Ditched (2021) User Reviews

Started out okay, but quickly turned to a muddy pile...

[paul_haakonsen · 3/10 · 18 January 2022]

Well, I will say that the 2021 movie "Ditched" definitely started out quite alright and proved entertaining. But then when you get to the point where it is revealed what is actually going on, then the movie just lost all momentum for me and it become a pointless and laughable ordeal to sit through.

When I sat down in 2022 to watch this 2021 movie from writer and director Christopher Donaldson, then I didn't know what I was in for, aside from it being a horror movie. And that was essentially all that was needed to make me watch it.

But "Ditched" was a swing and a miss of a movie. What started out quite interesting quickly deflated and became a boring ordeal. But hey, I am sure that there is an audience out there somewhere for a movie such as this. I just, obviously, wasn't a part of the target audience. I am sure that the script was great on paper, but the transition to the screen just wasn't all that grand of an experience.

I will say that the acting performances in "Ditched" were adequate. Especially when taking into consideration that the movie had a small cast ensemble, took place in a very small and limited location, and the fact that the script went from being good to rubbish in a split second.

If you enjoy horror movies then "Ditched" is not one I would recommend you waste your time, money or effort on.

My rating of "Ditched" lands on a generous three out of ten stars, and that is mostly because of the production value that was put into the making of the movie.

Good concept - mixed execution

[MWFD · 3/10 · 18 October 2021]

The concept was a pretty good one and the photography is decent. The film is hurt by poor dialogue and stiff performances all around. There's a good film in here, this just isn't the product we're provided.

Beware the flashing lights!

[parry_na · 5/10 · 24 June 2023]

'Ditched' is an interesting and unusual Canadian horror story with a unique directorial style and a truly superb electronic soundtrack by Clayton Worbeck (I wish it was available to buy - can't find it anywhere).

At the centre of this lies a storyline that is not unfamiliar. The twist at the end places the tale in familiar territory, but where this succeeds is in the way the tale is told. We begin at a point where the action has already started and the cast of characters attempts to piece events together alongside the audience. The dialogue is sometimes irritating (too much of the 'we can *do* this' grandstanding).

The cinematography is unusual and striking, with key moments and characters often obscured by sickly yellow/red lighting. Viewers should be warned that the continual flashing of lights might induce additional discomfort - but although overused, it works very well ensuring that nothing appears to be quite real.

The third act is when the increasingly confusing narrative becomes a mix of lengthy exposition and events that ask too much of the audience. Far too much talking deadens the atmosphere, which is a shame. A definite case of the journey proving more enjoyable than the destination, in my view. My score is 5 out of 10.

Terrible nonsensical mess.

[lord-blade · 2/10 · 6 February 2022]

The movie starts off with an interesting premise, and the first half hour or so is interesting and feels like it's building up to something unique... and then it just got incredibly stupid and was one idiotic moment after the next, none of which is even remotely believable or even plausible.

The core idea makes sense, but how they implemented it made absolutely no sense at all. It was just a bunch of random idiocy. Which is a shame.

I would definitely avoid this movie. It's a complete and total waste of time.

Not bad, not great.

[tman-21289 · 4/10 · 22 January 2022]

Interesting but not great. I liked the twist (no spoilers here) I don't feel like seeing this was a waste of my time but I probably wouldn't watch it again.

Waste of time

[dipsy_21 · 1/10 · 22 January 2022]

Last time I saw a movie this 💩 was Texas chainsaw massacre back in my day ( bout 40 years ago) from the first five mins I knew it was gonna be rubbish .. but once I start a film I need to watch to end.. it was on a hour half too long ..( think the film was one half's ) I could write better , acting wasn't up to par .. in fact did they mean to make it like a horror movie from fourty years ago ... if u like films from them watch but if not don't bother 😂

Trapped

[BandSAboutMovies · 5/10 · 18 January 2022]

Desperate to escape an overturned ambulance after what should be a normal prison transfer, Melina, some cops, other paramedics and two criminals find themselves being hunted by something in the woods - a costumed hunting party led by Caine and filled reasons to kill everyone - as the survivors have just a hundred feet to climb out of a ditch to escape.

For a movie that takes place in the small region of the crash, this film ramps up the intensity and shows that even though this is his first film, director and writer Christopher Donaldson creates a pretty decent horror movie. His skills as a storyboard are obvious in the way that he sets up a lot of his shots and keeps the action moving.

It's not perfect, but the constantly flashing ambulance and police car lights, as well as the garish costumes and the incredible levels of gore, set this movie apart. I really liked the performance by Marika Sila as Melina, a woman who just wants to get home to her daughter.

Decent movie, with a warning to epileptic people.

[sweclockern · 6/10 · 18 January 2022]

It was better then i first expected, after watching the first 15 minutes i thought this movie would be a b-flick "trying" to be an a-flick.

It ended up being something in between, the story is good and mostly unpredictable.

There could have been some improvements on how broken car glass looks like on the side doors of a car, we all know it breaks in to a million pieces.

But what brings this movie down a bit is the hysterical lights flashing from the emergency vehicles wich penetrates my whole living room, the movie should be put out with a warning sticker to epileptical people, it's immense and to me just disturbing.

Aside from that i find it very watchable, especially for people who like the horror/mystery titles, with a bit of splatter to it!

And if there would be a second movie? Yes i would watch it, with sun glasses.

That wasn't me

[nogodnomasters · 5/10 · 5 February 2022]

An ambulance finds itself off the road in a valley with no reception. A police car also went off there too. The groggy crew try to piece together what happened. They were transporting medical prisoners and they now face (plot spoiler) a group of vigilantes who want them all dead in an act of vengeance.

It was a nice mystery as to what was happening (sorry for the spoiler). Different type of vigilante film.

Guide: f-word. No sex or nudity.

Fun Ride

[hammerheadcases · 8/10 · 4 June 2022]

Honestly, I don't understand the hate from the reviewers of this film, much of which seems to be superficial. Not liking the way the broken glass looked in the movie, really? This is a fun film with a slightly wild premise that the protagonists have been working for years to get all of these people in the same place at the same time to extract revenge for long held misdeeds.

If horror is about bad things happening to good people, this horror happens to bad people who deserve what they get. You don't see it coming till later in the film, but you soon start to understand why they are all there and how they got there. The only two mysteries left to unravel are what they did to deserve what's coming to them and how they are gonna get snuffed out.

The cinematography was adequate, and okay, some of the performances were a little stiff, but hey it's not Streep & Nicholson in the lead roles so take it for what it's worth-a B horror movie. I really enjoyed the ride and will look forward to revisiting Ditched some time in the future.

Worth watching

[tracy1011 · 6/10 · 24 January 2022]

It's a really good movie who doesn't love revenge an eye for eye. It's worth a watch very good gore and decent acting. Please give it go it's full of surprises especially at the end.

Ok but not really good

[kskmah · 5/10 · 22 January 2022]

First of all it's not a horror. It's a thriller/crime. Also there is no unseen force that attacks anyone. It's just about a bunch of people looking for revenge. The acting is ok, and there is plenty of gory scenes. Especially the last one. I never knew a revolver can do that kind of damage? A little stupid in parts, but it's not an oscar movie anyway.

Requires too much of a suspension of disbelief

[selfdestructo · 4/10 · 25 July 2022]

How this premise all comes together, I'm thinking, near-impossible.

Ditched is the type of horror movie I like. Claustrophobic, single-location, limited cast. It starts off intriguingly enough. A police car and ambulance are run off the road into a ditch, in the middle of nowhere, while transporting prisoners. Melina (Marika Sila), a paramedic, awakens and seems to be exhibiting symptoms of a concussion. From there, it goes straight downhill as it becomes apparent (to me, anyway) that this movie suffers from a poorly written script. Not only does the situation become blatantly obvious, but they spell it out for you!

Ditched relies heavily on horror cliches, an unoriginal story (though presented in a unique - and unlikely - way), foreshadowing, stating the obvious, unlikelihoods for the convenience of the plot, and loads and loads of clunky final act exposition. Dear Lord. I checked, and this movie is from *2021*, and it contains maybe the biggest horror movie cliche of an ending there is (besides the killer vanishing, for a potential sequel). The second Melina sees a car, you're thinking, no, they couldn't possibly pull this one. Then it drags you along for the ride, thinking full well they've got you fooled! Insulting.

Movie features several appalling performances. But you're OK with me Marika... Ha cha cha cha! I did enjoy the final credits crawl scene, maybe the best part of the movie. Yeah, a solid FOUR.

Extras: Oh, also, don't watch the official trailer beforehand. It gives away the entire plot. The original production trailer leaves things slightly more mysterious. Had I known there was a longer cut of the movie tucked away, well I would've wasted 5 more minutes, I guess.

What Is This!?

[vengeance20 · 2/10 · 5 June 2023]

Another Straight-To-DVD Film that I thought might be good but didn't deliver in the way I thought it would.

The film sees a routine prison-patient tranfer go south as the prisoner and paramedics awake to find themselves in a ditch along with a police car escort crashed nearby them. It is then things take a turn for the worst as vigilantes show up and then it becomes clear that theres something not right about the crash.

I found the film to be not great, despite some gore and other good horror aspects the film didn't cut it. The story is just, out there, the characters are just, out there and the concept can't decide what it wants to be and lacks context especially near the end of the film.

Like other Straight-To-DVD Films, the film suffers from a certain cheapness and sloppy feel. I wasn't expecting much from this and although it's funny in places (oddly enough) and it has some not bad horror aspects going on, it just doesn't cut the mustard as they say.

Overall, it's not worth your time. I mean, give it a watch to see what you think, but don't expect much in this 1 hour and 19 minute film. The story is all over the place despite a strong start and despite some gore and a few salvagable horror aspects, it doesn't cut it as a horror and feels like a cheap lazy slasher with more talk and less action.

2/10.

Horrible acting ruins what could have been a decent film

[manuelasaez · 3/10 · 2 July 2022]

Let's get this out of the way; the acting throughout this entire movie is bad. I mean, really bad. The lead is especially terrible, delivering her lines with the talent of a grade school Christmas play performer. The rest of the cast is equally as awful, with some being worse than others, but no one tops the main antagonist. His delivery is so bad, in fact, that as soon as he spoke his first line I considered turning the movie off, even though he shows up about halfway through. There is nothing that ruins a movie more for me than bad acting, and this movie couldn't have saved itself if it tried with the ensemble it was unfortunate enough to put together.

Then comes the fact that movie is dark. I mean, lighting dark. For some incredibly misguided reason, the entire movie looks like it was shot at midnight with only one source of light of varying colors illuminating the "action". You will struggle to see a lot of what is going on , when you aren't being annoyed by everything being red, blue, yellow or orange.

The only saving grace about this movie was the ending. It was unexpected, and kind of made up for the time I wasted watching this film. But don't let that make you make the same mistake I did.

Please heed my warning and stay away from this movie.

& hunted

[Stanlee107 · 4/10 · 20 February 2022]

This is a low budget & claustrophobic film. It starts out with a group of ambulance crew and police cars that were involved in a crash.

As the dark of the night approaches, the survivors formulate a plan to escape. However, there are things outside in the woods that may make escape more difficult.

This is a slow burner but as the idiom goes "the road to hell is paved with good intentions" so goes this film. The film maker/script writers tried to write a moralistic film that preaches rather than entertains the viewer.

Better than the basic slasher I was expecting.

[sicklittlebunny · 7/10 · 10 September 2023]

This film doesn't deserve the low rating it has. Who doesn't like a bit of ridiculously over the top, anatomically impossible, gore, and a nice simple plot? Who's watching low budget slashers looking for high art?

If you didn't follow the plot, that's a you problem, not a writing problem. And if you did follow the plot, it's not particularly unbelievable. (Certainly no less believable than a man who made a full-body human skin suit, and that happened in real life. (Google Ed Gein.))

The SF/X were on the Jason punching a head off level of realism, the plot required no thinking to follow, but there were enough unanswered questions to make it worth watching to the end. I really don't know what people's issue with it is. It's a low budget film (like student film low budget), with a cast of about 10 people, I'm not sure what miracles other people were expecting. Yeah, the script needed some work, but no-one sane expects a Shakespeare sonnet from the writers of a slasher film. It's not like the cast of the Freddy films have elegant soliloquies.

Seeing Mackenzie Gray was an extra bit of fun for me, I like him, and he pops up in the most random places.

One of the most mind blowing endings in Horror history

[hfgoreybits · 8/10 · 18 February 2022]

Have you seen those ads on social media for the movie DITCHED? One of the video ads features a woman who talks about a "messed up movie she just watched." Well, those ads aren't a joke, because DITCHED is a brutal movie. What I'm about to write going forward is more of a quick overview of how much I enjoyed the movie. I do plan to revisit DITCHED when it comes time to record a video review for my YouTube channel. As always, I'll do my best not to give anything away.

In the movie DITCHED, we follow a group of paramedics who are trapped and fighting for their lives. Their ambulance has overturned, and there's some slight confusion as to what happened. Accompanying the paramedics are a couple of (arrested) violent prisoners. Somehow the group was ambushed, and now they have to defend themselves against the militia that attacked them out in the middle of the woods.

DITCHED is one of the newest releases from the "Dread Presents" label of Epic Pictures Group. I've always been a big fan of what Dread puts out onto blu-ray. I watched the trailer for DITCHED months before its video-on-demand release. What peaked my interest was that the story being pitched felt contained. I'm a sucker for movies with simple premises in an enclosed space. Noticing that DITCHED was taking place mostly in the woods at night time, I was sold. On release day, I rented the movie and was pleasantly surprised with how much I enjoyed it.

To me, DITCHED is the epitome of "edge of your seat" entertainment. That feeling (for me) started at the very beginning. DITCHED opens to what feels like the middle of a story. It's the movie equivalent of being thrown into a lake, when you don't know how to swim. DITCHED feels heavily inspired by the works of John Carpenter. This becomes abundantly clear when you listen to the film's amazing score. The setting and action beats gave me ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13 vibes.

DITCHED also features some tremendous performances from actor's Marika Sila, Kris Loranger, Lee Lopez and many others. Each actor brings their own level of intensity that fuels the shocks and suspense. What I love most about DITCHED is the violence itself. This is a sinister movie, and the amount of brutality shown will be pleasing to every blood thirsty gore hound. From what I could tell, DITCHED relied heavily on practical effects.

The only real issue I had with this movie comes from the writing. It felt (to me) that some of the narrative choices were off. Unfortunately, some of the tiresome horror tropes are present as well. I wasn't particularly fond of the dialog either. Even with that, I still had a wonderful time watching this movie. Every minor complaint I have doesn't ruin the overall experience. For a feature length debut, Christopher Donaldson and company did a spectacular job crafting DITCHED.

If any of this sounds appealing to you, then I would highly suggest giving DITCHED a watch. Rent it if you're still on the fence. I personally think you should just buy it. DITCHED is a gruesome edge of your seat thriller with one of the most mind blowing end credits in the history of horror. I guess what I'm really trying to say is that you should just buy the damn blu-ray. DITCHED is more than worth the money. It deserves to be apart of every physical media collection.

I give the movie DITCHED: 8/10 overturned ambulances.

This was no movie, this was the future!

[frank-liesenborgs · 6/10 · 25 January 2022]

Oh boy, how could I´ve been so wrong? I just assumed Christopher Donaldson's debut feature film and writer of the story, perfect recipe for disaster. And I will say it again, I couldn't have been more wrong. I was pretty impressed with how the whole film came together. And this movie came even with a brilliant twist at the very end. Did not see that one coming. With an estimated budget of CA$1,000,000 my guess is that this is like the best movie you could have made, the most bang for your buck. "Ditched" opens on a brutal car accident that has left an ambulance overturned. Paramedic Melina (Marika Sila) is the only passenger conscious among two other paramedics, two police officers, and three prisoners. Things don't seem incredibly awful, that is until Melina starts to realize that they may not be alone out there in that ditch. In fact, nobody seems to be who he is or was. I really liked the characters in this movie and from time to time the dialogues were very good. A long way to go but if this is your first movie, expect some fireworks in the future. The cast and their acting performance was very decent. However the acting performances of Marika Sila (Melina) and especially the performance from Kris Loranger (Franson) were just inspirational. I am now just waiting to see more from Christopher Donaldson. And I have a feeling he will deliver.... To those who like this genre, a must-see!

Great premise

[mspatari · 7/10 · 4 July 2022]

I'm giving this a 7 because of all the crappy ratings. Yes, the acting is terrible. The guy strapped to the gurney was amusing. What was with the orchids?? BUT the idea/story line is really good!! Now if Eli Roth had done this it would have been incredible. I thought we'd never find out what everyone did so it keeps you watching. I hate that it left me wondering if Melina really did what she was accused of.

Unique concept cinematically "beautiful" blood party

[wonkypotz · 9/10 · 31 October 2021]

Great writing, camera work and actors A bloody fun ride!

The mood of this movie creeps up on you then keeps your brain flickering until the end Don't forget to blink.

Celebrate this truly gutsy Canadian horror film.

Decent Revenge Slasher

[BloodyPredator2 · 7/10 · 21 April 2023]

I saw a few low budget Canadian Horror Films recently, they seem to have often a Interesting Plot and they try something different, but there are some good ones (for example : I'll Take Your Dead ) and Bad ones (for example : Slaxx or Wolfcop). This Film named Ditched has a Interesting Plot, some neon lights and a decent Soundtrack. The Main Actress is ok and there is some Gore, more and more we are getting to know why the killers are attacking the Paramedics and the Police Officers and the Inmates (Skeleton in the closet). The Ending was a bit harsh I guess and may let some unanswered questions.

All in all, a decent Horror/Slasher that knows to entertain.

Judgement Acci-day

[kosmasp · 7/10 · 3 July 2022]

No pun intended and it actually is night - well night time that is. Because the movie mainly plays through one night. A night that begins (at least for us the viewers) quite confusing. Although the characters in the movie are as confused - they have no idea where they are and why they are. We will get answers to a lot of things. And depending on your moral compass and how you would dish out "justice", we will also get some of the judgement I already mentioned.

Ditched may not be a prime example when it comes to great acting, but I never felt that the performances were so bad, they were close to ruin the experience I had with the movie. That said, I understand if you feel differently. Still the story is strong enough to carry the movie through (again no pun intended here). Who will survive and what will be left of them? That would probably be an 80s tag line accompanying the movie itself ... and would not be that wrong either ...

Aesthetically Awesome

[studionoire · 10/10 · 18 January 2022]

It's a neat, tight, smart little thriller, with an old school Hawks / Carpenter vibe, but with a meanspiritedness and hardbitten cynicism all its own. And DAMN that final sequence, the length of time it holds that final shot, is great.