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This tightly woven tale takes the details of the shocking 2001 case of Chante Mallard and weaves a darkly comical and gruesome fictional thriller. It’s one of those true-life stories that seem too crazy to be true. A woman hits a homeless man with her car and drives home with him embedded in her windshield. With a screenplay from John Strysik, Stuart Gordon, the creator of the humorous horror flick RE-ANIMATOR, makes his best film since his 1985 cult classic.

Brandi Boski (Mena Suvari, AMERICAN BEAUTY) is a nurse’s assistant with a big promotion on the horizon. Despite a good rep at work, she’s a drug using hard partier on the weekends. She’s dating a dealer named Rashid (Russell Hornsby, SOMETHING NEW), whose hard talk about killing people seems questionable. Tom Bardo (Stephen Rea, CRYING GAME) is having the worst day of his life. He gets kicked out of his apartment, gets the run around at the employment office and has to spend the night in the park. When he runs into Brandi after a night of partying, his day takes a turn for the worst.

Gordon and Strysik use the story as a basis to critique the selfishness of society. Even when someone is hurt, people won’t risk our own wellbeing to help. Brandi has many chances to help Tom after he is logged in her windshield, but is only motivated by avoiding responsibility. The story drips with as much irony as it does blood. From Tom’s interview, to whom Brandi passes after the accident, to her being a nurse, the story has a wicked sense of humor. The filmmakers have a little sick fun with a bone hungry dog too.

As the situation gets direr, Brandi gets panicked and becomes more irrational with her actions. Tom has to take his survival into his own hands. His injuries are severe and Gordon doesn’t mind sharing the gory details. In a MISERY sort of way, the details add to the tension, because they underline how difficult Tom’s situation really is and Brandi and Rashad aren’t making it any easier. In paying equal attention to Tom and Brandi, the film has an intriguing cat-and-mouse structure as Tom tries to escape and Brandi callously tries to cover up her crime.

Independent horror films rarely get the caliber of actors such as Suvari and Rea. Suvari does some of her best work since breaking onto the scene in AMERICAN BEAUTY. In a sick way, she plays the character as if she’s a child calculating her excuses for breaking a lamp before her parents get home. Rea brings sad dejection to Tom. Before the accident, he seems resigned to his bad luck, but he becomes determined once he realizes no one is coming to help.

This is not a ripped from the headlines TV movie. It’s not interested in slavishly sticking to the details of the real story or playing up the sentiment. Rea generates real compassion for Tom, while Suvari and Rashid provide a darkly comic bent to their selfish gangsta wannabes. The ending doesn’t stick to the true story at all, but finds a poignantly ironic note that has something to say about the humanity of those whom have and those that do not.

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