Drifter (2017)
Drew Tinnin
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Starring Aria Emory, Drew Harwood, Monique Rosario, James McCabe, Anthony Ficco
Directed by Chris von Hoffmann
Chris von Hoffmann’s first full feature, Drifter, has some style; but its pulp flair and backwoods carnival characters don’t offer any real substance to sink your teeth into. Comparisons to the contributions of Nineties rockers-turned-auteurs or Seventies country horror classics can easily be drawn, but what’s the point?
Whether Drifter is paying homage or just being derivative, let it stand on its own for better or worse. Creatively, however, this and every other film that came after the classics they parrot all suffer from the law of diminishing returns.
It’s easy to see the bond that brothers Miles (Emory) and Dominic (Harwood) have together: they’re outcasts, they’ve been through hell together, and their very survival depends on each other. Because of that bond, it makes it that much harder to watch as their lives become threatened in a small, abandoned town forgotten by the chaotic wasteland surrounding it.
Slowly but surely, Miles and Dominic take the bait – a depraved but alluring woman named Sasha (Rebecca Fraiser) proves to be the perfect distraction – drawing out the whacked inhabitants of Crazytown, U.S.A., when all they wanted to do was lay low for a night or two. The merry band of psychotics look, at first, to be led by the wild yute Latos (Ficco), but the ringleader is actually Doyle (McCabe) who looks like a xeroxed version of Bill Moseley. The locals are insane, and even worse, they’re bored. All too familiar, it’s yet another example of what happens in the horror genre once the cable goes out and other means of entertainment become… necessary.
The dedication in front of and behind the camera is absolutely evident, but long-winded, over-the-top performances hurt the characters, and the payoff in some key sequences never matches the bombastic build-up. Sometimes it’s better to show the violence once the filmmaker has successfully sparked your imagination, regardless of how much it may dig into the budget to do it right. We want our horror to be satisfying; this gets us worked up and then walks away.
Knowledge of the craft is absolutely on display; it’s momentum in the story that’s lacking. The sensationalist skin of trash punk desolation that Drifter covers itself up with will always have its appeal, but that aesthetic isn’t enough to carry us successfully through Hoffman’s scorched world. Still, there’s something to this cast and crew so be on the lookout for what comes next.
Drifter hits theaters today and is available on VOD and iTunes on Tuesday, February 28.
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Film
Categorized:Reviews
