NIGHT DRIVE
Director: Justin Head
Cast: Chris Beasley, Leroy Gopal, Robert Whitehead, Greg Melvill-Smith, Corrine du Toit, Brandon Auret, Antonio David Lyons, Gabriel Temudzani and Matshepo Maleme
Running Time: 100mins
Classification: 18 VL
Rating: *****
So you have seen Saw 7 and you think it is the bloodiest thing on screen right now? That’s because you haven’t watched South Africa’s very own horror gem, Night Drive, which is on circuit from today. The film has a part-horror, part-documentary approach so you will not be seeing senseless killing.
Set on a South African game farm, the story follows a bunch of local and international tourists who agree to go for a night drive to see the wild life.
And, as the sound of the crickets and owls fills the night air, you just know danger is lurking.
But while you might think that the animals of the wild would be their greatest fear, it turns out that they are wrong. Instead they should be fearing a superior hunter of the night – the gun-wielding poacher.
However, this posse of killers are not chasing rhino for their horns or elephants for their tusks – they are hunting people for their body parts!
“The more alive they are while you cut it out the more potent the body will be,” says a hunter in the film.
If you have a problem with blood, I suggest you rent a Smurfs DVD instead.
With Chris Beasley as the lead character, we see the tourists try desperately to survive through the night.
Beasley plays Sean, a former police officer whose spirit was broken when he lost his job and his mother at about the same time.
His father Jack (Greg Melvill-Smith) is a game ranger who uses his job as an excuse to escape from his responsibi-lities as a father and a husband. After the death of his mother, Sean visits his father to scatter her ashes – but tragedy awaits on the night drive.
Tipped to be the hero of the film from the outset, Sean shows amazing survival skills once he and his group are attacked. The entire story takes place over one night, but flashbacks give us ample background information on all the characters.
Any horror fan will tell you that a horror film is only as good as its gory scenes, and Night Drive has that covered.
From ending up armless to hanging from a noose, all the victims are in terrible, believable pain all the way.
In an interview with director Justin Head, Tonight established that the budget was not exactly of Hollywood proportions and that it was the team’s “insane creativity” that pushed them.
So that “no funding” excuse really does not fly: either you’ve got it or not.
Night Drive has set the standard for horror, so the question is, what’s next on the local circuit?
If you liked ... Hostel II, The Hills Have Eyes, Wrong Turn ... and all the scary flicks in that league, then add Night Drive to your list.