Bad Samaritan (2018)
Electric Entertainment
Directed by: Dean Devlin
Written by: Brandon Boyce
Starring: David Tennant, Kerry Condon, Robert Sheenhan, Carlito Olivero & Jacqueline Byers
There are certain movies that have stand-out moments to everyone. Every genre of film has these moments from rom-coms to action flicks to animated features. Thrillers & horror films, for me anyway, have those moments even more so. This weekend, writer Brandon Boyce and director Dean Devlin will serve up several of those moments to you on a silver platter in their new movie Bad Samaritan. Robert Sheehan & Carlito Olivero play valets (Sean & Derek, respectively) at an upscale Portland restaurant who use their access to customers’ cars to gain access to their homes and rob them. On this particular evening, they find more than just valuables when they break into the home of Mr. Cale Erendreich (played with sociopathic aplomb by David Tennant) to find a woman chained to the wall of his private home office and a “kill room” in his garage. Sean decides he has to alert the police even though it means admitting to his own crimes. But Erendreich is already ahead of him and has moved his prisoner to another location. Desperately, Sean goes to the FBI for help but even they seem to be unable to stop this madman from killing his prisoner and systematically destroying Sean’s life piece-by-piece in the process.
Dean Devlin is a masterful director and does a fantastic job of slowly and mercilessly building tension scene-by-scene. The entire cast gives strong performances including Kerry Condon as Erendreich’s prisoner Katie (who delivers what is probably my favorite line of the film). David Tennant is unrelentingly intense and razor sharp as Cale Ehrendreich. His portrayal of this sociopath ranks right up there with greats like Robert De Niro‘s Max Cady and Anthony Hopkins‘ Hannibal Lecter. This is one of those films that you’ll be thinking about days after you’ve seen it. We had a great talk with Dean Devlin about the film if you’d like to hear his thoughts on the film, the casting and more. Movies like this that are original ideas and driven by a strong cast are few and far between in today’s age of the Hollywood blockbuster where it’s all big names, special effects, and barely plausible plotlines. To that end, ‘Bad Samaritan’ is a breath of fresh air that will leave you holding your breath until the pulse-pounding finale. On a scale of 1 to 10, I’d give this film a blood-chilling 9! Don’t see it alone!!
