A man is taking his family on a long car drive in order to visit his aged parents. He's in a foul mood and his temper does not improve upon discovering that traffic is busy and that the other car drivers do not consider him their living god. Over-confident, angry and frustrated, he gets into a quarrel with a tall stranger who's a pest exterminator. Turns out the pest exterminator really, really does not like other people showing him disrespect...
"Bumperkleef" is a Dutch mix of dark comedy and horror. It's basically a movie about a cocksure and unpleasant man defying an even more dangerous man who has raised revenge to the level of an Olympic discipline. Much of the viewer's pleasure comes from the juxtaposition between the wild and crazy (car) pursuits and the pleasantly mundane surroundings. The insane happenings on the screen seem to belong not in a quiet and leafy suburb or in a charming little park, but in one of the most lawless corners of the Wild West.
"Bumperkleef" will also resonate with the many inoffensive car drivers who have found themselves threatened or insulted by some speeding megalomaniac convinced that he's Moses and that traffic should part miraculously whenever he appears.
The movie is sure to get compared, a lot, to Steven Spielberg's "Duel". "Duel" is clearly the better movie - it's a jewel of dark tension and suspense - but this does not mean that "Bumperkleef" is wholly without interest or fun. Anyway, I watched it with considerable enjoyment.
"Bumperkleef" is a Dutch mix of dark comedy and horror. It's basically a movie about a cocksure and unpleasant man defying an even more dangerous man who has raised revenge to the level of an Olympic discipline. Much of the viewer's pleasure comes from the juxtaposition between the wild and crazy (car) pursuits and the pleasantly mundane surroundings. The insane happenings on the screen seem to belong not in a quiet and leafy suburb or in a charming little park, but in one of the most lawless corners of the Wild West.
"Bumperkleef" will also resonate with the many inoffensive car drivers who have found themselves threatened or insulted by some speeding megalomaniac convinced that he's Moses and that traffic should part miraculously whenever he appears.
The movie is sure to get compared, a lot, to Steven Spielberg's "Duel". "Duel" is clearly the better movie - it's a jewel of dark tension and suspense - but this does not mean that "Bumperkleef" is wholly without interest or fun. Anyway, I watched it with considerable enjoyment.