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.

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.

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.

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.