BUMPERKLEEF (TAILGATE)

This Dutch road rage thriller is easily one of the most undeliberately awful films I have seen in the past year.

Road rage thrillers can range from the sublime - like Steven Spielberg's Duel or the criminally underrated Breakdown - to the ridiculous, like recent Russell Crowe-starrer Unhinged. Dutch film Bumperkleef (English title: Tailgate) falls squarely in the latter category unfortunately.

From its hilariously irony-free opening sequence to a final scene that is about as suspenseful or surprising as ordering a cup of plain tea, the picture is easily one of the most undeliberately awful films I have seen in the past year.

A lot of this can be brought back to the stupidity of the main characters as they try to escape the white van man asking for a sincere apology after a highway altercation. You thought the average horror movie victim was brainless? They have nothing on lead actor Jeroen Spitzenberger in Bumperkleef.

Further nails in the picture's coffin are an antagonist that is just a twirling moustache away from a cartoon villain, the overall implausibility of nearly every single plot point and a soundtrack that loudly punctuates the vain attempts at tension. The best Bumperkleef can hope for is that it plays entertaining when stoned.

release: 2019

director: Lodewijk Crijns

starring: Jeroen Spitzenberger, Anniek Pheifer, Liz Vergeer, Willem de Wolf