Drifter (2016) Movie Review – Your Brother Is All Over Your Face

The exploitation-like horror-thriller, Drifter, from writer/director Chris von Hoffmann (White Trash, Fuel Junkie, Vodka 7), is a gritty, blood-soaked film that takes place in a nondescript post-apocalyptic world of crime, violence, and corruption.

The movie opens with two brothers (who seem like gay lovers in the next scene), Miles and Dominic Pierce (Aria Emory and Drew Harwood, respectively), in the midst of what looks like a gas station holdup. Things don’t go exactly as planned and Miles ends up getting shot through the hand. Then, as we’ve all seen somewhere else before, Miles looks through the gaping hole in his hand, you know the shot, the one where his hand is between his face and the camera and we get to see the horrified look in his eye through said gaping hole. Then Miles’ brother, Dominic, promptly wraps it up in Duct Tape. Surely this had to be an homage to that other movie whose name eludes me, but to open your movie with this is to open with skeptically low hopes for the audience.

What follows is the aforementioned gayness in the car scene. Then it’s off to the bloody races for extreme violence. We also learn that the world of Drifter is a post-apocalyptic one. For how long? We don’t know. For what reason? We don’t know why. It just is.

So, after setting the tone by showing us the ability of the brothers, well Dominic, to take care of themselves in bloody righteous glory, the two are soon on a quest to get Miles some medical attention. The fact that Dominic actually says to get Miles to a hospital kind of takes us out of the apocalypse. I mean, what kind of apocalypse has hospitals? It defeats the purpose, right? This apocalypse apparently has one working car, which belongs to Miles and Dominic, but there are hospitals! Seriously?

Post-Apocalyptic Pee-Wee

Nonetheless, this leads them into the belly of the beast, so to speak. This town is run by Doyle (James McCabe), who likes a quiet, peaceful existence… but revels in the chance to torture unwanted guests. And where Doyle is a curious, calm violent ruler, his henchman, Latos (Anthony Ficco), is the extroverted psychotic who’s happy so long as he gets to intimidate and kill.

I played college football, and this is what my scholarship got me!

Other notable characters in the little cannibal town include Ivan (Jack G. Davis) the old man bait, sex-starved Sasha (Rebecca Fraiser) (but who could ever get past that herpes-like gash on her lip?), and the unwitting Vejah (Monique Rosario) who has a heart almost as big as her eyebrows (yes, I believe they were prosthetics since Monique’s eyebrows look much better in her online glamor shots). Now, Miles and Dominic look like saints next to Doyle and his crew, but they aren’t exactly innocents, and of all the characters you might want to survive, it’s Vejah.

Post-Apocalyptic slut

Another character playing an important role is the set pieces. They are grimy, bloody, and disgusting; they will make your skin crawl. Given the aged look of some of the internal locations, we can’t be sure how long this apocalypse has been going on, but it seems to have been a long while.

The Verdict:

Drifter is well-worth your time if you’re a fan of the genre, even if the ending is reminiscent of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2.

Rock Hard \m/