Driftwood

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.

Driftwood is probably the first indie horror movie for teens! The pacing of the film, coupled with the rock music found in each scene, will remind you of a theatrical release with a 12- to 18-year-old target market in mind. That would stick if there weren't a whole lot of cursing. Does that make it PG-13? When we discussed the film with director Tim Sullivan, he did drop the title The Outsiders from time to time, comparing his crew of boys to the now classic film cast. The comparison is definitely fair as the Driftwood crew deliver stellar performances that kept me in the moment by raising the level of reality every time they uttered a word. It's challenging enough to come up with a group of characters who are different enough to be individuals yet bond, however slightly, over a common situation. That is just step one. Next you have to cast people that can act for it to all be believable.

Driftwood is one part Holes, one part Cool Hand Luke, with a little dash of Stir of Echoes thrown in. The characters are engaging enough to make the time fly by. Tim Sullivan presents a story of desperation wrapped around a study in fear, whether that fear is of a physically imposing authority figure or a supernatural being. The walls of Driftwood hold more than one dark secret, but revealing them could mean the death to all who know. A little knowledge can be a dangerous thing.

Be sure to watch out for Driftwood when it comes to your town during its limited release and support well written, well executed independent movies! We need a lot more like them.

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.

The movie clearly hits home with some people, but for me I'm afraid it missed the mark.

From the outset the acting appeared somewhat B-movie-like. Some characters overacted, the script felt unnatural and some of the lines spouted were just clichés from a phrase book.

The lead guy was OK - his acting was clearly what the producers spent their money on. By no means an Oscar-winning performance, he did grab the spotlight but only really thanks to the quite terrible acting around him.

The story is OK - that's all though, "ok". Not great, not inspiring. Nothing new. I only just made it to the end but constantly wished it could have been forwarded.

Seeing as most people here seemed to enjoy it, I can hardly tell you to stay away but it is in no way shape or form a great movie.

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.