Ameriatch One of the best films i have seen

Connianatu How wonderful it is to see this fine actress carry a film and carry it so beautifully.

Leoni Haney Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

Haven Kaycee It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

Leofwine_draca A dodgy zero-budget South African horror film. I had high hopes for this one, as there aren't many mainstream films made in South Africa and the exotic terrain and wildlife automatically makes for an interesting movie backdrop. Unfortunately after a mildly promising introduction this turns out to be bottom of the barrel entertainment, one that's entirely predictable and clichéd by genre standards.The whole film is based around a night-time safari drive which is interrupted by a gang of murderous poachers keen on covering their trail. Unfortunately for the viewer, most of the people on the safari are irritating and unlikeable. The first half offers an acceptable build-up, but when all the action hits in the second half it takes place in complete darkness, so that the viewer is squinting all the while trying to work out what's happening.Not a lot really, other than people being butchered with machetes all the while. It all plays out familiarly, and it seems in part to be a reflection on Apartheid relations in South Africa: the beginning with whites murdering blacks, then the blacks rising up and slaughtering the rich white folk, before a twist at the climax with the whites serving justice on the blacks. Hints at black magic add up to little and NIGHT DRIVE as a whole is a nasty and pointless little exercise.

Woodyanders A night drive through the South African bush turns into a deadly game of survival after a group of tourists find themselves being hunted by deadly poachers. Writer/director Justin Head relates the gripping story at a quick pace, maintains an unsparingly tough and gritty tone throughout, generates a considerable amount of nerve-wracking suspense, and makes nice use of the desolate bush locations. The solid acting by the capable cast keeps this picture humming: Christopher Beasley as disgraced cop Sean Darwin, Corine Du Toit as the depressed and suicidal Karen, Greg Melvill-Smith as rugged game warden Jack, Yule Masiteng as Jack's easygoing partner Akani, Brandon Auret as obnoxious antagonistic cokehead jerk Ian, Antonio David Lyons as the dashing Denzel, David Sherwood as kindly old gent Rodger Turner, Clare Marshall as Rodger's sweet wife Mary, and Matshepo Maleme as the feisty Tumi. The shocking moments of raw and gruesome violence pack a savage punch. Trevor Calverley's sharp cinematography provides an impressive slick look. Benjamin Willem's throbbing tribal score does the rousing trick. A neat'n'nasty little item.

Paul Andrews Night Drive is set inside the Nyari private game reserve in Mpumalanga, South Africa where gamekeeper Jack Darwin (Greg Melvill-Smith) is angry that his anti-poaching unit is being canned by his boss because of publicity fears. Jack believes that the public has every right to fear as he is convinced gangs of armed men wander the reserves killing anyone they meet to use in sadistic rituals held by the so called 'Hyena Man' & his men, Jack's boss is having none of it & says that he has to supervise a group of tourists on a night drive, a safari drive through the game reserve but at night. Jack is unhappy but has zero choice so along with his man Akani (Yule Masiteng) they prepare for the night drive. Suddenly Jack's son Sean (Christopher Beasley) turns up & joins them & the tourists in order to scatter hate mother's ashes, while enjoying the South African landscape tourist Karen (Corine Du Toit) stumbles upon a mutilated corpse left by the Heyena Man gang. Soon they are being stalked, attacked & killed by the gang...This South African production was written & directed by Justin Head & is pretty bad, in fact it's just about as bad as any American low budget horror. The script is a mess, what could have been a great horror thriller that explored the cultural heritage of South Africa & used it's myth's & legends to add considerable background to the story all the script offers is some vague rubbish about Voodoo & a few almost pitch black rituals involving slicing people up with machetes. The character's are all stock horror film clichés, the cop with a dark past which he feels great guilt for, the father who has a uneasy relationship with his son until they need to pull together, a really annoying white guy who makes really bad decisions & seems to try his hardest to make people hate him, the romantic love interest who the hero falls in love with & a few other faceless people who are there merely to add to the body count. Night Drive lasts for over 100 minutes, there is no way that Night Drive needed to be that long & it really drags in places, then there's the lack of ambition shown here as the terrain & locations are never used to any sort of effect, a large part of the film is set around one small log fire in the middle of nowhere, the bad guy's have little motivation which could be for either supernatural or financial reasons & it's throughly predictable. Little in the way of horror, there's nothing particularly thrilling about it & I would have a very hard time recommending it to anyone, even the most die hard of low budget horror fans.With only seven user comments & only three external reviews so far on the IMDb as I write this I assume that Night Drive is pretty obscure, it's certainly never been released on DVD here in the UK although it has played on cable television which is how I saw it & I presume this hasn't seen the light of day in the US either & with good reason as it's a tough sell. Forget about the South African locations as they are all but wasted, most of the film looks to have been shot in the same part of some forest somewhere, none of the local culture or colour or wildlife seems to have been used apart from a few random shots of Hyenas. The gore is forgettable, there's some blood splatter, a guy gets impaled on a machete, a woman is seen with her arm hacked off, there's a mutilated corpse & a few gory gunshot wounds but little else & I can only think of one on screen kill. The final third of Night Drive descends into a shoot em up with lots of people firing guns at each other in some very dull scenes. Night Drive is also very dark at times, if the makers filmed outside at night for real it looks like they didn't bring their own lighting.Probably shot on a low budget Night Drive looks like most cheap horror films, it's reasonably well made but forgettable & again the locations are wasted. Filmed in South Africa. The acting is alright, again typical low budget horror film stuff.Night Drive is a really boring & tame horror thriller that could have been really good, the lack of use of the locations & the cultural background of the country feels like a missed opportunity & apart from it's setting there's nothing here that stands out from all the low budget horror rubbish that litter video shop shelves.

Raphael Vigliotti I have to mention that the marketing campaign behind Night Drive in South Africa has been every bit as engrossing, controversial and entertaining as the film itself. Ahead of the film's local release, fake pamphlets advertising a quack doctor paying cash for human body parts – as well as offering rhino horn – were distributed in a middle-class suburb of Johannesburg. It caused an uproar that quickly went viral and spread across the globe. When the campaign was finally revealed as being part of a spoof marketing campaign for the film it created an unprecedented public outrage. Rhino conservation and so-called 'muti' murders in South Africa are very sensitive issues, particularly the illegal trade in human body parts which most consider a taboo subject. The campaign brought these issues into the mindset of middle-class South Africa and probably created a much-needed awareness and focus on these crimes, not to mention an effective promotional tool for the film. It reminded me of the public hysteria generated by Orson Welles's radio show where listeners actually believed earth was being invaded by aliens.Marketing campaigns aside, Night Drive is a long overdue genre film from South Africa, and it doesn't fail to deliver. I attended a special screening in downtown Johannesburg not expecting much from the film. It's been tried in South Africa before and just never managed to hit the mark. Night Drive grabbed me from the get-go and I felt unsettled, disturbed, emotionally charged and entertained all at once. Stark cinematography, a haunting score, strong direction and a well-written script gives Night Drive its gritty and realistic edge. Billed as a slasher film, I actually thought it had more of the hallmarks of a thriller, but I guess the blood, guts and gore took care of any intellectualizing.The film's about an ex-undercover cop who joins a group of tourists on a night drive safari deep into the heart of the African bush, where they find themselves stranded after their vehicle breaks down. Then s**t starts to hit the fan. As the plot unfolds and the blood starts flowing, the ex-cop learns that animal poachers are now targeting humans for their body parts to be used for witchcraft purposes. Their leader is a mysterious witchdoctor known as the Hyena Man who has notorious reputation for terrorizing the locals. The chilling atmosphere is further amplified by the sounds of hyenas circling the tourists who are known to have developed a taste for human blood because of all the victims left in the Hyena Man's wake. All this proves to be a volatile cocktail when the tourists start turning on each other amidst the carnage.A good thriller explores the darker side of human nature and Night Drive does this credibly, with excellent performances from the ensemble cast. The film is brutal and bloody but still manages to seamlessly interweave the back stories of each one of the characters into one chilling theme: how fear can consume us.It's a gutsy move by the filmmakers to take on some very contentious issues affecting South Africa: violence, poaching and 'muti' murders – but isn't that what films are supposed to do: be provocative? Despite all the controversy, I think it's a thoroughly entertaining film and a welcome addition to the South African film stable.Also check out 'SOUTH Africa FALLS FOR HORROR MOVIE STUNT': http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-12570198