Stuck

Genre - Horror
Year Released - 2007
Running Time - 85 minutes
Directed by Stuart Gordon (who also directed Re-Animator, From Beyond, The Pit and the Pendulum, as well as two of the Masters of Horror episodes - Dreams in the Witch House and The Black Cat - he is also set to direct House of Re-Animator, due in 2010)
Written by Stuart Gordon (who wrote all of the above, with the exception of The Pit and the Pendulum) and John Strysik
Cast Includes:
Mena Suvari (American Beauty, Spun, and this year's Re-make of Day of the Dead)
Stephen Rea (The Crying Game, Interview with the Vampire, and V for Vendetta)

Rating: 4 Skulls

Plot Summary:

Driving home after a night of partying, Brandi accidentally crashes into pedestrian Tom, who gets stuck in her car's windshield. Brandi struggles with whether to help save this man's life or simply let him die and thereby protect her career.
In extreme pain and with little time left to live, Tom pleads for Brandi's help and tries to find a way to escape from his glass prison.

Review:

If you remember, around this time of year, in 2001, an incident very similar to this actually happened, in Texas, I believe. Shortly afterwards, there was a C.S.I. episode that was based on that case. Now, we have a film that was inspired by the same story.

The film opens with Brandi, a Nurse's Assistant in a Nursing Home, making her rounds, with some pretty bad rap music playing in the background. Brandi (played by Mena Suvari) is a white girl, with her hair done in cornrows, who obviously wants to be black. Her best friend, Tanya (played by Rukiya Bernard) as well as her boyfriend (played very well by Russell Hornsby) are both black. (not that any of this matters, I am just curious as to whether this was actually the case, in the true story)

Anyway, as Brandi is making her rounds, she discovers that one of her patients has pooped his pants, in his bed. (It was very realistic and very disgusting) I tell you this because as she is cleaning her patient up, her boss stops by to tell Brandi that she is such a great worker and is considering promoting her to Nurse Assistant Captain. (this plays a factor later in the movie) I got the feeling that this was an empty offer, but that is neither here nor there.

That night, Brandi goes out with her best friend, to celebrate, and she ends up taking some drugs and drinking some booze. While driving home, high & intoxicated, she feels that she needs to call her boyfriend (she has the munchies) Meanwhile, we have Tom, (played superbly by Stephen Rea) a down-on-his-luck guy who just had one of the worst days of his life, who make a wrong choice by deciding to cross the street, against the light. The effects in this film were great! When Tom gets hit, you see his leg break, hitting the bumper, and he goes through the windshield in slow motion.

After hitting Tom, Brandi is unsure of what to do. (I am sure being high & intoxicated didn't help matters) She actually pulls up to a hospital, but quickly chickens out and opts for just driving home, with Tom in her windshield. (Lucky for her, this is around 2:00 in the morning or so, so there is no traffic, etc)

I will let you see what happens, for yourself, from here on out. However, I will tell you that I felt that Stuart Gordon paced this movie just right and that Stephen Rea made the film work! I for one really liked this movie and am curious to the actual story that this is based upon.

Jason