 | MOVIE DETAILS • Name: Tailgate (aka Bumperkleef) • Year: 2019 • Country: Netherlands, Belgium • Director: Lodewijk Crijns • Main cast: Jeroen Spitzenberger, Anniek Pheifer, Roosmarijn van der Hoek, Liz Vergeer, Willem de Wolf • Runtime: 86 minutes • Production company: Topkapi Films, AVROTROS, Savage Film, Eyeworks Film & TV Drama • TRAILER |
Sometimes we don’t need very scary monsters or elaborated conflicts to have a real horrifying story. Sometimes the most mundane and daily confrontation between regular people can develop into a madness spiral. And that is what we get in Tailgate (2019).
Yes, of course, we have the figure of the bad guy, who also seems to be a serial killer, but you don’t need a big freak driving a scary car, like in Jeepers Creepers (2001), a regular guy with good manners and driving a white minivan can be as threatening as any other.
The plot in Tailgate (2019) is very simple. A nice wealthy-class family pisses off the wrong guy on the way to a family meeting. And soon they discover the big mistake they made when the guy is chasing them with vile intentions. But what seems to be a very classic horror thriller plotline hides much more as the movie develops.
As starters, the family man is an idiot. He is depicted as a bad-mannered always enraged dominant man, the kind that always wants to be right and wants things done his way, but in the end, he is just a useless bastard. And on the other side of the equation, we have the bad buy, a very polite and calm older man who follows the rules and has an early interest in solving the disputes verbally… until it’s too late. Sorry, I might be a punk but I admit there are some rules one must follow. Not because the law says so, but because we are too many of us living in a society, so respect is necessary if we don’t want this life to become unhabitable chaos. So, I am in team-serial killer in this one, never on the aggressive uncivilized head of the family fuck.
So now that you get the picture, let’s say that the movie is a perfect example of how to keep constant tension with very few ingredients for almost an hour and a half. Writer and director Lodewijk Crijns masters in storytelling in a superb way. No excesses, nothing is too crazy or surreal, it all seems so real that it’s scary. And that is the point of the whole thing. The family is terrorized and you feel their stress. While the hunter is calm and sure of all his actions, like the one who knows he is doing the right thing and carries on with his purpose in discipline. The hunter is not a wild hungry animal, or a fantastic monster, he is just a man with the mission of punishment. He must correct the ones who are wrong, it is his duty.
Good acting, a story with its feet on the ground, very well depicted characters that could perfectly happen in real life, and a narration pace that is not exaggerated in the action but gives no rest. To summarize, Tailgate (2019) is a good movie, one to enjoy without a doubt. It didn’t have much good luck in terms of distribution, but now that it is coming out on DVD it can be a good addition to your collection. Very recommendable.
RATE: 7/10
IMDB URL: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt9015188
