[Cinequest Movie Review] FOX HUNT DRIVE

In FOX HUNT DRIVE, while using a rideshare app called Backseat, Alison Myers spends her days driving around strangers. Some are weird. Some are annoying. And some? Are downright horrifying.

The film features the talents of Lizzie Zerebko, Michael Olavson, Edward Craig, Ryan Forrestal, Sam Lukowski, J.R.Ridge, Alea Figueroa, Christopher Labato, Stefen Laurantz, and Kevin Morgan. It is the first feature-length film by director/producer Drew Walkup (Hacker Labs, Chiara, Ten Years Time).

The film briefly highlights a sanitized version of the grim realities that many rideshare drivers are feeling today. Drivers endure grim conditions: long hours, limited food and bathroom breaks, stressful traffic conditions, and rude, sick, or dangerous riders. FOX HUNT DRIVE doesn’t very substantively touch on these issues. A horror/drama flick certainly isn’t obligated to make social statements…but the missed potential is disappointing. 

Alison is a recently fired architect turned Backseat rideshare app driver. She does work long hours, and often seems uncomfortable, annoyed, or bored around her passengers. She’s smart, she plans, she’s calculated and cool as a cucumber. You want to root for her! She’s a smart, independent woman who knows what she wants and how to accomplish it. 

Then we meet our fateful passenger. He’s a quiet, slick-haired guy carrying a black bag, who Alison picks up in a seedy motel parking lot. There’s a problem – he doesn’t match the picture on his Backseat profile. He wants to be driven to his friend Neil, miles away. Should Alison trust this mysterious stranger, or is he going to kill her? That is the question that literally drives the movie. 

It’s a great question at times, and one you won’t quite be able to answer. There are so many fun twists and turns throughout the movie that keep the story fresh. 

The movie’s writing is a bit stagey, with characters sometimes monologuing for long stretches of time. Despite that, and some very hammy NCIS style police acting, it’s easy to get lost in the world of the movie; it’s fun to get drawn up in the tension and horror that the film undoubtedly weaves. 

That’s not to say that FOX HUNT DRIVE doesn’t touch on important issues. It’s interesting to see gender dynamics play out – how much will one woman endure from a creepy dude? It’s a question women everywhere face daily. It’s a scary world out there, and FOX HUNT DRIVE is a reminder that danger lurks behind every corner, in your car’s rearview mirror, in your back seat, lurking just in your blindspot. It will definitely give you the chills next time you ride in a Lyft. 

FOX HUNT DRIVE had its World Premiere at Cinequest on March 6th.

Remy Millisky
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