Film of the Week: Bad Samaritan

As B-movies go, this was one of the better ones, and for two main reasons. The cast, and, admittedly, I’m a little biased.

Robert Sheehan plays Sean Falco, a parking valet who, whenever he can, burgle the houses of the customers who turn up for an evening meal. It proves to be quite successful, until one night, a rich man, Cale Erendreich – played by David Tennant – shows up and Sean is immediately tempted to search the house for anything worthy of stealing. Roaming around the house, taking what they believe won’t necessarily be noticed or traced back to them, Sean enters the office, where, he discovers a woman tied up and in distress. Shocked and sickened by this, he attempts to help, but gets scared and runs away.

However, he tries to help in other means, which isn’t effective, so, he breaks into Cale’s house once more, only to discover there isn’t a trace of evidence regarding the woman ever being there. This understandably irritates and confuses Sean, but this doesn’t discourage him from helping further. Unfortunately for him, Cale knows of Sean’s actions and a battle of two minds begins. Cale must defeat Sean to keep himself from getting captured, and Sean must defeat Cale to rescue the woman.

As a horror-thriller, it did leave me on the edge of my seat. Sean’s and Cale’s actions drove the story forward, their battle always kept strong mainly due to Cale’s retaliation to Sean’s attempts. Ultimately, Cale loses the war and is caught by the police, and sent to Jail. The woman, Katie Hopgood – played by Kerry Condon – is set free.

Sean does go through a lot of emotional distress throughout the film, with the worst of Cale’s actions being driving a presumably permanent wedge between him and his girlfriend, Riley Seabrook – played by Jacqueline Byres – before attacking and sending her to hospital, disrupting his parent’s lives by getting them both fired from their jobs, and killing his innocent best friend and former accomplish with the burglaries, Derek Sandoval – played by Carlito Olivero. Robert had a lot to portray and did so outstandingly. David Tennant has proven to pull off the villain type role spectacularly since appearing in Jessica Jones, which his role got critical acclaim for. Being so far from the character as the Doctor, David has once again proven just how large his range of acting really is.

As a fan of David Tennant, I have been following his work, so when I saw this film pop up through promotional adverts and trailers, I was intrigued. Being a B-movie, it wouldn’t be circulated or promoted as much as A-movies usually are, so it did drop off my radar for a couple of months before the announcement of its release suddenly appeared on my news feed on Google. My point is, it was worth the wait. I enjoyed the film. It offered the scares, the thriller aspect, and everybody’s acting was superb. With it being purely about the real world and nothing supernatural, the horror came from the situation and the characters themselves – mostly David’s character, Cale.

That’s where my biasedness comes in ever so slightly. Because I’m a fan of David Tennant, I watched the film because he was in it, and that does give the impression that I’m going to automatically enjoy the film. Whilst that’s an understandable response, I didn’t enjoy the film purely because of that, it had a good story, it had great scenes that were well directed and edited for maximum effect within the narrative. However, a point that brings it back to be slightly biased is, David and Robert’s acting did save the film from failing. David’s uniquely energetic and loud performance that’s packed to the brim with emotion and passion for his job, made Bad Samaritan that little bit better. It’s difficult to imagine anyone else taking on that role and having the same impact as David did. Whilst I can’t confirm if this is true as my research hasn’t proven anything, Bad Samaritan does have the feel that shows Cale’s character was written for David’s unique acting.

In terms of character development, there isn’t much. Robert’s character, Sean, upon discovering Riley, without hesitation states he’s never stealing anything ever again, and that’s an understandable reaction. Throughout the film, he’s acting upon the advice his step-dad gives him about always doing the right thing. That’s basically it in terms of his development. With Cale’s character, there isn’t any. Not really. He’s an already established character. The audience do get a little bit of backstory that fills in what we need to know, but that’s it. As a character, he’s fixed. He doesn’t change in any way. However, the story does accommodate this decision and makes the film that much more thrilling and subsequently overall entertaining.

Thanks for reading

Antony Hudson

(TonyHadNouns)