Driftwood (2007)

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General		Extras
Category	Horror	Theatrical Trailer-(01:24) Ratio 1.85:1, 16x9, Dolby Digital 2.0. Deleted Scenes-(10:34) 9 + alt.end : Ratio 1.85:1, 16x9, Dolby Digital 2.0. Featurette-Behind The Scenes Featurette-(14:34) : Cast Audition Tapes : 1.85:1 / 1.33:1, 4x3. Featurette-Making Of Outtakes-(02:02) Blooper Reel : 2 takes of 1 scene : 1.85:1, 4x3. Gallery-(07:42) Automated Photo Gallery : 2 posters, 250 photos.
Rating
Year Of Production	2007
Running Time	86:12
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (77:16)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Tim Sullivan
Studio Distributor	Dark Horse Indie Beyond Home Entertainment	Starring	Raviv Ullman Dallas Page Talan Torriero David Eigenberg Lin Shaye Marc McClure
Case	Amaray-Opaque
RPI	$14.95	Music	William Ross

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	Full Frame	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.85:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	Yes, Deserted shots of the institution.

    This is a genuine "B" movie. With considerable restrictions of time and budget we must give credit to those responsible for getting a feature filmed at all. Principal amongst those is director/writer Tim Sullivan (2001 Maniacs) who had the original concept for the film. Had he been allowed to make what he intended, a realistic drama set in a teenage correction institute, he may have ended up, with some additional writing assistance, with a forceful, gutsy little drama. What we have here is the bones of a drama wedded with a silly ghost/horror story that does not score in either genre.

    The setting for the screenplay, co-authored by Sullivan and Chris Kobin, is Driftwood, an Attitude Adjustment Camp to which parents send their wayward teenaged boys in order to, what else, have their attitudes adjusted. David Forrester (Raviv Ullman) becomes obsessed with death after the loss of his band-singer brother, and his parents, fearing he may harm himself, "enroll" sixteen year-old David for two years at Driftwood, a converted abandoned prison,  in order to have him "adjusted". In charge of the institution is Captain Kennedy (Diamond Dallas Page) a hulking, abusive, sociopathic beast, who is in an incestuous relationship with his daughter Myra (Baelyn Neff). Almost instantly David is bashed and abused by staff and fellow inmates. David has his official headshot taken by the more sympathetic "Doc" (Lou Beatty Jr), and is alarmed when a ghostly image is seen behind him in the photo, the sight of which causes him to drop the frame and break the glass. As punishment David must "run the gauntlet" - bashed by his peers with rubber hoses. He hears that the other boys did not think the gauntlet would ever be run again - "not after Jonathan". Mystery enters the plot. Who is/was the mysterious Jonathan? David and the other boys endure the cruelty and abuse doled out by the guard Norris (David Eigenberg) and "psychologist" Quails (John Walcutt). We learn that Kennedy is in cahoots with real estate developer Mrs Sherman (Kim Morgan Greene) to buy up closed down prison sites, Driftwood being one, for commercial development. Before the mystery of Jonathan's death is revealed there is very mild sex for David involving the manipulative Myra, suggestions galore of goings on between the virile Kennedy and his "best boy", Yates (Talan Torriero), the dead Jonathan - "the closest thing I ever had to a son", says the incestuously involved father - as well as maybe future "use" for David. Also we have shootings, imprisonment in a black hole, maggots, and best - or worst - of all : the ghost!

    This is just too silly. Evidently the ghost was not the inspiration of the author/director, but Tim Sullivan accepted the suggestion from his producer (see the extras) and, as I feel sure Sullivan would say, "nailed it", "ran with it" and "hit it out of the ball park". Sorry, but no! If the film had remained a straight little "prison" drama, with the undeniable virtues that this final film does possess, fleshed out with  more emotional, sexual and physical  grit, who knows what little flawed gem he may have ended up with. What we have is about seventy-five percent drama with twenty-five percent of ghost and supposed horror added to it. If there was any horror, I missed it. The screenplay is overdeveloped in incident - ghost included - while never developing characters or dialogue. There are at least three points in the film where we have a scene between two characters, with one asking a question which prompts an uninterrupted "speech" from the other character. In the "extras" featurette director/write Sullivan says he learnt more in his fifteen days on this film than he learned in three year of film school. Perhaps he should return to film school - if they'll have him back after that comment - and take a course in writing dialogue. There is also an extremely puerile, schoolyard attitude towards sex, evident in the "intimate scenes" between two characters. "Now take off my blouse," says the female real estate developer after she and Kennedy have concluded their business meeting. Then there is the sniggering entry of the mere words masturbation and homosexuality into the scenes with Quails, also very odd. One would have expected something more confrontational from a brave "indie" production coming from a young writer/director. What we get is extremely tame and dull.

    There are undeniable virtues to this film, technical and human. It seems that no matter how limited a budget may be, today a "B" film can look and sound, technically, like an "A" product. Sullivan is served wonderfully by his director of photography Steve Adcock, with his assured, fluid and controlled camera giving us dramatically interesting images. With very little handheld work, basically limited to David's nightmares, the bulk of the camera work is strong and simple, with the occasional interesting angle always serving a purpose. There is also some very interesting lighting work, whether using what appears to be natural light, or more contrived set-ups such as the shafts of light in the "hole" scenes. Also on the technical side, the sound is superb - putting aside the fact that I had to watch the disc with a centre channel problem. For more on this see the audio section of this review.

    Performances fall mainly into two categories, the good and the bad, with the youngsters basically good, and the adults bad. The young men are all earnest, with the ensemble scenes playing well. Generally they resist any temptation to overplay - which must have been difficult given the examples of the older members of the cast. Raviv Ullman, who is now "Ricky" according to the slick, is very good in what he is asked to do, which is a great deal physically but very little emotionally, while Jeremy Lelliott is fine as the gentler Noah. Baelyn Neff does well as the sexy Myra, but again has very little to do.

    The adults are a mixed bag. Mark McClure, his experience being painfully obvious, and Lin Shaye are fine as David's parents, as is Lou Beatty Jr as the sympathetic doc. On the other hand, John Walcutt, as the obviously closeted Quails, is ludicrous, and it is difficult to believe that this is the same David Eisenberg who was so exceptionally good as Cynthia Nixon's  man in Sex and the City. Maybe it is bad to play the same role for so long, for here Eisenberg never finds a character, over playing every line. That leaves Diamond Dallas Page, who, having previously restricted his performances to the wrestling arena,  is here seen in his first screen role. Mr Page  looks, sounds and acts as though he is still wrestling. The performances by Walcutt, Eisenberg and Page would only be acceptable playing heavies in an extremely bad sitcom. The uniformity in tone of their truly appalling performances raises questions of the role of the director in all this. Was their tone to be in contrast to that of the young actors? If so, there is no mention of that intention anywhere in the extras, and, regardless,  it doesn't work. Perhaps their performances are bad enough to spawn a cult following for the film.

    I thoroughly enjoy a decent horror film - I do not consider slasher films to be "horror" - and there have been many dramatically exciting yarns set in prisons, of one kind or another. I also have the greatest respect for the "B" movie, which today, I guess, means "indie". This one has been meddled with and suffers badly. Although one wonders whether the writing would have been any better had the ghost not risen from the grave. This is only worth a look if you enjoy trying to spot future promise in young actors.
 

Video

    There are no subtitles.
    The disc is dual-layered, with the non-disruptive change occurring at 77:16.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    Unfortunately there is an audio problem with the disc supplied for review. The problem was referred to Beyond Home Entertainment but after two contacts no final answer was received from them.
    There is only one audio stream on the disc, which is Dolby Digital 5.1 encoded at 448 Kbps. The fault with the audio transfer is that the centre channel information is duplicated in the rear right channel, which means that all dialogue receives a lopsided surround reproduction. I have made my comments trying to ignore this, but obviously the full enjoyment of the sound was not possible. I regret this as obviously, even listening to this disconcertingly skewed reproduction, considerable care and skill  was involved in the recording of this soundtrack.
    
    The dialogue was perfectly clear and easy to understand. All the actors were crystal clear, quite remarkable considering the amount of inexperienced performers involved.
    There were no sync problems, and a crystal clear soundstage.
    The musical score by William Ross is atmospheric, interesting and varied and very nicely reproduced, making extensive use of the surrounds.
    Surrounds are in almost constant activity, creating an involving ambient soundstage punctuated by frequent aural effects.
    
    The subwoofer has a wonderful time, with dramatic bangs and crashes of all kind, and adding a wonderful "oomph" to the music, both the score and the well chosen tracks  used through the film, courtesy of musical supervisor Jonathan McHugh.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

There are a generous number of interesting and informative extras on the disc that contribute largely towards the value of this release.
All extras have Dolby Digital 2.0 audio encoded at 192 Kbps.

Main Menu:
Presented 1.85:1 and 16x9 enhanced, with live action and audio of the main theme.
Options presented are :
        Play Feature
        Scenes : Twelve thumbnails on three screens with music from score as audio.
        Extras : Options offered are detailed below.
        
Extras :

Original Theatrical Trailer (01:24) :
Presented 1.85:1, 16x9 enhanced and with Dolby Digital 2.0 audio encoded at 192 Kbps..

Deleted Scenes (10:34) :
Presented 1.85:1, 16x9 enhanced and with Dolby Digital 2.0 audio here there are ten scenes, or sequences not included in the final cut. Some are alternates, while others are genuine "cuts", including what looks like an alternate ending.

Featurette: "Doing Time on the set of Driftwood" (04:28) :
Presented 1.85:1 with a 4x3 transfer here are a few illuminating minutes which reveal that this film was intended to establish credibility for the newly established Dark Horse Indie film production company, an off-shoot of Dark Horse Comics. The director compares himself to Val Lewton, and the film itself to "Cool Hand Luke with a ghost", while the producer talks about a "voyage of self discovery" for the central character.

Audition Tapes (14:34) :
Presented 1.33:1 with a 4x3 transfer here are the genuine auditions made by most of the cast. Most seem to have auditioned with a performance as good as what is in the final product. The most interesting is Mark McClure, who played Jimmy Olsen to Christopher Reeve's Superman. The director comments on the auditions - everyone either "nailed it" or "hit it out of the ball park".

Featurette : "Through the Gauntlet - Inside the Walls of Driftwood" (28:54):
This featurette begins with a warning that it contains "spoilers", so should not be watched prior to seeing the film itself.
Presented in mixed ratios, 1.33:1 and 1.85:1, in a 4x3 transfer  the writer/director confesses that his film was originally intended to be a teenage Cuckoo's Nest combined with Cool Hand Luke - no ghost, just a drama set in an abusive institution for teenagers. Mike Richardson, the head honcho of Dark Horse Comics, vetoed aspects of the original concept because of budgetary limitations - explosions and other action special effects. Richardson suggested the addition of a less expensive supernatural element to the tale. Here's hoping Mr Richardson sticks to comics in the future, where he has more success.
Of interest is that the film was shot in fifteen days, that Bud Smith (The Exorcist) was a co-editor, as well as being a co-producer.
The director, Tim Sullivan, who has a penchant for dropping names of both films and accomplished film artists, in one behind the scenes bit is walking past the 'corpses' in David's nightmare sequence when he bends down and informs the camera : "Die young and leave a good looking corpse - James Dean said that."  Mr Sullivan is paraphrasing a line from Knock On Any Door, spoken by the character played by John Derek, the one who married Bo.

Blooper Reel (02:02):
Presented 1.85:1 in a 4x3 transfer this is limited to two attempts by Raviv Ullman and Diamond Dallas Page at a scene from the final cut.

Poster Stills and Gallery (07:42) :
Presented 1.33:1 in a 4x3 transfer this is a beautifully executed automated gallery using two posters and approximately two hundred and fifty stills and production shots from the film, accompanied by music from the score.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall