He Drives at Night, Gratuitous Serial Killer Action

It seems as if 90% of the cast to this film die horribly. Drills, a nail gun, a fork...well the deaths are almost imaginative as the story. Warning...this isn't some gory slasher film with eight or nine deaths...nope this is a horror film with what seems like dozens and dozens of killings. I didn't count....but every few minutes or less...a bloody killing! Hence today we look at 2019's "He Drives at Night," a film by Chuck W. Chapman.

This horror story starts out bloody enough...random killings, all bloody. Uh oh...the serial killer reaches out to a writer, Hal Warren (Chapman). The evil narcissist wants his story told and he picks a Stephen King wannabe to tell it. This isn't a blessing for Hal...but a bloody curse. The killer knows Hal's every move, and even worse, every move of his beautiful wife Barbara (Tammie Williams). One false move from Hal...and Barbara gets it. The fiend proves that he is now Hal's master and goes on a rapid killing spree. Hal then receives by email, films of photographs of the murders...and did I mention there are a lot of them.

Going to the police is absolutely out of the question, so Hal acts to protect his wife (as if he can). Waitresses, a priest, and hikers will fall. One guy will be cut into pieces, in a very gory scene. Now Hal is getting desperate. His ability to gain information about the identity of the killer seems ineffective. The killer stays ten steps ahead of Hal, and knows what is going on in Hal's life even before Hal does. But how? Taking a big and dangerous chance Hal secretly contacts the police...how do you think this will work out? As Hal grows more desperate, his twisted associate gets more tasked. The body count explodes as if this is an Andrea Merchak novel (Bloody Legends).

Does Hal have a prayer at identifying the killer and protecting his wife? Does the monster have any desire to eventually stop his rampage? May the fiend be closer to Hal than he realizes? Brutal and gratuitous, "He Drives at Night" is unrelenting. Many will die and the hopes of a happy ending seem remote. For a high powered horror story that shows no mercy, see Chuck W. Chapman's "He Drives at Night."