having a few demons to deal with just doesn't fully work as a movie and sadly writer and director Justin Head seems to make a big error right away. He opens the movie in such a disjointed manner that it doesn't intrigue you, it just puts you off and it feels like he has forgotten the audience doesn't know the story as intimately as he does.

Greg Melvill-Smith in Night Drive (2010)

The good news is that if you persist with "Night Drive" and pay attention it starts to come together as we get the situation of these tourists stranded in the woods where first they come across the rotting mutilated body of a woman then their situation unfolds. We also get more character depth as we learn a bit about Sean's demons which he will need to confront whilst we have Jack's determination to bring down the Hyena Man and his hunters.

But whilst I can appreciate parts of "Night Drive" and what it was aiming for it also has another major flaw and that is so much of it takes place at night. It means that the action and horror doesn't have the impact it should because to quote on of the characters "I can't see a thing". Yes the intention was for the dark to create the atmosphere of being helpless and in danger but all it does is make it feel cheap, a trick used to hide the budget limitations. Having said that the sound effects are great and make up for some of the visual issues.

What this all boils down to is that "Night Drive" has a good idea for the movie and the actors do a good job of playing their roles. But the movie takes a lot of work on the audience's part to make sense of the set up and persevere when far too often the darkness of night makes it hard to see what is going on.


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