Rebound

Director - Megan Freels Johnston
Staring - Ashley James (White Elephants), Mark Schiebmeir (Necronomica), and Liz Bauer (Awaken the Dead)
Release Date - 2014
Genre - Horror
Format - Streaming (Online Screener)

Rating (out of 5):

     Horror Society is one of the greatest things to happen to my short life aside from hearing my wife say "I do" and the birth of my beautiful little girl.  Writing for the site has brought about so many great opportunities and has also allowed me the chance to make some really great friends in the horror community.  I am an avid movie fan and writing for HS has allowed me to watch several films before they were released on DVD, blu, and VHS.  Recently, I was asked to check out the film Rebound.  This was a new one to me and I love checking out new films.  I agreed and now you can check out my review below.

     The film follows heartbroken Claire (James) who is traveling across country to be with her family after catching her man riding another woman.  Along the way she starts to mentally break down after continuously thinking about catching her man in the act.  To make matters worse, she has her phone stolen by an old homeless woman and then she breaks down.  A man tows her car to his shop and offers to help her out.  That night she hits the bar and the man meets her there.  After a few drinks she leaves and the man follows and that is when the real terror starts.

     Some movies have a hard time getting the ball rolling.  They start out slow trying to establish the basis of the story before gradually moving the film and then ending on a high not.  These types of films usually push the viewers away if they have low attention spans.  Rebound suffered the same flaw.  The film moves at a snails pace before the story gets interesting and by that point you have already deemed the film unwatchable.  Lucky for the film, it is able to redeem itself.  The acting in this film is hit and miss.  The cast is able to interact with each other perfectly which made the film flow well but a lot of the cast members have a hard time time conveying emotions which is something I see a lot in indie films.  When they are made, sad, excited, or scared they are unable to express that emotion in a realistic matter.  That makes a lot of the scenes have less of an impact.  The story for this one is one we have seen before but with a different spin.  We have seen several films featuring someone traveling across country only to break down and then they are terrorized by someone or something.  However, I can not think of one film where it features a lone girl making the trip before they are terrorized which makes this one stick out from the rest.  Finally, the film does not have any real on screen kills and gore.  The film tries to tell the story of a heartbroken woman who believes life can not get any worse only to be proven wrong.   With that being said, horror fans want blood and so do I so I feel cheated in that aspect.  Overall, Rebound is a slow burning horror flick.  Don't turn it off because it will pick up the pace and kick you in the chest.  The film lacks gore but is very story rich.  Check it out.