Review: ‘Stuck’ on DVD

On October 26, 2001, Chante Jawan Mallard hit a homeless man, Gregory Biggs, with her car. The force of the impact sent Biggs through the car’s front windshield lodging him there. The man did not die instantly. Being intoxicated, Mallard decided against taking the man to a hospital or calling the police. Instead, she drove her car home and parked it inside her garage. Biggs was still alive and still stuck in the windshield.

When I heard they were making a film loosely based on this story, I thought there was no way it could be interesting. Seeing a guy stuck in a car windshield for 90 minutes didn’t sound appealing in the least bit. Then I heard who was directing the film. Stuart Gordon piqued my interest. The man directed ‘Re-Animator’, ‘From Beyond’, and a few other better than average films based on HP Lovecraft stories.

‘Stuck’ stars Mena Suvari as Brandi Bronski, a nurse on the eve of a promotion. She and her friends are out celebrating. On the way home, Brandi hits Thomas Bardo played by Stephen Rea. The film surprising follows the actual story pretty closely.

What the film changes up is that Bardo is not incapacitated and does not die just a few hours later. Instead, he spends a majority of the film trying to push himself out of the window, out of the car, and out of the garage. All the while Brandi is trying to cover up one stupid mistake after another.

‘Stuck’ is a very suspenseful film that should have gotten a bigger theatrical release than it did. Suvari is great playing dumb, but Rea is incredible. We spend some time getting to know Bardo before the accident, and Rea helps us sympathize with this homeless man.

This is a departure from Gordon’s other films. Don’t let that fool you. There are plenty of gruesome scenes that will appease any fans of horror, but they aren’t so distasteful that they will turn off people who don’t like horror. The film also gets in some nicely times humor here and there that helps move the morbid story along. In fact, it is billed as a dark comedy, but I would say it’s more suspenseful than comedic.

The budget on ‘Stuck’ was around $5 million. Gordon makes it look great for that amount. This is a very professionally shot film. The story never has to dumb itself down for the audience. The actors play out their parts with the utmost sincerity. All in all, ‘Stuck’ is a successful suspense film that hits on all cylinders.

[rating:4/5]

DVD Features:

• Theatrical Trailer

Also available on Blu-Ray.