Christopher Witherspoon's "Rage" - A Review.

Indie film maker Christopher Witherspoon recently got in touch about his film "Rage", which has been playing the festival circuits to much critical acclaim, and very kindly sent me a screener copy of his film to take a look at.

The film is set in Portland, Oregon, and revolves around a chap named Dennis (Rick Crawford), who’s just broken things off with his mistress, as he’s decided he doesn’t want to ruin his marriage, and besides she has a psycho boyfriend who’s just got out of jail.

Unfortunately, his routine trip into town is subsequently marred by an encounter with a less than friendly motorcyclist, who clearly has some sort of problem with him. As he proceeds to hold him up at subsequent sets of traffic lights, then starts following him round town.

With no idea who this person is, or why he's trying to intimidate him, he initially shrugs it off and just tries to go about his buisiness. But what started as a routine day, quickly turns into a deadly game of cat and mouse, as he finds this guy is actively stalking him round town, with each subsequent encounter becoming progressively more confrontational and violent.

For the most part, the story seems to be largely inspired by the old 1974 film "Duel" (which even gets a mention in the film), but also seemed to have a few nods to the old 80s slasher films at the end.

Overall I enjoyed this, director Christopher Witherspoon has worked in the film industry for many years, in various roles, and has obviously put his experience to good use in this. It's well shot, well filmed and the actors can actually act, which made a nice change from some of the indie films I've had to review in the past, and there is a neat twist in the end (which I won't spoil for you) that I certainly didn't see coming.

The only minor negative thing I would perhaps say is that I personally prefer films that are a bit faster paced, whereas this film takes the time to build things up slowly. But that's not really a criticism, rather just a statement about my own personal tastes. But in any case, you should certainly like the end confrontation, when everything finally comes to a head.

To summarise, "Rage" is an effective little thriller, that is reminiscent of the 70's and 80s thrillers it owes its inspiration to and given the chance, you should check this one out.

View the trailer on You Tube

For more information about this film, visit the official website at http://www.ragethemovie.net/