REBOUND is a slick little indie horror flick with a torture porn feel. The protagonist is a young woman who discovers - graphically - that her boyfriend is cheating on her, causing her to flee her life in order to begin a new one in another city. Unfortunately, en route she ends up being captured and held hostage by a regular psycho. This effort has pretty good production values and some gore, but it's also overly familiar and has little atmosphere to go along with the story.
14 Reviews
Strange movie
RobinFlys17 June 2015
Warning: Spoilers
I'm used to watching poor acting as I watch a lot of B movies. However, I almost shut Rebound off after three minutes. The two girls at the kitchen table were horrible. Luckily, Ashley James (Claire) improved once she was outside the house.
The storyline was meh, but I thought the pickpocket was a unique way to lose a cell phone. Not to mention Claire didn't trip and fall down, so that is a plus.
****SPOILER ALERT**** But why was this guy torturing her? Just a random town psycho? So creepy dude has tortured "lots of women", but the truck driver only checked on Claire and not one of the previous girls? The twisted ending did not fit Claire's personality. Sure, she was a doormat, but didn't she overcome that while she was being tortured? *END SPOILER*
I mean really...reminded me of an old movie, Sweet Hostage, only SH made sense. I didn't hate this film. I was mostly annoyed with Claire's constant sniffing,
****SPOILER ALERT ****but what can a girl do when her hands have been disfigured with acid. (Btw, notice how her hands miraculously healed when she was slinging the sledgehammer?)
The storyline was meh, but I thought the pickpocket was a unique way to lose a cell phone. Not to mention Claire didn't trip and fall down, so that is a plus.
****SPOILER ALERT**** But why was this guy torturing her? Just a random town psycho? So creepy dude has tortured "lots of women", but the truck driver only checked on Claire and not one of the previous girls? The twisted ending did not fit Claire's personality. Sure, she was a doormat, but didn't she overcome that while she was being tortured? *END SPOILER*
I mean really...reminded me of an old movie, Sweet Hostage, only SH made sense. I didn't hate this film. I was mostly annoyed with Claire's constant sniffing,
****SPOILER ALERT ****but what can a girl do when her hands have been disfigured with acid. (Btw, notice how her hands miraculously healed when she was slinging the sledgehammer?)
Interesting Premise Is Not Fulfilled
lavatch14 January 2018
Warning: Spoilers
There is a revealing line spoken by Claire in the middle of her day out of hell: "Why is this happening to me?", she asks. It is a good question and one that is never fully resolved in the film.
The narrative focuses on a young woman driving from Los Angeles to Chicago. She is leaving her adulterous boyfriend, her job, and her current reality to return to her mother and her childhood home.
Along the way, Claire has her cell phone stolen, experiences a car breakdown, and, finally, meets a sadistic auto mechanic who takes her captive and tortures her. But the maniacal mechanic claims to be serving a greater purpose in Claire's life in leading her to confront her demons, forcing her to admit that she was running away, and, ultimately, making her a stronger person.
Unfortunately, the conceit of the film was not successful and might have been fulfilled if "Eddie," Claire's mechanic, would have been conceived more abstractly as her alter-ego. If his goading had been presented in a dreamlike and less gruesome manner, the audience might have been led to believe that Eddie is a part of Claire's own inner powers to heal from her emotional pain and deal with adversity.
Alas, there needed to be a more imaginative approach to the film's concept. The actress playing Claire tried valiantly to work with the material. But the final result was more like a film school exercise, as opposed to a final, polished work of cinema.
The narrative focuses on a young woman driving from Los Angeles to Chicago. She is leaving her adulterous boyfriend, her job, and her current reality to return to her mother and her childhood home.
Along the way, Claire has her cell phone stolen, experiences a car breakdown, and, finally, meets a sadistic auto mechanic who takes her captive and tortures her. But the maniacal mechanic claims to be serving a greater purpose in Claire's life in leading her to confront her demons, forcing her to admit that she was running away, and, ultimately, making her a stronger person.
Unfortunately, the conceit of the film was not successful and might have been fulfilled if "Eddie," Claire's mechanic, would have been conceived more abstractly as her alter-ego. If his goading had been presented in a dreamlike and less gruesome manner, the audience might have been led to believe that Eddie is a part of Claire's own inner powers to heal from her emotional pain and deal with adversity.
Alas, there needed to be a more imaginative approach to the film's concept. The actress playing Claire tried valiantly to work with the material. But the final result was more like a film school exercise, as opposed to a final, polished work of cinema.
Skip this mess - the ending is insane
romneymeredith21 January 2019
Warning: Spoilers
It's Monday afternoon at 3:47 pm on Jan. 20, 2019, bored out of my mind and depressed because the Chiefs lost in overtime in the AFC championship game - and oh yeah, it's cloudy and cold to boot. So I figured I'd watch "Rebound" since a little horror might liven things up around here.
I was wrong. It made me even worse off.
I'm going to jump to the heart of the matter right off the bat and I'm warning you that I will be telling you exactly what happened so there is no mystery and hopefully you'll have the sense not to waste 1 hour and 20 minutes of your entertainment life watching this crud.
Claire, who is plain and plump and dull, comes home to her apartment early and unsurprisingly walks in on her boyfriend of 3 years doing the dirty with a co-worker in her bed, and apparently they've been cheating for a long time. The movie continually shows Claire reliving the scene but hilariously we get to see the couple do it in different positions, as if Claire would actually stand there for that long with the loves unaware, but of course that's not true because as soon as she opens the door they see her. Ridiculous. Look, if you want me to watch an indie horror film at least give us a good looking, fit and dull woman to look at, so I won't be so aggravated by your screw-ups. Anyway, Claire decides to move from L.A. (where supposedly she'd been in some plays and was - get this! - trying to become an actress! Ha! Her???) to Chicago, and within an hour on the road she loses her cell phone to a pickpocket at a rest stop, and also had a weird run-in with a homeless woman sprawled in the bathroom. 5 hours on the road sees her car break down at night (7:30pm) and she gets a ride from a local (Gus) to a mechanic's shop, where Eddie the mechanic works. He tows her car back and then she goes to a bar, encounters a passive-aggressive bartender who looks like her ex-boyfriend, Eddie shows up and spikes her drink (implied) with a rufie. Btw, there were a couple of really weird men at the bar too; I think they were in the movie for an atmosphere of creepiness. Anyhow, we don't see how Eddie gets Claire out of the bar without attracting attention but he does, and she wakes up tied (poorly) to a chair in Eddie's garage with a blindfold on. She immediately works her hands free, gets out of the chair and ends up outside hiding - why she didn't run for the road where cars would go by is beyond me. Remember, she has no cell phone so mercifully we avoid the current favorite horror movie trope of not being able to get a signal. Anyway, Eddie catches her, drags her back and begins to torture her and psychologically playing with her - he claims he's done this with many girls but somehow SHE'S his favorite - based on her looks he must have had some really poor luck!
After burning her fingers, making her stab herself in the thigh where there wasn't much blood (!), forced her to remove all of her makeup and cut her hair short (seriously - as if she wasn't plain enough to begin with!) and then holding her hand in acid to remove the nail polish (and the nails), Claire decides to play along and fill his pathological need to, as he puts it, 'help people' by revealing their true self, so he unties her and she kisses him, though he's not stupid enough to really believe she's sincere. I figured she'd use the opportunity to get the drop on him but there's a knock at the door and its Gus checking on her whereabouts, and noticing her purse he forces his way into the garage looking for her, Claire runs to him screaming and Eddie ends up shooting him. Dead. Deader than a doornail. Kaput.
With this fresh kill still not a minute old, Eddie drags the body away to hide it and Claire walks over, grabs a big mallet and pounds him on the back and knees to disable him. Eddie pleads (not cries) that he indeed did change her, look how strong she is, and even with his gun she walks out of the garage into the morning down the road, then stops, apparently thinks if thinking is possible for this character, and then heads back into the garage and assumes a SPOONING POSITION with Eddie! Seriously! A mentally ill killer is her rebound, get it! Wow, what depth. What a total idiot, and I'm not talking just about Claire her but the director.
I didn't think the actress playing Claire was bad, it's just that her role had her miserable and crying a lot, and no one likes that. But the actor playing Eddie did a good job with what he had, creepy in a Norman Bates kind of way.
Now you don't have to waste those 80 minutes - you're welcome. ;-)
p.s. There was the germ of a good movie in this but apparently someone treated it with penicillin.
I was wrong. It made me even worse off.
I'm going to jump to the heart of the matter right off the bat and I'm warning you that I will be telling you exactly what happened so there is no mystery and hopefully you'll have the sense not to waste 1 hour and 20 minutes of your entertainment life watching this crud.
Claire, who is plain and plump and dull, comes home to her apartment early and unsurprisingly walks in on her boyfriend of 3 years doing the dirty with a co-worker in her bed, and apparently they've been cheating for a long time. The movie continually shows Claire reliving the scene but hilariously we get to see the couple do it in different positions, as if Claire would actually stand there for that long with the loves unaware, but of course that's not true because as soon as she opens the door they see her. Ridiculous. Look, if you want me to watch an indie horror film at least give us a good looking, fit and dull woman to look at, so I won't be so aggravated by your screw-ups. Anyway, Claire decides to move from L.A. (where supposedly she'd been in some plays and was - get this! - trying to become an actress! Ha! Her???) to Chicago, and within an hour on the road she loses her cell phone to a pickpocket at a rest stop, and also had a weird run-in with a homeless woman sprawled in the bathroom. 5 hours on the road sees her car break down at night (7:30pm) and she gets a ride from a local (Gus) to a mechanic's shop, where Eddie the mechanic works. He tows her car back and then she goes to a bar, encounters a passive-aggressive bartender who looks like her ex-boyfriend, Eddie shows up and spikes her drink (implied) with a rufie. Btw, there were a couple of really weird men at the bar too; I think they were in the movie for an atmosphere of creepiness. Anyhow, we don't see how Eddie gets Claire out of the bar without attracting attention but he does, and she wakes up tied (poorly) to a chair in Eddie's garage with a blindfold on. She immediately works her hands free, gets out of the chair and ends up outside hiding - why she didn't run for the road where cars would go by is beyond me. Remember, she has no cell phone so mercifully we avoid the current favorite horror movie trope of not being able to get a signal. Anyway, Eddie catches her, drags her back and begins to torture her and psychologically playing with her - he claims he's done this with many girls but somehow SHE'S his favorite - based on her looks he must have had some really poor luck!
After burning her fingers, making her stab herself in the thigh where there wasn't much blood (!), forced her to remove all of her makeup and cut her hair short (seriously - as if she wasn't plain enough to begin with!) and then holding her hand in acid to remove the nail polish (and the nails), Claire decides to play along and fill his pathological need to, as he puts it, 'help people' by revealing their true self, so he unties her and she kisses him, though he's not stupid enough to really believe she's sincere. I figured she'd use the opportunity to get the drop on him but there's a knock at the door and its Gus checking on her whereabouts, and noticing her purse he forces his way into the garage looking for her, Claire runs to him screaming and Eddie ends up shooting him. Dead. Deader than a doornail. Kaput.
With this fresh kill still not a minute old, Eddie drags the body away to hide it and Claire walks over, grabs a big mallet and pounds him on the back and knees to disable him. Eddie pleads (not cries) that he indeed did change her, look how strong she is, and even with his gun she walks out of the garage into the morning down the road, then stops, apparently thinks if thinking is possible for this character, and then heads back into the garage and assumes a SPOONING POSITION with Eddie! Seriously! A mentally ill killer is her rebound, get it! Wow, what depth. What a total idiot, and I'm not talking just about Claire her but the director.
I didn't think the actress playing Claire was bad, it's just that her role had her miserable and crying a lot, and no one likes that. But the actor playing Eddie did a good job with what he had, creepy in a Norman Bates kind of way.
Now you don't have to waste those 80 minutes - you're welcome. ;-)
p.s. There was the germ of a good movie in this but apparently someone treated it with penicillin.
What the hell was this???
mxshodog17 March 2019
The Lack Of Technical Skill Shines Through
Brakathor12 October 2023
So, let's start with the obvious. This is a flawed film. It's a lack of skill draped over a very solid skeleton. That is to say, it's actually a very well-conceived premise, and it plays out extremely logically. Moreover, the actors are honestly quite competent. The lukewarm end result is basically ALL the director's fault.
The female protagonist, I think is really well cast just for being so average, both in looks and in temperament. She has a born victim energy about her, which is exactly what the role calls for. She's essentially about as uncrappy a person as you can get, and the moral is, of course there's going to be SOME nutcase who feels aggressed by her. I do agree that she could have produced a little more emotion and tension in some scenes, but that's really the director's fault for not pushing for it.
As to the nutcase, he serves as a great case in point for the TYPE of movie that this is, i.e. I thought his performance was fairly badly conceived, but the point is, it's still good enough to be worth criticizing. I think it was a huge miss trying to make him into this explosive bombastic character in the second half of the film. He did a great job at being subliminally creepy. They should have intensified that. It would have worked so much better. As it is, both sides to the character seem almost irreconsileable, like two separate characters. Is he a meek timid weirdo or is he an assertive forceful A. Hole? Make up your mind!
In the end, there's just enough that works in this film for it to be SOMETHING, but not enough for it to be something GREAT. For one, a fair amount of effort was put into establishing mood, and it's very clear what they were going for, but in terms of pacing, cinematography & camera angles, the director just simply lacked the skill to pull it off seamlessly.
The bar scene in particular really dragged on. Now, on one hand, you could say the drabness of it adds to the realism, but not a lot was said, or more specifically, expressed. They could have made a lot more out of what ended up being just a fairly dull conversation. "Yeah I like fixing up wrecks, I don't go for tacky new tinsel." Maybe throw in some flashback sequences; Use a few snappy camera angles: SOMETHING to give this line the weight that you clearly want it to have.
The ending is a little weird, sure. Almost anticlimactic, but it didn't really bother me. There are LEVELS of anticlimax. Some are the level of "what the hell did I waste my time on?" This one I think falls more into the sphere of mundane horror that brings you just a little more close to reality than you thought you'd be. THAT didn't bother me. What REALLY bothered me was the fading of night into day. It was done so clumsily towards the end, that this alone is just such a dumb and avoidable continuity error, that it almost ruins the whole thing for me. I suppose this film is worth watching from an academic point of view unless you just really really love independent horror.
The female protagonist, I think is really well cast just for being so average, both in looks and in temperament. She has a born victim energy about her, which is exactly what the role calls for. She's essentially about as uncrappy a person as you can get, and the moral is, of course there's going to be SOME nutcase who feels aggressed by her. I do agree that she could have produced a little more emotion and tension in some scenes, but that's really the director's fault for not pushing for it.
As to the nutcase, he serves as a great case in point for the TYPE of movie that this is, i.e. I thought his performance was fairly badly conceived, but the point is, it's still good enough to be worth criticizing. I think it was a huge miss trying to make him into this explosive bombastic character in the second half of the film. He did a great job at being subliminally creepy. They should have intensified that. It would have worked so much better. As it is, both sides to the character seem almost irreconsileable, like two separate characters. Is he a meek timid weirdo or is he an assertive forceful A. Hole? Make up your mind!
In the end, there's just enough that works in this film for it to be SOMETHING, but not enough for it to be something GREAT. For one, a fair amount of effort was put into establishing mood, and it's very clear what they were going for, but in terms of pacing, cinematography & camera angles, the director just simply lacked the skill to pull it off seamlessly.
The bar scene in particular really dragged on. Now, on one hand, you could say the drabness of it adds to the realism, but not a lot was said, or more specifically, expressed. They could have made a lot more out of what ended up being just a fairly dull conversation. "Yeah I like fixing up wrecks, I don't go for tacky new tinsel." Maybe throw in some flashback sequences; Use a few snappy camera angles: SOMETHING to give this line the weight that you clearly want it to have.
The ending is a little weird, sure. Almost anticlimactic, but it didn't really bother me. There are LEVELS of anticlimax. Some are the level of "what the hell did I waste my time on?" This one I think falls more into the sphere of mundane horror that brings you just a little more close to reality than you thought you'd be. THAT didn't bother me. What REALLY bothered me was the fading of night into day. It was done so clumsily towards the end, that this alone is just such a dumb and avoidable continuity error, that it almost ruins the whole thing for me. I suppose this film is worth watching from an academic point of view unless you just really really love independent horror.
A horror actress is supposed to be able to cry!
TerribleKatherine17 January 2020
There is actually some effort here, not going to lie. The plot is decent and the main actor is alright. But the actress.. are you kidding? When someone is TORTURING you, you're supposed to be terrified. She seems like she just has some constipation! Takes all the edge of the movie right there. Also the so called other woman is focused on way too much, she is very irritating with her fake facial expressions. Otherwise, for a cheap film this is actually somewhat watchable.
No Rhyme Nor Reason
Ahlephia11 December 2020
Warning: Spoilers
This independent feature has no rhyme nor reason for its 3rd act.
A woman is distraught after catching her boyfriend in bed with another woman that she packs up her life in LA and decides to return to Chicago. Along the way, her car breaks down.
The mechanic advises it will be $600 to repair but she can't afford that. She is quite suggestive towards him, despite later denying she was flirting, and he agrees to lower the price to half.
A bit later that night she's at the bar when the mechanic approaches and tries to engage her. When she rebuffs his advances, she's drugged, waking up in his workshop.
From there, it slides into the torture side of horror as he burns her, forces her to stab herself, dips her fingers in acid, cuts her hair.
His motive? To stop her being a doormat and allowing her to start over as someone stronger.
Poor screenplay, sub-par acting by the leading female - crying is a necessity for horror leading ladies - and a forced, over-the-top performance by the psychotic male lead. However, good practical and makeup effects for a low-budget indie film, decent cinematography, and solid work by the sound and music departments.
This is a watch once kind of film. Forgettable.
A woman is distraught after catching her boyfriend in bed with another woman that she packs up her life in LA and decides to return to Chicago. Along the way, her car breaks down.
The mechanic advises it will be $600 to repair but she can't afford that. She is quite suggestive towards him, despite later denying she was flirting, and he agrees to lower the price to half.
A bit later that night she's at the bar when the mechanic approaches and tries to engage her. When she rebuffs his advances, she's drugged, waking up in his workshop.
From there, it slides into the torture side of horror as he burns her, forces her to stab herself, dips her fingers in acid, cuts her hair.
His motive? To stop her being a doormat and allowing her to start over as someone stronger.
Poor screenplay, sub-par acting by the leading female - crying is a necessity for horror leading ladies - and a forced, over-the-top performance by the psychotic male lead. However, good practical and makeup effects for a low-budget indie film, decent cinematography, and solid work by the sound and music departments.
This is a watch once kind of film. Forgettable.
Indie Thriller
hollywoodthegame16 January 2016
First let me say that I love independent movies. They do stuff that you don't see in most studio films. They take changes (some good, others bad) and in a way are fearless. You just never know what you are going to get.
"Rebound" is not your typical thriller by any means. The movie is an awesome character study of what can go wrong by being at the worse place at the wrong time. In the flick, Claire (Ashley James) needs to escape her current life- her man is cheating on her, she has a nervous breakdown. She needs a change, so she up and leaves it all. While on the road, something bad (very bad) happens and things only keep getting worse. The movie twists and turns and I did not see the ending coming.
The movie looks great and the vibe is established early on and holds throughout the film. If you like indie thrillers, I recommend it.
"Rebound" is not your typical thriller by any means. The movie is an awesome character study of what can go wrong by being at the worse place at the wrong time. In the flick, Claire (Ashley James) needs to escape her current life- her man is cheating on her, she has a nervous breakdown. She needs a change, so she up and leaves it all. While on the road, something bad (very bad) happens and things only keep getting worse. The movie twists and turns and I did not see the ending coming.
The movie looks great and the vibe is established early on and holds throughout the film. If you like indie thrillers, I recommend it.
Indy Horror - good
epiceffectss24 February 2015
Warning: Spoilers
Right , I liked this ! A woman goes on a road journey to escape her past. And she meets deadbeat after deadbeat in outback America. Things go from bad to worse. Everyone is just horrid to her, and shes really quite a decent person , so she stands out as someone being wronged by life. Good lead actress , really good actually , never seen her before , great performance. It's grainy , desolate life of the outback America , the loserville areas which carry the story as our good woman comes into contact with these lost souls. I gotta give a heads up to the bar man in this film , if anyone sees it , check out his attitude problem , ha , he so needs a kick in for the way he treated her. I liked the main guy as well. Its weird story , a bit David lynch , carpenter type film .Yeah liked this film was cool. Ending was twisted in good way. I guess this was low budget so was good that the actors did a good job , class job , recommend !
Indie Thriller
ranch70013 December 2016
I always seek out Indie Films because I'm through with the type of "movies" Hollywood churns out. This is an indie film made on a low budget (so what?) and we very well done. I thought it looked nice photography wise and the story was surprising. At first I thought it might be the same old thing I've seen many times before, but it isn't. This movie some twists and turns that I didn't see coming. I don't consider it horror. It's more of a thriller. It starts out slow, but hang in there, it picks up. It's important that the mood is set right with a movie like this, so be patient. This movie is worth giving a chance.
Tension
artistgp15 November 2015
Rebound is a film about a woman whose life falls apart before her very eyes and she makes a choice to restart things by moving back to the mid-west. I'm a sucker for psychological thrillers so the trailer got my attention with it's pace and effectively moody score.
If you're a fan of indie films you should give this one a watch. It's an exercise in watching for the dangers that surround you. We all know what it's like to have things go wrong, so the idea of running away from one horror only to find yourself right smack in the middle of another one is something I feel we can all connect with.
I look forward to seeing what the filmmakers come up with for their next project.
If you're a fan of indie films you should give this one a watch. It's an exercise in watching for the dangers that surround you. We all know what it's like to have things go wrong, so the idea of running away from one horror only to find yourself right smack in the middle of another one is something I feel we can all connect with.
I look forward to seeing what the filmmakers come up with for their next project.
Great Indie Psychological Thriller
CharlesMichaelWilliams7 August 2017
I loved psychological thrillers and I always enjoy seeing an indie film succeed in that genre. REBOUND does jut that. The twists are clever and fulfilling. The plot held my interest and the pacing was good. The filmmakers obviously put a lot of thought into the story and the various layers within it. It warrants a second viewing to catch everything you missed the first go around. Definitely worth checking out if you're a fan of indie thrillers.
Solid Psychological Thriller
mark-2245216 November 2015
Warning: Spoilers
The premise behind Rebound is that a girl moving back home to Chicago after a breakup, only to find herself in danger. The writing is well thought out. The writer/director put a lot of work into creating an immersive experience for the audience.
And that's what makes Rebound so good: you feel like you're right there with the main character experiencing what she experiences. It can be difficult for filmmakers to build up that tension and create an image on screen that resonates with the audience, but the makers of Rebound succeeded.
Rebound delivers thrills from start to finish. I didn't leave my seat the entire time.
And that's what makes Rebound so good: you feel like you're right there with the main character experiencing what she experiences. It can be difficult for filmmakers to build up that tension and create an image on screen that resonates with the audience, but the makers of Rebound succeeded.
Rebound delivers thrills from start to finish. I didn't leave my seat the entire time.
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