Don't Get in the Car is an award winning crime thriller that was directed and co-written by Clarice Paris in her directorial and writing debut. While not a horror film, thrillers are a relatively close cousin, and here, while grounded in reality, this evokes some feelings of anguish for the protagonist.
One evening, Tara (Jennimay Walker) leaves her daughter with her babysitter, so that she can go to her waitress job in the city. It isn't long into her drive that she receives an alarming phone call. Vince (Noel Gugliemi - Bermuda Island) is a crime boss, who reveals to Tara that her daughter has been taken hostage by him. He comes from a life Tara left behind long ago, and he wants her to track down her sister by the end of the night, or he will kill the daughter. Left with no other choice, Tara is forced into being his driver for the night, picking up various miscreants around the city, such as pimps, prostitutes, hit-men, armed robbers, and corrupt politicians, while simultaneously trying to find the location of a sister she hasn't seen for five years.
At just over an hour long, this wisely avoids too much padding. First up, not sure about the film's title, as it begins with Tara already in her car pretty much, and events all set in motion. Much of the movie involves various different scenes of Tara ferrying people of bad character around town. Most of these people are openly hostile to the woman, with several even straight up attacking her. It is heavily implied that Tara has come from a crime background, but had 'got out', so her actions are maybe not as odd as if she was some random normal person. She is shown to not be afraid of guns, and also shown not to be afraid of getting her hands dirty. She may have been pressured into being a driver, but by the end of the night she has done some heavy things without demonstrating much remorse for what she felt she was forced to do. Even at an hour long, this still felt like it could have been sanded down. Much of the first half consists of little stories that don't play into the larger one taking place.
Near enough the entirety of the movie takes place in the car Tara is driving. Vince is shown in close-up, with just part of his face filling up the screen, until the inevitable meet up. There are no good male characters to be found here, every male is nasty and twisted, even at one point when a cop turns up, he is just as bad as all the rest. That isn't really to say females fare too much better. There are certainly more relatable characters on that side of the sex divide, but all are neck deep in the criminal underworld. The babysitter was the most innocent character to be found here, and she was dealt with as a proxy for Tara. It almost became amusing how her abuse got cranked up for each time Vince felt Tara wasn't moving quickly enough. I guess that plays into his twisted plan, with his urgency for her to find her sister not seeming correct seeing as he also is expecting Tara to be his crime driver for the night.
Special effects are used sparingly, and outside of one poor looking make-up for a Glasgow smile, they served their purpose.
Don't Get in the Car was a neat little film. I did like the concept of the protagonist being forced to drive criminals around all night, but this character never seemed as overly concerned for her situation as she should have done. Her mostly unexplained backstory could account for all that though, as it is never clear what job she performed back when she was working for Vince. Ending on a predictable note, this was a decent ride that I would give a tip for, but probably wouldn't take again.
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