Don’t Look Back – Movie Review (2/5)

DON’T LOOK BACK is a new horror-mystery by the writer who brought us the Final Destination franchise. It was originally titled Good Samaritan which was definitely a better title. While the story has lots of potential the execution is just not good. Read our full Don’t Look Back review here!

DON’T LOOK BACK is a new horror-mystery that was originally titled Good Samaritan (it’s still the default title on IMDb as of writing this review). The writer-director of this new movie is the man who created the Final Destination franchise as a writer. 

Unfortunately, this new movie shows exactly why he’s a good screenwriter, but should let others direct. Lots of potential in the actual plot, but a subpar execution.

Continue reading our Don’t Look Back movie review below.

Even the actors seem lost

The star of Don’t Look Back is Kourtney Bell who had a very small part on It Follows (2014) as “Chatting Girl” and has been in a few TV series episodes and a short film. I can’t say much about her acting since the character isn’t interesting, to begin with.

In a key supporting role, we have Jeremy Holm as a Police Detective. You should recognize him from the Netflix series House of Cards where he does an excellent job. In Don’t Look Back, he comes across as a rather stiff and dull actor. However, having seen him in House of Cards, I know he can be much better.

This leaves the question of whether the cast is simply caught up in a dud of a project. Look, I really hate having to badmouth any movie, but this particular production just had a lot going for it. None of which is apparent in the final result.

The concept of Don’t Look Back is pretty awesome; Having people not take action, when taking action could have saved someone’s life, is a fascinating way to begin any horror story. And I don’t care what kind of twists you might have coming in the end, it doesn’t help the poor execution of the core story. Also, the plot twists are easily spotted a mile away.

Watch Don’t Look Back In Theaters & On Demand

Jeffrey Reddick wrote and directed Don’t Look Back and I actually had pretty high hopes for this movie because of that. After all, Jeffrey Reddick wrote the screenplay for Final Destination which is one hell of a legacy to have. Also, he has written several other scripts including the one for Dead Awake (2016) and The Final Wish (2018) by Timothy Woodward Jr.

The two latter movies mentioned above both have an IMDb rating under 5, which seems very appropriate. This new movie will not be anything worth remembering either. It’s not that this movie is entirely bad. It just isn’t really good either which is a damn shame.

In many ways, Don’t Look Back comes across like a TV movie in all the worst ways; The production quality is unimpressive and the characters come across as stiff and one-dimensional. The movie is based on Reddick’s own short film Good Samaritan (2014) and serves as his feature film debut. I really hope he’ll go back to focusing on coming up with awesome stories instead.

Don’t Look Back is out In Theaters & On Demand from October 16, 2020.

Details

Director: Jeffrey Reddick
Writer: Jeffrey Reddick
Stars: Kourtney Bell, Will Stout, Skyler Hart, Jeremy Holm, Damon Lipari, Han Soto, Amanda Grace Benitez, Jaqueline Fleming