Night Drive (2010)

Released in 2010 and written/directed by Justin Head, "Night Drive" is a South African action/adventure with horror elements about an evening safari drive with a group of six tourists, two guides and the son of the head guide. They run afoul of violent poachers and their mad witchdoctor. This is a stylish and violent flick with gore galore and a cool, unconventional opening. It eventually settles into a survival situation in the night wilderness. I don't know what the budget was, but the movie doesn't come across as low-budget; it's expertly made. Unfortunately, we don't really get to know the tourists, except for an unbelievably hostile dude, who's a turn-off. As such, it's hard to care about them and their outcome. The main protagonist is good (the son of the head guide), but the filmmakers drop the ball with the women. I suppose the white woman would've worked out, but they don't do enough with her. I did like the unexpected revelation about the witchdoctor at the end, but the second half should've been better considering the quality set-up. The script needed spruced-up to make the most of the situation, increase suspense, etc. Still, this is a very worthwhile jungle adventure with a side of horror. The film runs 103 minutes and was shot Johannesburg and Broederstroom, North West, South Africa.GRADE: Borderline B/B- (6.5/10)

A dodgy zero-budget South African horror film. I had high hopes for this one, as there aren't many mainstream films made in South Africa and the exotic terrain and wildlife automatically makes for an interesting movie backdrop. Unfortunately after a mildly promising introduction this turns out to be bottom of the barrel entertainment, one that's entirely predictable and clichéd by genre standards.The whole film is based around a night-time safari drive which is interrupted by a gang of murderous poachers keen on covering their trail. Unfortunately for the viewer, most of the people on the safari are irritating and unlikeable. The first half offers an acceptable build-up, but when all the action hits in the second half it takes place in complete darkness, so that the viewer is squinting all the while trying to work out what's happening.Not a lot really, other than people being butchered with machetes all the while. It all plays out familiarly, and it seems in part to be a reflection on Apartheid relations in South Africa: the beginning with whites murdering blacks, then the blacks rising up and slaughtering the rich white folk, before a twist at the climax with the whites serving justice on the blacks. Hints at black magic add up to little and NIGHT DRIVE as a whole is a nasty and pointless little exercise.

I had no idea what this film was before watching . The info button on my remote gave a brief synopsis that it was about a bunch of tourists who find themselves stuck in the remote South African veldt . Sounds exactly the premise for some torture porn along the lines of WOLF CREEK . Is this how it turned out ? Well yes and no Certainly it's an unpleasant film in parts but where as traditional torture porn the whole selling point is the camera lingering voyeuristically on the victim trying to sicken the audience as the victims anguished , pain stricken pleas fall upon deaf ears here the camera cuts away from the on screen carnage leaving it to the audiences imagination as to the horrors befalling the hapless victim . I'm guessing this is trying to be a psychological torture porn horror rather than a traditional one but it's still very unpleasant Another turn off are the characters . It's been mentioned by some of my peers on this page is that they've been given a lot of backstory and this is true and no doubt was done so that don't appear as mere cyphers come victims like you see n most horror movies . That said all the characters are either boring or unlikable or both and this sort of sums up the movie which is boring and unlikable at the same time

Firstly, I'm reminded of my favorite now gone horror review site and a "rule" they mentioned sometimes - a horror movie shouldn't run over ninety minutes unless it has something special for audience members.Additionally, I'm reminded of the fifty movie pack I once bought, and some among those films share the habit of padding the film with a sequence that adds little to the movie. Night Drive's was worse - it rendered the central characters as unlikable.Apparently drugged people experience motion like a 1st-person Nintendo 64 shooter - their walking viewpoint looking like the perspective of someone sliding across the ground instead of walking.It's also kinda like the inverse of the haunted house film Dead Birds, where the crew mixed an atmospheric film with gory scenes, here its a character-driven splatter flick, which doesn't really work because the characters aren't that endearing. The elderly couple were probably the most charismatic characters and contributed little.Ultimately the film falls flat because the pieces, well, technically fit together, just not very well.