First-time filmmaker Jeremy Ungar wanted to make a ‘dark love letter to Los Angeles” in his new thriller ‘RIDE’...he succeeded
Theatre director and playwright Jeremy Ungar debuted his first feature film ‘RIDE’ in September at the LA Film Festival. With the theatrical and VoD release on October 5, MEAWW spoke exclusively to Ungar about his experience making this frightening yet all too real film.
Starring Bella Thorne, Will Usher and Jessie T. Brill, ‘RIDE’ follows a ride share driver (played by Usher) during a night in LA. What ends up starting off as a typical evening of work quickly turns into a psychological thriller after he picks up a passenger whose sociopathic tendencies turn into something far more sinister than anyone could have imagined.
The film is extremely self-contained having almost 90 per cent of the scenes shot in the car, which always makes for something that is either wildly entertaining or terribly boring. Let's just say that this film is not the latter.
“I love contained movies, and that’s probably because of my theatre background, but I also think that when you do a contained movie right it can almost feel more cinematic because you have to get really inventive. In movies like Hitchcock’s ‘Rope’, it’s this beautiful stitched together series of takes where it feels like one shot and you kind of unblinkingly watch it like it’s a play. However in our case, we tried to get an esthetic that felt unique and felt varied, even though most of the time you are in a car,” Ungar told us.
