The Drifter

It may be a cheap movie without money but at last it says something and with a great cast and talent behind, i spent an excellent time ! It begins like « duel » in a red sand back road in California and the talent and charm of Kim pushes it right away… The situation is original and later this unpretentious thriller made in the 80s blossoms : the color, the interior design, the fashion, the cars, well everything is much cooler than our actual standardized 2K society ! Kim is really astounding as she is in every scene and it's one of her earliest movie ! She is definitely among my best actress list and this movie is really an unexpected surprise !

Most of us enjoy it when we find a "small", non-big-budget film that surprises us with its adept use of limited resources. "The Drifter" is just such a movie. It is filled with 1980's stylistic touches, and the big hair, moral freedoms, etc., that let you know right away that you have returned to that time zone. So what? Movies, for the most part, are products of their age and we should not hesitate to enjoy them as such, despite some reviewers tendency to slash away at any film (and call it dated) that dared to celebrate its "current sensibilities".

"The Drifter" focused on its stalker theme and managed to do so with panache, plot twists, suspense, and ensemble acting that carries the viewer happily forward. There is a well done sense of unease that permeates the setup and then culminates with violent, frightening moments that cause the flick to bear repeating. This film is a good one to share with folks who appreciate when a "small" film over-delivers. Whatever you do, make sure you rent or buy this little thriller. If you catch it in edited form on television you will miss the "kick" from the plot twists and wonder why some of us admire it so much.

I have a strong suspicion that producer Roger Corman, upon seeing the huge success of the major studio movie FATAL ATTRACTION, rushed this movie into production. This may explain why that, even for Roger Corman, this is an extremely tacky production. Even on DVD, the movie's visuals look so bad that you would swear this was made in the early 1970s and kept unmaintained on a shelf for the next fifteen years. There's bad sound (a couple of times when a car door slams shut, you don't hear anything!), bad continuity from shot to shot, and sets and furnished actual rooms looking hastily set up and constructed. You even clearly see the shadow of the boom mike on the ground in one shot! But even if the movie had better production values, it wouldn't help that much. The acting by all the leads is lacking passion, coming across instead as bland and lacking real emotion. But the script really drops the ball. After a while, the movie stops trying to build terror, and almost forgets the character of the drifter in the second half of the movie! Projects like this explain why Corman's movies soon after stopped getting theatrical releases.

I first saw this movie on a premium movie channel on cable TV and, unlike 95% of the things I watch on TV, I didnt find myself channel surfing. The movie kept me intrigued from start to finish.

Because I wasnt a soap opera fan, I didnt know who Kim Delany was, but she sure was attractive. Still is (NYPD Blue). Especially seeing her in the nude lovemaking scenes, the movie was very captivating!

Driving from San Francisco to Los Angeles, Julia Robbins (Kim Delaney) picks up a hitchhiker (Miles O'Keefe) and has a one night stand with him. Back in the city, he soon turns into a stalker and starts calling her non-stop, which is bad news because she is in a relationship with a lawyer (Timothy Bottoms). This was one of the thousands of erotic thrillers unleashed after the success of Fatal Attraction (1987) and writer-director Larry Brand (who also plays a cop) does a nice job of turning convention on its ear by having the handsome O'Keefe as the unhinged, spurned lover. There are several twists in this one and Brand pulls them all off well. He would also make a Poe film for Corman (Masque of the Red Death) and a similar thriller (Overexposed with Catherine Oxenberg).