The Dutch thriller Tailgate, known as Bumperkleef (which sounds pretty cool to me) in its native language, was released in The Netherlands back in 2019, but it has only just reached the United States. It has been getting a roll-out theatrical release over the last month, courtesy of Film Movement, and you can see where it’s playing (and make virtual cinema rentals from the theatres) at THIS LINK. Or, you can just watch it on VOD through Amazon Prime, or purchase a copy of the DVD over HERE.
Written and directed by Lodewijk Crijns, Tailgate stars Jeroen Spitzenberger, Anniek Pheifer, Willem de Wolf, and Roosmarijn van der Hoek. Here’s the synopsis:
Hans (Spitzenberger) is a self-confident man, driving across the country with his wife and two daughters by his side. His ego gets the better of him when he gets into an argument with another driver. The van driver turns out to be the wrong man to cross on the road, and sets out to teach Hans a deadly lesson. Skillfully pushing the buttons of Hans’s arrogance, a simple family road trip turns into a deadly obstacle course in this nerve-wracking, blackly comic morality tale thriller.
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The trailer for Tailgate is embedded above, and this looks like a solid thriller to me. I tend to be a fan of movies that are along these lines (“terror on the road”), so I will be sure to watch this one quite soon. Looking over Crijns’ previous directing credits, it seems this is a bit of a standout because he primarily works in comedy and drama. Before Tailgate / Bumperkleef, his most recent film was the 2014 comedy Sickos.
How does Tailgate look to you? Have you already seen it sometime in the last two years? Share your thoughts on this movie by leaving a comment below.