The underlying premise of writer/director Jeffrey Reddick's Good Samaritan a.k.a. Don't Look Back is really worthy of a decent film. Examining the guilt, responsibilities, or otherwise, of non - intervening witnesses to crimes, who prefer to film the events they see, on their phones, rather than render any assistance. In fact the opening credit sequence, intercut with various real life (I think) examples of this relatively modern social occurrence is the best in the film and hits home pretty hard.
The problems begin to occur soon after we encounter the story proper. Home invasion survivor of an incident that saw her father murdered, Caitlin Kramer is one of a number of people, who witness a man being beaten to death in a park. Though still traumatised by the after effects of the home invasion, Caitlin is able to borrow a phone from a bystander who filmed the attack and call the police. Later Caitlin feels she has to investigate, when some of the other witnesses begin to suffer gruesome deaths.
Reddick seems to have issues deciding what exact form his movie should take. A slasher film such as The Final Destination movies, a franchise he helped create? Or some sort of psychological thriller with mildly supernatural and religious undertones? Either way, what he ends up delivering isn't particularly gripping and involving. Things aren't helped by Kortney Bell's pretty ordinary performance as Caitlin, whose character isn't drawn particularly sympathetically either. In a wildly inconsistent role we viewers are constantly expected to believe she is capable of frequently alternating between lamb and lion dependent on narrative demands. One minute a wimpy onlooker, the next minute a plucky investigator intent on showering others with unwanted assistance. Skyler Hart as her boyfriend Josh Bowman, is actually drawn more realistically and sensibly. But of course she never takes his advice.
Similarly because the film is drawn from Caitlin's perspective, we frustratingly never really find out whether the many hallucinations we see, courtesy of a series of telegraphed jump shocks, are part of her diagnosed psychosis, or a creepy, supernatural element. The story is also requiring of the old standby of poor police work. (A vagrant assailant is fully caught beating a guy to death on camera and on TV and is never picked up by the cops until the storyline says it has to happen now?? A character just walks in to an un (police) guarded hospital room, where a murder suspect is being kept, because a twist ending was required??
Good Samaritan is that sort of film. Based on a potentially worthy concept, it aims for atmosphere and originality, but sadly settles for cliches and cheap, loud thrills. It's 3.7 IMDB rating is a strong indicator of its entertainment value.
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