O Passageiro das Trevas

If you want to watch a movie solely about a woman driving a rando guy around while arguing, this is the movie for you. Waste of time.

Emerson (Casey Dillard) is a stand up comic who drives for Uber in a borrowed car. One crazy night, she picks up a strange man named Roger (Richard Speight, Independence Day/Band of Brothers). Soon, Emerson finds out more about the crazy man's mission and can't help but do her best to help. From there, the insanity begins...

A truly unique gem of a film, it clocks in as a brisk and perfectly timed 89 minutes. While I wouldn't mind spending more time with some of the characters here, it feels like the story is told well in its runtime. If any longer, the film could suffer from having large lulls or the dreaded middle third drag. Instead, it flows well from start to finish.

While clearly made on a modest budget, the film looks pretty damn good. The lighting works, the shots are framed well, and the films simply looks and feels crisp. Indie films with a great look to them always feel impressive, especially when they - like this one - actually look better than many more expensive studio films.

While Speight may be the only super recognizable face, the cast is fantastic, with he and Dillard really shining at the forefront. When you combine their performances with a strong script, great pacing, and that fantastic look of the scenes, you get a truly unique and worthwhile experience. Genre film fans will truly enjoy this one. Besides, in what other film will you ever get the chance to encounter a recurring joke about a "turd spoon"?

• Justin Harlan aka thepaintedman

This is another of the independent "gems", being upvoted by the "family and friends". Don't bother watching, this is an amateurish attempt at filmmaking. Acting is the least objectionable part of it, and it's not that good, so you can appreciate how fares the rest.

I didn't hate this at all, but I don't get the overwhelming love for it. Is it's scary? No. Is it laugh out loud funny? No. But it's "fun".

It could easily be a TV show on something like CW. It's that kinda goofyness...not bad...but hard to see it as much of anything with substance.

The humor is very slap stick, "he's right behind me isn't he?" style. It's a bit too silly though.

It's VERY rare you'll find a HORROR/COMEDY that really truly nails it, such as Evil Dead2 or Tucker & Dale Vs Evil...and sadly, this film will be lost among the 50+ mid budget horror comedies every year. It'll be in the $1 bin within a few years.

However, that doesn't make it bad. It does it's job JUUUUST well enough to pass. The acting is not very good to be honest, but it JUST keeps above the cringe factor. So I'd give the acting a C+ the story is as basic as it gets, any 7th grader could write it...but again...it's not trying to take itself seriously.

Want a feel good, not very scary, good time killer horror comedy? This should work just fine.

I first encountered DRIVEN, the quirky love child of COLLATERAL and SUPERNATURAL, as part of a film festival last year and immediately thought it was deserving of a wider audience. Casey Dillard's brisk, cleverly-batty script is served beautifully by Glenn Payne's steady direction and DP Michael Williams' obviously-keen eye. Yes, there are demons and the fate of humanity might be at stake, but the real treat here is the chemistry between Richard Speight Jr. ("Roger"), a mysterious loner with a whole bucket load of secrets, and Dillard herself ("Emerson"), a wannabe stand-up comedian working a ride-share night shift. The two actors banter back and forth, trading licks like virtuoso musicians, first antagonistically, and then ... well, watch the movie. The dialogue is sharp and witty and the two central performances are perfectly wrought.

The casting of the Speight (of the aforementioned SUPERNATURAL), who broods and charms in equal measure here, was a real stroke of brilliance by Payne. Speight's mere presence immediately conveys the tone for which Payne aspires (and achieves). Yes, to return to my initial comparison, the fun we have is more CW than Michael Mann, a refreshing, if all-too-fleeting, cool breeze of a film that whisks past you before you even realized how much you enjoyed it, but there is real craft and sturdy filmmaking on display here, from the script, to the cast, and right on up the line, made all the more impressive given that this is an independent film made a zillion miles away from studios and their resources. Payne succeeds in making a film that, effectively, takes place inside a car for 90 minutes completely and utterly engaging and, COLLATERAL comparison notwithstanding, it all feels fresh and uniquely-spun. That is no small task. Give DRIVEN a shot. After all, who couldn't use a rapid infusion of cool, fresh air right about now?