Driftwood

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.

I was a little apprehensive when I first saw the preview for this movie but it turned out to worth watching. David Forrester (Ricky Ullman) becomes obsessed with death after the over dose death of his rock star brother. His parents decide he needs to be a Driftwood a facility that is supposed to keep him out of Jail and straighten him out. In Driftwood He meets the usual cast of Characters The gangsta, the Ladies man, etc. He also meets Johnathan, a ghost who has a secret that could save them all.

The acting is a questionable at times but is due to many characters being one-dimensional stock characters. We learn during the movie David does not have a good relationship with his parent, and has unresolved guilt over his brothers death. We also learn Noah (Jeremy Lelliot) is here for being gay something the camp is supposed to cure you of. We also learn Noah and Jonathan were friends and he also wants his murder solved. It has a complete ending unlike some horror movies.

I wish they had spent more time on the dynamics of the relationships, and fewer 2 one-dimensional character otherwise it is worth watching. I think Ricky Ullman's acting is good, though his innocent look makes it difficult to see him as the brooding troubled teen (Remember this is Phil of the future from Disney). Diamond Dallas Paige gives a good performance as the greedy, sadistic warden of the facility, and Jeremy Lelliot is a bit underutilized as Noah.

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

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.