[Driftwood]
Plot:Riddled with guilt over the loss of his rock star older brother, 16-year-old David Forrester (Ricky Ullman) becomes obsessed with death, leading his misguided parents to send him to Driftwood, an attitude-adjustment Camp for troubled youths run by the sadistic Captain Doug Kennedy (Diamond Dallas Page) and his brutal young henchman, Yates (Talan Torriero). Once there, David becomes haunted by the spirit of Jonathan (Connor Ross), a former inmate who met a mysterious end, and a mystery whose resolution could very well be David's only way out.

Cast:Ricky Ullman, Dallas Page, Talan Torriero, David Eigenberg, Lin Shaye, Marc McClure, Russell Sams, Baelyn Neff, Jeremy Lelliott, Cory Hardrict, Frankie Levangie, Shahine Ezell, David Skyler, Connor Ross, John Walcutt.

My Thoughts:Lacks scares bu excels in many other areas.

Review:Usually when a horror film blends genres with another genre such as drama, or thriller, if it doesn't hold up the horror end of things.....it crashes and burns fast. In the case of "Driftwood" however, it doesn't do much on the horror front....but blends horror with drama nicely enough to come out of it all with a good grade from me. The film follows David (Ullman), a teenager who recently lost his brother. After a few incidents of acting out, his parents send him to a reformatory for boys, which is ran by Captain Kennedy (Page)...a hard-as-nails enforcer who isn't afraid to do serious harm to anyone who steps out of line at his camp.

After arriving, and going through a scene of witty and sharp-dialogue-inspired introductions to his camp-mates...David tries to adjust to his time at the reformatory. But he is soon haunted by visions and images of a teenager who died at the reformatory previously. After Captain Kennedy sees it fit to make David's life a living hell, David feels called upon to further investigate the identity and fate of the teenager he continues to see, suspecting that Kennedy may be involved, and that there's more to the reformatory known as "Driftwood" than meets the eye. "Driftwood" isn't a scary horror movie by any stretch of the imagination.

If you're looking for scares similar to "The Shining" or "The Entity", then just don't see the movie. It's a supernatural horror film sure, but writer/director Tim Sullivan prefers to tell a story with strong characters over scaring the audience with cheap thrills, and jump scares that nine times out of ten, don't pan out. While it is a slightly odd, and outside-the-box approach to supernatural horror, you've gotta give Sullivan credit for putting a unique spin on what could've turned out to be a dull ghost tale. What really helps the film more than anything though is it's strong performances.

From top (Page, Ullman), to middle (Hardrict), to bottom (Shaye), everyone makes the best use of their screentime in the movie by really delivering on their scenes, and adding depth to their respective characters. You really feel sorry for these kids who while a little rough around the edges, most people can or could relate to. You really feel they don't deserve to be at Driftwood, and under the watch of a prick like Kennedy. At the same time, you also end up really hating Kennedy, played by ex-pro-wrestler Dallas Page.

Page does an excellent job in portraying this heel character on screen, which doesn't come as much of a surprise to me because coming from the wrestling world, it's all about making the crowd either hate or love you to the best of your ability. And Page throughout his wrestling career has played both heel (bad guy) and face (good guy). Hence he was a great choice for the role. Along with the strong performances and intriguing story, the movie also offers up a few subplots involving Kennedy's daughter who may or may not be as innocent as she seems, and an ex-driftwooder turned right-hand-man who under the tutilage of Kennedy...is constantly battling his own inner-turmoil.

The film is very heavy on the drama elements, but because it's a mostly male cast...the pic comes off as more of a "man-drama", offering up hard-hitting dialogue and good one-on-one banter scenes, rather than a female drama which would bore one very quickly and not be as sharp as it could be after going heavy on the sappy-styled drama. "Driftwood" does delve into it's horror roots heavily in the third act, eventually bridging it's story together and while still not managing to scare the audience, in the end...still finding a way to create a powerful, intense, and exciting finale overall.

"Driftwood" is not gonna be every horror fans ideal horror movie. It does alot of things differently and doesn't follow the same rules, guidelines, and patterns that most other horror movies, supernatural horror movies in particular......follow. Nor does it offer up anything really large in the area of blood and gore. However, while it doesn't fit the mold of your typical ghost movie, it does end up being a very interesting watch for those horror fans looking for something unique out of their favorite film genre.

Positives:Strong story, strong performances, great third act.

Negatives:Nothing major.

Overall:Three out of four stars.





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