Driftwood

After the death of his older rocker brother Dean of overdose, the rebel sixteen year-old David Forrester (Raviv Ullman) becomes bitter and obsessed with death, while grieving his brother. His parents decide to send him to Driftwood, a camp leaded by Captain Kennedy (Diamond Dallas Page) that promises to transform dysfunctional boys in men. David is lodged in the Level 1 and discovers that Captain uses brutality to control and modify the attitudes of the teenagers; further, that he uses the camp with the intention to make money in real state business. When David is haunted by the spirit of the Captain's nephew Jonathan (Connor Ross), who died in the swamp nearby Driftwood, he discovers a dark secret about his mates in Level 1 and the brutal Captain Kennedy.

"Driftwood" has a promising beginning, and the reformatory seems to be a teen version of "Prison Break" with corruption, sadism and brutality. However the plot is so absurd and ridiculous that, associated to the terrible acting, makes this movie completely worthless. Some reviews that give high ratings seem to be fake comments and published only to promote this weak movie and lure the readers. My vote is three.

Title (Brazil): "Driftwood, o Reformatório" ("Driftwood, The Reformatory")

Israeli-born actor Raviv Ullman ('Phil of the Future') here plays David Forrester, a morose kid who's been obsessed with death since his older brother, a rock musician, O.D.'d. His concerned parents (Lin Shaye, the "Insidious" series, and Marc McClure, Jimmy Olsen in the Christopher Reeve "Superman" films) send him to the title institution, which looks after troubled youths. However, when he gets there, authority figures such as the swaggering Captain Kennedy (wrestling icon Diamond Dallas Page, "The Devil's Rejects") order him to toe the line...OR ELSE. It turns out, they're VERY rough on their charges. Soon, David develops interest in the story of Jonathan (Connor Ross, "Headgame"), an inmate who'd supposedly perished in an escape attempt.

Granted, all of this is quite familiar stuff. And co-writer / director Tim Sullivan ("2001 Maniacs") doesn't have very many surprises in store for his viewers. "Driftwood" is occasionally atmospheric, but not very creepy *or* scary, as the story starts leaning on supernatural-horror elements. Some of the gore and makeup are good, but the visual effects are unimaginative. The characters - the inmates, anyway - are uninspired types.

All of that said, this was reasonably well made, and paced adequately, wrapping up in just an hour and a half. B flicks like this can't really be measured against mega budget Hollywood product, anyway, and this one proved to be watchable enough. It benefits from Ullman's decent lead performance, some sexy ladies (Baelyn Neff ("Kissing Strangers"), Kim Morgan Greene (a veteran of episodic TV)), and villains who offer the audience great thick slices of ham. Page in particular is an effective heavy. It's nice to see Shaye and McClure, as always. Familiar faces among the supporting cast include David Eigenberg ('Sex and the City') as the henchman Norris, and Cory Hardrict ("Warm Bodies") as Darryl.

At least this little picture shows that Sullivan can handle serious genre fare as well as he can a campier effort like "2001 Maniacs".

Six out of 10.

Not having known Tim's work beforehand, I was stunningly impressed with "Driftwood". Since I like both "Beth" and "Shout It Out Loud", I'm really looking forward to checking out his other work.

"Driftwood" resonated strongly with its message on peoples' reactions to "Columbine" --and it's a fantastic movie. I think that there really has not been a strong response from our communities on what the post-Columbine panic meant for people who were growing up without "mainstream" interests.

I am greatly interested in other works by Tim Sullivan after watching this film.

I saw Driftwood Saturday at the Fango Weekend of Horrors. At first I thought Ullman would just pull off some low-end Disney acting, but he was actually very good. You can see a smoldering in his eyes that I didn't expect him to be able to emote at all. Also, he gets to use his real name for the credits in this movie, Raviv. The poster still shows Ricky though.

My expectations were low for Diamond Dallas Page, but he was good. Oddly, I thought the scenes in which Page didn't speak a lot were better than the ones in which he did. But if he can keep getting better than you never know.

Driftwood is NOTHING like 2001 Maniacs. I tried not to think about Maniacs when I went in to see this movie. I didn't need to bother. I wouldn't think Driftwood was by the same director as Maniacs if I had gone in blind. The movies are vastly different in approach and feel.

I have some fun facts for this movie I am afraid to put in here because they might mildly spoil the movie. I do suggest seeing Driftwood. A good ghost story with multi-layered social commentary. The acting is much better than I think most people expect from a B film so don't let that be a deterrent.

After just viewing the screener of DRIFTWOOD with a couple of mates, I was very impressed with this little known thriller. It had a pretty good storyline, a troubled teen, David, riddled over the guilt over his brothers death, he actually becomes obsessed with death. His misguided parents send him to DRIFTWOOD, an "Attitude adjustment camp for troubled youths" which is run by a sadistic Captain, played superbly by Diamond Dallas Page, and his brutal young henchmen. Once inside the camp he becomes haunted by a spirit named Jonathan, a former inmate who met a mysterious end, David has to unravel the mystery in order to free himself from the sadistic camp. Great acting from a bunch of relatively unknowns, and a great script make this one of the great finds of 2007, believe me if you like to sit and get stuck into a film, not expecting blood and guts, but a good suspense/mystery, this is a film you must watch. It reminded me a lot like STIR OF ECHOES. Strongly recommended 8/10