Drive Back is a 2024 horror film about a couple returning from their engagement party who must escape a sinister and seemingly endless road.
The movie was directed by Cody Ashford from a screenplay by Jon Sarro. It was produced by Travis Cluff, Orlando J. Gomez, Zac Locke, Chris Lofing and Mikey Bill Taylor.
The Rotting Press-Tremendum Pictures stars Zack Gold, Whit Kunschik, Tammy Kaitz, Crystal Foster, Madonna Young Magee, Robert Lewis Stephenson, Jim Tuck and Eric Vue.
Plot:
Struggling artist, Reid (Zack Gold), and his pregnant fiancée, Olivia (Whit Kunschik), celebrate their new engagement, happily surrounded by family and friends. After a cryptic warning from Reid’s father, a car accident leaves them lost in the woods.
Searching for directions leads to a rundown store, run by a creepy older couple, who suggest the best way home is by taking an old shortcut through dark backroads. But after violent visions, lost memories, a troubling hitchhiker encounter, and an inability to escape the road itself, their car breaks down and they discover a terrifying killer is hunting their every move…
Reviews:
“Drive Back has an interesting premise and has a great second half, but it’s getting to that second half that’s a chore. The film desperately tries to be scary on occasion with random jumpscares and tired horror film tropes but falls flat on its face with this. And while Zack Gold and Whit Kunschik are acting their way through this well enough, the characters themselves are uneven in terms of their writing.” BRWC
“In the woods, the scenery is beautiful but unsettling […] Viewers will be scanning the background, looking for threats in the woods, even when the characters aren’t. Drive Back is an unsettling but surprisingly touching film about finding a path forward with the one you love.” ★★★★ FilmHounds
“It’s a single location horror film in that it’s set mostly inside one a car on the same road, but Reid and Olivia’s journey is an eventful one, enlivened by the various macabre distractions Ashford and Sarro have in store for the couple […] Featuring solid performances from Gold and Kunschik – whose chemistry carries the film through its quieter moments – and sharp writing, it’s a slick, effective version of the roadtrip-gone-wrong horror film.” ★★★★ Horror DNA
” …it’s perhaps appropriate that the movie itself is so easy to get mixed up with several other recent pictures – Brightwood, Bring Out the Fear – which cover much the same ground but on foot. A few other elements hark back to oddities like Reeker, Los Cronocrimenes or Dead End, though it’s not quite as clear cut about whether the protagonists are in an afterlife limbo, a time-loop or a set of constructed circumstances calculated to give audiences nightmares.” The Kim Newman Web Site
“This is an excellently-told story that plays wonderfully into the concept and keeps you on edge, even if Reid seems to be a terrible driver. Drive Back is a real mind-bender that constantly keeps you guessing.” ★★★★ Movie Reviews 101
“Drive Back offers scenes from a marriage in polaroid-like snapshot, collapsing all the good and bad in this couple’s relationship into a short stretch of backroad that loops back on itself, echoing into infinity. Here, even as Reid and Olivia’s love is repeatedly threatened, as it was before, by a third party, they are also their own worst enemies and their best hopes – and perhaps love will find a way, no matter how paradoxical its trajectory.” Projected Figures
Trailer:
Release date:
Drive Back will be released by Dark Sky Films theatrically and on digital on November 8, 2024. Buy from Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk
Cast and characters:
Zack Gold … Reid, Whit Kunschik … Olivia, Tammy Kaitz … Sheila, Crystal Foster … Kim, Madonna Young Magee … Wendy, Robert Lewis Stephenson … Duane, Jim Tuck … Hitchhiker, Eric Vue … Dave, Nathan Healy … Soda Drinking Party Goer
