Rebound (DVD)
Steve Barton
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Starring Ashley James, Mark Scheibmeir, Liz Bauer
Directed by Megan Freels
Distributed by Indie Rights; also Available on Google Play, Amazon, and globally on Vimeo On Demand
Any relationship, be it friendship or romantic, is built upon one thing… trust. Once you violate the faith someone has in you (or vice versa), the damage can be irreparable. Such is the case for Claire (James), a woman who has just found herself in a terrible situation. You see, Claire walked in on her significant other being ridden like a bucking bronco by another woman. Her life now shattered, she decides to pack up her stuff and move back to Chicago to be around her friends and family. There’s only one obstacle in her way… a cross-country drive.
Any horror fan worth his or her salt can attest to one thing: Driving across the country can lead to all manner of horrors. The roads are a dangerous place, but sometimes the smaller towns which litter them along the way can be even worse. After running into some car trouble, Claire finds herself surrounded by odd strangers at a dive bar. The kind of place in which if you’re not careful you could be slipped one hell of a concoction that will leave you waking up and not knowing where you are. See where this is all going? Of course you do, you beautifully savvy bastards!
What follows is Claire finding herself held captive by a man who’s more than a couple of cans short of a six-pack. Let me be clear… this could have very well turned into your typical “woman tied to a chair” torture porn event, but there’s one key component here that keeps it from heading that route: writer, producer, and director Megan Freels.
Make no bones about it; Rebound is a low budget affair, but rather than spending the scant $20k budget on ill-placed effects, Freels instead puts it all up on the screen with great locations and a troupe of unknown – and more importantly real looking – actors who are willing to take the material and under her direction run with it.
The result is a perfectly believable and frightening affair which delves not only into the most dangerous pitfalls a traveler can find herself caught in, but also the psyche of a very hurt, very human individual who needs to draw strength from some really dark places as a means to survive. There are some moments in which the acting seems a bit stilted, but overall Rebound is wonderfully written and beautifully shot. It should be on the must-see list for anyone who’s tired of the whole bloated Hollywood affairs that are shoved into and out of theatres with at times reckless abandon.
Keep a close eye on Megan Freels. Given the opportunity to work with a real budget, there’s no telling where she can take us. The future is definitely bright for her and deliciously dark for us.
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Film
Categorized:Reviews
