Director: William Dickerson
MPAA Rating: NR
Hypothetically, what would you do if you were having a leisurely drive through the majestic hills of Los Angeles, only to be swept away and buried alive underneath a mud slide? Would you remain calm, assess the situation, and begin a plan of escape? Or, if you’re like me, would you immediately have a nervous breakdown and remain in the fetal position until help (or death) arrived? This is the question that’s posed in William Dickerson’s new containment thriller Detour.
The film stars Neil Hopkins as Jackson, an adman who becomes trapped in his car after it becomes buried in a mud slide. Jackson must use his head and formulate a plan to escape his four-door coffin before time runs out. After taking an inventory of what items are at his disposal and fighting off the sporadic bouts of insanity, he begins to figure out a possible way out of this mess. Basically it’s like MacGyver, if MacGyver was buried alive in a luxury sedan.
Now, I frequently find myself coming back to these containment thrillers, and while most of them are entertaining, there are few that I would consider to be a solid film. Fortunately, Detour is not one of them. It’s a streamlined thriller that doesn’t weigh you down with a drawn out back story or some lame twist at the end. It’s also a movie that doesn’t take itself entirely too seriously, which is a huge bonus.
The film starts with Jackson waking up in the car and quickly remembering what took place. From there, we’re off to the races, no build up, no introduction, no BS. In order to develop the character of Jackson, his story is told to us through periodic dreams and videos on his phone, which do well to establish him as a character and help us relate and empathize with his situation.
Other than these short bits of back story and one unnecessary dream sequence, the rest of the movie takes place in the dimly lit car. Dickerson did a fantastic job really selling the idea that this man was buried in his vehicle, with the ever-present sound of shifting dirt and the occasional grumble of the car slowly being crushed under the weight of the soil.
When you create a movie like this that is so bare-bones, it’s absolutely imperative you get two things right: The suspense of the situation and the actions of the person in said situation. Detour got both these elements right which resulted in a claustrophobic nail-biter involving a character that we actually wanted to see make it out alive. There is also plenty of humor injected into the story, which is an excellent touch.
Aside from some logistical nitpicks (Like how could his cell phone battery have lasted that long?) Detour is a taut, brisk thriller that is incredibly entertaining and clocking in at less than 90 minutes, it doesn’t overstay its welcome. No existential quandaries to explore here, just a dude trapped in a car trying to get home.
